JPF Home Page Forums Creative Arts Forums Visual Arts and Photography Forum the making of a harp guitar

I'm not sure if this should go in the visual arts/photo forum, or the guitar forum, since it sort of covers both forums. But since I wanted this to be more of a pictorial, the photo forum won out.

Up till now, I've only ever posted pics of FINISHED instruments, so for 2009, I thought I'd do something different.

In the guitar forum (in another post), I decided that the next guitar I wanted would be a harp guitar. Yeah, then I could play bass and guitar all at once. Well, I never saw one that I really liked that I could afford, so I decided I'm going to make my own.
I thought it would be interesting to post pictures as I proceed, so you, oh inquisitive reader, can see the process/progress. You'll also be able to see if I mess up, or accomplish what I set out to do. Let me know if you would be interested and if I should continue these posts, or if you just want to see the finished product.

I actually started this last year, but didn't get very far. The first step was the design process:
Goal #1 was to do this as cheaply as possible with whatever stock and materials I already own.
Goal #2 was to make it electric, but sound okay acoustically.
Goal #3 - I had an old hardshell explorer-style case with nothing in it. I'd like the harp guitar to fit in this case.
Goal #4 - the instrument would be big, I wanted it as light as possible so I wouldn't get a hernia playing it.

Other things were also determined before I actually began - type of wood, electronics, how many strings, etc. I've decided on 6 bass strings, 6 guitar strings, and 4 mini strings (like a metal stringed ukulele).

I started drawing up pictures of how I wanted the instrument to look. Then cut out a mock body shape in cardboard to see if it would fit my body comfortably, then see if the design would fit inside the case. I was on my way.

Out of curiosity, I looked in the rafters of the barn where I live. Never did that since I moved in, and found LOTS of large thick and well-seasoned boards. I picked up one, tapped it, and it rang out with a nice clear tone. Cut the board in half, glued and clamped it together, went to the bandsaw, and cut out the body shape (sorry no pics of this step).

3 trips back and forth to the bandsaw, and now the body fits nicely inside the guitar case.



Here's the body after I routed out sound chambers, neck pockets, and areas where the pickups would be installed. I didn't care so much if the routing would be uneven, since I'm adding a top soundboard of cedar. The hollowed out sections will help with feeding the wires for the electronics too.


I set the necks into the body to see how they fit. So far, things are good.

The guitar neck was the first aftermarket neck I bought back in the '80's. It's been refinished and refretted many times. I reshaped the traditional strat headstock years ago, and the "hawkbill" curve seems to follow the curve of the body nicely.

The mini neck was handmade. Here's a closer look:


I want the overall instrument to be a dark stain like walnut. I want it to look like it's been around for years, so I'm going for a very dark look. I chose mahogany for the "uke" neck.
I just noticed that this still has the strat style headstock, I may curve it to follow the other neck. The neck was shaped with rasps, files, spokeshaves, and a scraper.


Here's a front view. I liked the idea of having a zero fret. I did all the fretwork prior to installing the fingerboard to the neck. This is a really short neck, and I didn't think I would need a truss rod. But I still routed out a slot and added a carbon fiber rod to strengthen the neck. You can still see the routed slot where this rod was installed in the peghead. Also notice original sketch lines trying to figure out where I wanted to cut the peghead shape and drill the tuner holes. I'll be sanding these off in a later step.

Yes! I love these kinds of posts!

Show us more please. Entertain us.

My gosh, Tom, that's extremely interesting! Talk about a labour of love, eh?

Donna

Hey Mark - these pics are so fresh, I still have sawdust in my hair from routing. You should check out the "is there a next one" post in the guitar forum. I have a photo of my surf green TeleStrat hybrid there. Finished that, now it's on to the harp guitar!

Hi DonnaMarilyn! It's really more of an addiction than a labour of love. I spend lots of time doing this, that I don't write much anymore.

hI Tom,

Yeah, I also find this interesting, thanks for sharing.

Calvin


http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/calvinstewart

Nice ride, Calvin!

Totally cool Tom

Calvin & Herbie - Thanks for the support and checking this out. Not sure what I can accomplish on the harp guitar today - I've got other chores to do.

The next step is to add a maple peghead for the 6 bass strings. I'll need to cut out some of the upper horn so that the bass peghead angles back.

Tom,
It is always so interesting to see how creative people channel their artistic gifts. You seem to have several channels!!! I'd love to see a composite photo of the numerous items you've built.

Thanks for sharing these!!!!

