Hi Everyone Here's the next instalment.....
The bouzouki is now just about ready for finishing, just a final rubdown with 320 and then 400 paper before getting it ready.
Finishing the instrument is something I like to do myself. Spraying is not that difficult, as long as you have reliable compressor powerful enough and a good clean spray gun. These instruments get a lot of hard use (or at least my ones do) so the finish needs to be able to take a bit of punishment without compromising the tone, so finding the right finish is important. There's little doubt that the thinner the better tonally, and a shellac or French polish would be ideal, but it just wouldn't stand up to the use these instruments are subjected to. So for the past 10 years or so I've been using a Morrells two pack AC lacquer. Very tough and resilient, easy and forgiving to spray and with enough build that I don't need to use a grain filler which can be very detrimental to the tone. I also like to use use a satin finish which is beautiful to look at and feels lovely and is FAR less labour intensive than a gloss finish.
So here's the instrument, sprayed up but not polished....
The next job after polishing is to finish off the frets. After the frets have been fitted, the ends will need filing and the surfaces dressed.
If necessary, adjust the truss rod so the neck is perfectly flat and then file the surface of the frets so that they are perfectly flat relative to the adjacent fret. I use a neat little tool for this....
The tool has 4 perfectly ground edges and sits over three frets, each one should be perfectly flat with no rocking. If there is carefully file the centre fret until the rocking disappears, then move on to the next fret and repeat. By the time you've finished you'll have perfectly adjusted frets. Then after re-crowning a good polish with 800 and 1200 paper and 0000 grade wire wool you'll have a perfect fretboard.
Now the fun really starts when it's time to put it all together. First the machine heads go on...
Then the tailpiece. I make this from 16 guage solid brass sheet which I cut and fold to shape. The string holes are drilled and filed smooth, the fixing holes are drilled and countersunk, and then the finished piece is polished. It's a very simple design but works really well providing a good solid fixing for the strings.
Next up is the bridge. This is made from ebony which along with the bone saddle makes for the most efficient way of transferring the vibration from the strings to the top. In this photo I'm routing the compensated slot for the saddle using a simple MDF jig and my trusty Bosch router.
Next is the bone saddle and nut...
And then finally the strings...
All the best
Andy
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