Ruokangas Guitars Video Diary Episode 10 - Top Carving

[mqmqmwmw]

1:32 A non-fat woman belly shape, you mean ? coz I cant take a template from my woman

[ruokangasguitars]

@caulinrocker Spanish Cedar is all different species from regular cedars. Despite the name it originates from South Africa and belongs to the mahogany family of trees. So it's not a conifer tree like true cedar is. The origin of the tradename Spanish Cedar is the fact that the wood is used a lot in the necks of high end spanish (classical) guitars and that it has a strong cedar type odor. I've never built a guitar out of regular cedar and don't know how that would work.

[ruokangasguitars]

@caulinrocker The slope is at the neck joint only... you need to look at Les Pauls and other carved top guitars closely to figure it out.

[ruokangasguitars]

@caulinrocker Check episode 9 at 4:40min. :-) I angle the top first to 4.5° with my overhead pin router. You need the angle to fit the tune-o-matic on the carved top... the tonal affect... well it's the whole concept of the carved top with t-o-m bridge and stop tailpiece, kinda like violin, strings pressing downwards to the top on the bridge.

[TommittajaFIN]

kätevä laite o_O yksinkertainen mutta hyvä toimintaperiaate. :)

[anma98]

hi again, sorry for my late response and lots of thanks for your answer to my question. it`s absolutely not usual that someone shares his knowledge in that way.

please keep on doing that. and, if i would have the money to buy one les paul based guitar, your unicorn would be first choise.

[anma98]

hallo and greatings from germany. thanks for posting your vids. they are very inspiring!! but, question: how did you carv the exact angle of 4,5 for the neck on the top? is it also done by hand, and how far does the angle goes?

[ruokangasguitars]

@anma98 Hi there! I started by leveling the body at the exact 4.5 degree angle by using a template under the body, and then I routed the front edge of the body accordingly to level on my overhead pin router. After that I took off the template and leveled the top thickness (middle part) to correct height...

[ruokangasguitars]

@ruokangasguitars ... so when the fretboard is added, there's adequate space for the tune-o-matic bridge in it's location. After that I routed the edge of the body outline down to the correct level, 5mm thickness - and then it's handcarving handcarving....

[mikeiswylde]

Hang on how did you start the carve did you route around the edges and carve down to slope into that level? Very interesting. Dude you need to do a course on all of your guitar wisdom.

[ruokangasguitars]

Yes that's how I do it always when I carve a top by hand. This way you can see the "zero point" where to aim...

[mikeiswylde]

Good work

[ariaowns]

Genius!

[mikeiswylde]

Where did you learn

[goodyear2602]

Harry Häussel...the cream of the crop. ;)

How hard is arctic birch? Is it more like poplar or is it as hard as maple? A very nice wood. I wished, we had that stuff over here in Germany.

[Pocketafro]

I think it's like alder.

[ruokangasguitars]

There are various species of birch (as there are alder and maple as well). Generally could be said that birch is pretty close (hardness) to maple. The weight and hardness of the Finnish birch we use in our guitars (tops - and quite often fretboards in our bolt-on models) is very close to big leaf maple (also known as oregon maple).

[300guitars]

Looking good Juha. Keep up the good work. I love that machine. Simple but effective. Nice!