Heidi

Tom,

that is great work so far.. I saw your finished work on a bass you posted in another topic and I'm sure the finished product will be beautiful. I also do some tolling on instruments ( I wouldn't call myself a true luthier as my work is usually repairs and or midifications. but I LOVE taking broken instruments and breathing SOME kind of life back into them! I have made a 7-string archtop acuostic which has become one of my favorite instruments among others!) your finish work and detail appears to be amazing from the photos I have seen. there is always something special about playing an instrument that YOU crafted yourself... at least for me.. it's hard to explain. Thanks for sharing the pics. I can't wait to see it when it is finished!

Problem with that is, that I don't own most of them. I'd have to be better skilled at photoshop to combine everything. And there's a LOT that I just never took pictures of. Thanks for checking my work out again Heidi.

I have good news and bad news. I found the perfect piece of maple for the bass string peghead. It's just the right thickness I need. This to me is important since I don't have a planer and can't easily cut the thickness of a piece of wood. This one has some worm holes and nice figuring and knots, but that's not ideal for stability. I marked the best section of the board to use.

I started with a saw cut so I could get a nice clean edge. Set it to the thickness of the board and cut a straight line in the upper horn of the harp guitar.

Notice the hearing protectors in the pic above. Not much use in making instruments if you can't hear them, so this is the most important tool in my arsenal.


Next I set the router to the same thickness as the board and removed the wood from the upper horn.

And finally:

Next to the last step for the day - I glued and clamped the maple board into the routed slot.

Okay - here's the bad news. I found the cedar boards that I had, but none of them where long enough to cover the body and function as the soundboard. I either have to go through the wood pile and find something else, or I'll have to go buy something for this project.

I used to work for a lumberyard. They stocked cedar siding for construction. back then, I went through their entire stock and found a few quarter round cut boards that would have been ideal for instruments. Quarter round puts the grain exactly where you want it for the best tone. Unfortunately, I've used up most of this stock. Buying something breaks one of my goals.

I'll be away for a week, so nothing's getting done on this.

Tom, this is incredible. You are so talented. I don't think I'd have the patience for that. I sure don't have the vision for it. Anyway, you're a regular one man puppet/guitar making shop. Have fun while you're away!!

Hi Tricia. I'm sitting in a hotel room in NJ, so nowhere near this instrument, and not much fun here. Wish I could do the next step!
Thanks for the compliments and checking this one out.

This is really interesting. I love seeing the stages.

Next step - I've drawn a peghead shape on the wood for the bass strings. I usually let it sit for a day and revisit, making sure I like the way it looks. Once it's cut out, I can't change it easily.

So I'm ready to take it to the bandsaw and cut out the shape. Bandsaw is in an unheated barn though and the temperature is in the teens. I'm not manly enough to brave the cold and have all my wits about me to cut this properly. Shivering makes for wobbly cuts. I'll wait a day or two until it's in the 20's.

after a few days of subzero tempuratures, today's high of 34 felt like a heat wave. I took the body to the barn where I have my bandsaw, and cut out the shape for the peghead for the harp strings. Afterwards, I rough filed a clean edge where the tuners would go, measured the distances between them, and drilled the 6 holes.


I noticed one potential trouble spot visible on the bottom of this image - there was a knot in the wood and it's right at the edge of the peghead. To prevent any damage at this point and to seal it, I soaked it in superglue.

After hunting through the storage barn, and through my wood pile, I didn't find anything that would work for the soundboard. I could not find what I wanted in the local Home Depot either, so I went a different route. I have some cedar, but it's not big enough to do the entire length of the instrument. Tonally, that would be best. To buy a piece the size I need was out of the budget. Since this is an electric instrument, solely relying on sound vibration of the top is not as important as if this was an acoustic instrument. So I glued the first section of the cedar top soundboard in place. Once it's cut to shape, I'll add the second piece in a way that would appear artistically like it was meant to be that way.

Here's the 1st section of western red cedar glued and clamped to the body.

This picture shows the barn where I have the power tools. Some of the snow is melting and I can open the door to get in! Woohoo!

that looks like a very "cool" (no pun intended) piece of property! I have to do all of my PROJECT work on a balcony...(and ALL of my powertols are handheld)I really do love this project of yours ...thanks for sharing.. and I can't wait to see the instrument wehn it is done!

The photo was standing on the back door step of the house, looking towards the left. That's about 1/4 of the property - the rest is even cooler.

very cool... I suppose it is a trade off.. I get the beach and the warm weather, but I would LOVE to have the open space and snow sometimes too!!!!.

thats awesome! keep it up!

HI Carrie,
Thanks for checking this out - seeing that you have such a low number of posts, I assume you're a relative newcomer to JPF, so welcome! I feel honored that you visited my little "online photolog". Thanks for checking it out.

