J.Swenson Luthier

On the bench today. 5-String bass fret job.

Check out my website. GoDaddy has some simple tools that makes it easy to build something nice. Getting a good amount of business from it too.

J.Swenson Luthier Livermore, CA

Final update. Violin is back together. giving it 24 hours before I put full tension on the neck. I did some measurements pre-gluing the fingerboard and neck and thought that 0.5 mm tapered wedge would be enough to correct the neck angle or proper fingerboard projection. That turned out to be an underestimation so I had to lower the bridge by 2 mm to get decent action in the strings. Even so happy with the way it came out.

Update #2 on the latest violin restoration. I reassembled from the two halves of the heel. The break is old and worn, so glue joint was not very good so hyde glue or fish glue could not be used. It was either CA glue or tight Bond and I thought CA glue would be stronger. The two halves of the dovetail did not align completely, so I had to enlarge the dovetail slot. This was a better option since the wedge that I made is larger and stronger than the original dovetail on the heel block. This should strengthen the heel for when I glue back on the neck. Glued the hard maple wedge with fish glue. Nice tight fit. Only took 3 tries to get a proper wedge. Third one 99% shaped with a block plane, then 20 minutes of gentle sanding and resting the fit. Just have to finish cleaning up the neck heel faces and the spruce heel block on the violin, check and tweak the neck angle if needed, and reglue the neck.

Haven't used some of my recording equipment for a while. Turned on the M-Audio Axiom 61 midi keyboard and controller and other it was. The BSOD! Did my research (on YouTube) and found the culprit is a tiny "Reset chip" which allows the unit to start properly. A very smart YouTuber suggested a simple fix to remove the chip and replace it with a simple RC timing circuit. So you can't go to Radio Shack to buy parts any more so $20 investment into more resistors and capacitors than I can possibly use was how I acquired the right comlonents to fix the keyboard. It still shows a blue screen unless I use the DC power source in addition to the to the USB. USB power alone isn't cutting it. Circuit is likely drawing too much current, so a bigger resistor could be used to slow down the capacitor charging time. But that is for another day. It works again!

Another violin restoration. Owner's father played it every day and wants to restore it to pass down to her daughter. I love working on "heritage" instruments. This one has a broken neck and a after removing the fingerboard, I found a very strange - poorly fit - dovetail neck joint. That explains the break. Took a couple of hours to get both sections of the heel removed from the dovetail. I'm still evaluating how to piece it all back together so the heel will stay in tact and support neck properly under string tension. The break is old and the two halves of the break do not come together properly. So a good glue joint is not possible without some doctoring of the break. It looks like this dovetail was done to lengthen the scale of the violin at some point in the past. Neer seen this method of connecting the neck to the violin before.

That was the last page name change.... I promise! 😉😂

Back on the Conservatory Violin restoration. Finally attempted to glue the largest crack using fish glue. Cleaning the dirt as well as I could. It was a greasy dirt. This was unsuccessful. The crack opened up as soon as I tested the joint. The second crack was even dirtier, so I had to resort to CA glue. That pretty much works on anything. That was successful. So with the cracks glued I installed several spruce reinforcement cleats. In doing so a previously glued crack opened up again but CA glue fixed that one as well. With that done, I glued the top back on the violin. Final step was applying some color matched touch up varnish to bring it back to life. Then a thin coat of amber shellac. My work on the guitar taught me French polish on the violin was the best approach. Still have to spend some time hiding the cracks with more touch up varnish. Still a little rough. But it's really looking good. Last things will be to fit a new (old) fingerboard, nut and saddle. New (old) pegs. Bridge soundpist and strings.

Finished the Hauser. European spruce top. Black Limba back and sides. Spanish cedar neck and bindings. Indian ebony fretboard. Rosewood bridge. Strings on. Action set. Intonation spot on. First time with a compensated saddle slot. The saddle position of the 6th string is 1.5 mm back from the 1st string which is positioned 1.5 mm back from the 650 mm scale length. Really happy with the tone. Great sustain. Will post a video on Monday.

