Richard Meyrick Luthier

 

© 2011 Richard Meyrick
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Up
Next
Polished guitar and tuning pegs
Scribing around bridge
Lacquer scraped off under bridge
Gluing bridge
levelling and dressing frets
Bridge holes and saddle
Completed bespoke guitar

Putting it together

I have missed a few steps between finishing and this photo because I forgot to take any pictures, but I attach the neck this way; The mortise and tenon I routed earlier are quite accurate but the alignment usually need some fine tuning to get the proper height for the strings at the bridge so I use sanding blocks to take away wood from the top or bottom of the neck making sure to take wood evenly from the left and right sides to ensure the neck runs centrally down the body. When the neck is perfectly in line I scrape lacquer from the body underneath the fingerboard in the same way as I do for the bridge explained below.

 

The underneath of the fingerboard is glued to the bare wood of the soundboard beneath it. The neck is attached using two M6 bolts that are accessed through the soundhole, screwing into two barrel nuts located in the neck tenon.

All credit for this neck joint goes to American luthier Willliam Cumpiano, an inspiration to many guitar makers the world over.

 

 

Here is the finished guitar, after about 120 hours of labour, basking in the Welsh spring sun.

The process for locating and gluing the  bridge is quite delicate; first the bridge is clamped in its precise location. I then drill through the two E string bridge holes through the soundboard, then put a pair of bridge pins in the holes so the bridge is located securely and can’t move. I then use a new scalpel blade to score around the bridge through the lacquer but not the wood. I then scrape the lacquer off underneath the bridge to ensure there is a wood to wood join all round. I then wrap the locating bridge pins in cling film so that they don’t get glued in and then glue the bridge in place using 3 clamps.

 

Now the frets are levelled, re-profiled and polished and a new nut cut and shaped. The bridge holes are reamed and the saddle is now routed. I string up the two E strings using a dummy bridge to check the exact intonation of the saddle before routing. The saddle is shaped and the nut slots cut to give the correct action.