I'm looking forward to PLAYING it once it's completed.
At this rate, I'm estimating completion to be late spring, early summer.
And it would be so much faster to just go to the store and buy one.

If faster was all you were looking for you would NEVER even be able to do that...besides if you bought it youwould have to make compromises in the exact execution of the design, whereas now yu don't HAVE to do anything!!! don't sell yourself short youare getting a TOTALLY BETTER deal THIS way! I FOR ONE am jealous!!!!

lol - my last sentence was really more tongue in cheek humor.

No store I've ever been in would have on elike this in it. The closest I ever found was "Lark in the Morning" in the Cannery Row in San Fransisco I think. They had one in the back of the store. I guess the owner thought of me as a kid in a candy store, but was probably impressed that I knew pretty much every instrument that they had in the store. So he took me in the back to show off the "expensive ones." That was much fun.

ONWARDS!

After a day or two, I removed the clamps and cut the top cedar board to shape.

It's very evident in the above pic that this soundboard was too short. The upper horn needs to be covered too. The next photo shows cutting out a paper template to determine the shape that I want. This took a few attempts, because the original design was just a bit too long for the wood that I had available.


Once I liked the shape of the design, I transferred it to the wood.

I also set the wood in the general area to confirm that I like how the grain looks and that it will match up okay.


The wood has been cut to shape on the bandsaw and another check to make sure it fits. So far, so good.


Here's a closeup of the edge where the two pieces will join. I want to clean up the edge of the new piece, then I will scribe and mark the original and route it out so the two pieces sit flush.

wow Tom

It's all very impressive and cool to see.... this looks like it will be Real heavy and somewhat of a beast to play ....... again very impressive to think about that !

Thanks for sharing your work with us

jm

HI Joice - the weight was one of my concerns. Partly why I hollowed out a good chunk of it. But the wood I used that I found in the old barn here on the property probably sat there for years and is seasoned incredibly well. It's also got alomst no moisture content, and it's incredibly light. This might be about the same weight as a heavy Stratocaster when it's finished!

Been out of town for a week, but got to take a pic before I left. I have now clamped the cedar to the upper horn. I'm looking forward to continuing on this when I return

Tom,

That is a very interesting project. Your thread caught my eye, because my exboyfriend built "Cigar Box Guitars", mainly for me because we saw Richard Johnston, a one man band, play one. I know how tedious a job it can be, but when they are finished it is such a beautiful feeling.

If you are interested, here is his you tube page, where he has a lot of videos of me showing or playing them.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Roimeister&view=videos&sort=d


I have about 100 left over cigar boxes we collected now. I inherited them and expect to someday sell them on ebay for the people who make CBG's. You'd be surprised how many people do, there are forums for that too, lol.


Thanks so much for sharing this with us, cant wait to see it and hear it done.

Letha

HI Letha! Thanks for checking this out. I looked at a few of the videos on the link you posted - very interesting!

Hello all, just realized I haven't posted anything recently on this. There's been a few delays- first the cold weather, then the puppies, and finally a broken wrist. I am sporting my first cast ever, and it's a lovely flourescent orange fiberglass one. Kind of limits what I can do right now, but I'm learning to type one-handed and mouse left handed. No guitar playing for about 5-8 weeks though.
Anyway, I did some routing a while ago just never posted the pics. So, here they are:

After determining the length and location of the bass strings, I routed a cavity for the bass strings pickup. The bass bridge assembly is sitting on top of the body so you can see what I'll be using. Anyone familiar with this bridge assembly will note that the strings will need to be fed thru the body, so I'll have to drill 6 holes when I can get to it.


Once the bass strings were positioned and marked, I noted the location and started routing pickup holes for the guitar and ukulele neck as shown here:


Next step is to start sanding the body. What I can do on this over the next few weeks will be challenging.

Hi, Tom. Just dropped in to see how the guitar was coming along. Looks like you have made great progress. Can't wait to see (and hopefully hear) the finished product.

I have a friend Eric Loy plays a fantastic harp guitar he really tears up Mapleview Rag

The broken wrist/arm took a chunk of time out of this project. I couldn't do much work on the harp guitar, but I could sure think about it. Now that the arm is healing, the cast is gone and I'm doing my own "self therapy." It's time to return!

An interesting thing happened yesterday - until now, I imagined that I wanted to stain this dark, like a walnut shade, and make it look like it's been around forever. So in my mind, this was always going to be a very dark instrument. The old barn wood board that I used for the body had a good amount of open grain, that would need to be filled before staining and sealing the instrument. So I thinned the wooder filler and spread it on. Stepping back and looking at it, I loved its brighter appearance. It reminds me of the color of the '50's Fender Telecasters. Completely different than how I originally imagined, but I think I like this brighter color more. Just from seeing how this looks, I've decided to go with that Fender "banana pudding" shade of lacquer to paint the body.