Finishing done (more or less)... After about 6 or so hours of French polishing "practice" I kinda go the hang of it. Had a number of stubborn spots that needed e tea attention. Maybe a surface prep issue which I will address next time. Actually sanded off the first attempt and started over since there were way too many flaws showing up in the finish. Second attempt much better.
So now to glue the bridge. Drilled two 1.5 mm alignment pin holes in the saddle channel. Keeps the bridge from moving when clamping. Put some boundary tape so the glue has a place to squeeze out onto, other than the soundboard.
Just might be putting some strings on it tonight! Exciting!

Finishing time on the Hauser Build. Started with some base coats of shellac (1704 violin varnish recipe). Trying my hand at French polishing. Early in the process. I didn't have enough shellac on the top so it was quite uneven. I sanded it back and started again, trying to get an even base coat. One spot just rejects the shellac. I had this happen when finishing violins. Is the a narrow "oily" spot? With each successive application the spot gets smaller.

Why fit a neck into a mortice when you can do a Spanish heel with wedges. I needed to practice this for my Hauser Guitar build, so why not use it on my concert Uke? Can't best the fit or neck-body connection.

Neck is more or less finished. But a neck is something you let sit and come back to to find the areas that need tweaking. But for tonight it's done.
Put in the facets according to the plans the filed the corners off rounding out the neck. Last two steps: carving the headstock to neck transition and then the heel to neck transition. The heel area is tends be the the area where bumps hide and show up the next day. Happy to have it "done". 👍😁

Back on the Hauser Guitar build.
Going to varnish the guitar before gluing on the bridge, so I need to work on carving the neck first. And of course that requires another jig. So it was back to Home Depot to get more 3/4" plywood. Last time I was there they were pretty depleted. This time the had some nice pieces
Have to make a cradle to hold the guitar face down elevated off the bench. Three cork lined fixed cleats and a fourth adjustable one to lock the guitar in place. Then a crossbar across the waist to hold it firmly in place. A support under the nut end of the neck to keep it from flexing.
Worked Ike a charm. Got the first face cut down to ~1/2mm from the final thickness of 21.5mm at first fret, and 23.5mm at 9th fret. Next step is cut the first two facets.

Just started a Conservatory Violin restoration. Instrument likely from the 1920's. Most likely from Czechoslovakia. Very dirty. Two large cracks in the top. Fingerboard missing. A couple Pegs need replacement. First step is to pop the top off and get the insides looked at and cleaned up. Top came off pretty clean. Once opened got most of the dirt removed. Cleaned the main crack with a brush and warm water. Noticed the lower end of the base bar had become detached. So that's the first glue job. Next will be to glue the large main crack.

Fingerboard is profiled to give proper projection at bridge location. Projection. height needs to be approximately 3.5mm off the soundboard so saddle is not too tall. Used a nice sharp block plane and evened everything up with the jack plane. Normally you would plane down the neck towards the sound hole, but I was getting significant tear out so I needed to plane on the opposite direction.
Once that was done the neck profile was just routed to match the fretboard. Then the depths of the fret slots were check and corrected as needed.
Last step was to install the frets.

OK. A little more catching up to do. I'd been posting some progress on Instagram which the last post made it here.
There's been a lot of work done on the Hauser Classical guitar build. And I've been bad about posting. Current state of the guitar is the fingerboard is on and needs planing for the proper setup once the strings are put on. Working backwards with the photos...

Finishing up the bindings and purfling. Installed heel cap on the Hauser Classical guitar.

More catch up...

3. Cut the relief in the neck for gluing the neck to the soundboard

This required building a much needed a new tool. A mini router table with a fine adjustment lift mechanism.

Attempting a little catchup on the guitar build. Work on the neck must be completed before we can start assembling the guitar. For which the first step is to glue the neck to the soundboard in the Solera mould. Three steps remained to finish up the work on the neck before this can be done.

1. Drill the holes for the tuner posts.
2. Cut the slots in the headstock and string ramps
3. Cut the relief in the neck for gluing the neck to the soundboard

Each step required building a new jig or a new tool.
Here is step 2. Cut the slots in the headstock and string ramps.