Ruokangas Guitars Video Diary Episode 10 - Top Carving

Documentary project, where luthier Juha Ruokangas walks you through the entire design process of the new Ruokangas guitar model, due to be launched by spring 2009. Juha talks about his approach to guitar design, shows hands on the drawing process, building prototypes and so on. Stay tuned, more parts will be added to this video diary frequently!

Category:

Music

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• diary
• documentary
• drawing
• duke
• electric
• guitar
• guitarmaker
• guitars
• juha
• luthier
• manetti
• mojo
• project
• ruokangas
• video
• vso

[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....

[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.

[mikeiswylde]

Good work