Hopefully, the 3-day weekend will offer me time to continue with this project.

Glad your arm is better, Tom. Can't wait to hear how this will play. By the way your challenge is up on the Creative Challenge forum and several people have posted. Take a peek if you have the time.

I am in awe of your skills in this project.....you are as much a craftsman as anyone I have seen on TV-and moreso than most

I also envy your country home in the sticks of W.Virginia.......it must be so good for your mind and spirit.....

Tom

Thanks for the kind words, Tom & Jean. In spite of all the grass to be cut and needing to repair the riding mower, I still had time to get to this project and do some more work since my last post. Here's the latest:

I didn't like that the smaller neck was a darker wood, so I added an overlay to the peghead and body joint so that it matches the other neck better. This photo shows clamping the new overlay pieces to the small neck:


Anyone notice that the bottom of the instrument had a section that seemed flat? That was on purpose - really. It had nothing to do with the fact that the board wasn't long enough to have the final full curve. Since it had a flat surface, I figured it would be a good location to add the input connector. Before I did this though, I tested that if a cable was plugged in, would it sit okay on a guitar stand? No problem, and the cable will not get in the way at all. This photo shows that some sanding has been done as well, and I also drilled out the holes for where the strings feed thru the body for the harp guitar strings.



I added the tuners for the harp guitar, temporarily mounted the bridge assembly, and fed the strings thru the body. I will use the straight edge of the strings to determine the optimal location for the harp guitar nuts. I will use a single nut for each harp string, unlike the guitar that has one nut for all six. Maybe it's just one nut that plays it...

again my applause and admiration of a master craftsman

as someone who once spent an entire hellish semester in high school metal shop trying to make a garden hose holder to pass the class-I am always in awe of those who can make things of real function and beauty-as opposed to my skill level-which never results in any functional use for the final product-but which has been compared favorably to Pablo Picasso sculptures-lol....

thanks for the project- in- progress pictures

Tom

This is really coming along. Looks like you have made up for lost time.

I've enjoyed checking in on this one, Tom. Looking good so far. It's just amazing how you can have such a vision about an instrument then just make it from scratch.

I agree, Tricia. Most of us looking at the planks of wood might just see the potential for shelves or a table, but Tom sees a musical instrument and is able to bring it forth.

thanks again Tricia and Jean. Been on a road trip away from home all of last week. Now that I'm back, I've spent most of my energy tackling weeds and never-ending fields of grass. Not much has happened, but I broke down and actually spent a bit of money while away on this project. I had no shellac for sealing the wood before lacquering and not the right shade of paint. I have them now, but I need to do more sanding.

Maybe throughout this next week, after the grass is tamed, I'll continue...

Feeling your pain about the yardwork, Tom. Post the new pics when you can get caught up, ok?

I was getting ready to order some stuff, and a friend who read through this forum reminded me of goal #1. So I had to rethink, and be creative, and do my best not to order anything new (though I did need the paint).
So here's another update. I need a pickguard for this beast. The best way to determine what I need was to lay out the components and design it from there.


Once I liked how everything looked, I then made the template in paper, as shown here:


Since I am going with what I have, I needed to be creative. Unfortunately, I didn't have any pickguard material large enough for this template. What I found when I went to the barn, was a 5-6 foot black rat snake perched just inside and above the doorway after I entered.
A bit alarming to have one so close to your head, but I ignored it and it ignored me.
I found a large piece of black plexiglass that at one time was a "designer panel" for the front of a refrigerator. Plexy is a bit more brittle than the material used for pickguards, but if I'm careful will cutting and filing, it should be fine. Plus it's large enough that if it breaks, I can make another if needed.
Onwards and always bowing through the doorways.

Lunch break gave me the time to sit down and do some "precision" work: filing and cutting string slots in the smaller neck's nut.
I found a scrap piece of nut material and had glued it into a slot I cut in the "ukulele" peghead. Once it was dry, I filed the height, and used the nut files to cut the slots for the strings. Slots were cut in the nut evenly spaced. The nut files are smooth on the wide part and have the cutting edge only on the sides. My favorite ukulele (Blackie) wanted to watch. Since I'm using a zero fret, the purpose of the nut is only to align the string to the correct left/right position - it doesn't need to be set to the correct height. The strings actually sit on the zero fret, which determines the string height.

Watching this transformation is cool. Your Uke wanted to watch, LOL. You are a crack-up, Tom.