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

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.