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Stewart MacDonald 5297 Assembly Instruction Manual

Triple-o acoustic guitar kit
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Triple-O
Acoustic Guitar Kit
#5297 Assembly Instructions
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  • Page 1 Triple-O Acoustic Guitar Kit #5297 Assembly Instructions www.stewmac.com...

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Table of contents Getting started Neck shaping and fitting Welcome to guitar building! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Shaping the neck .

  • Page 4: Getting Started

    Getting started Welcome to guitar building! You are about to build a truly great guitar! We designed this daily to neutralize excessive warping . Depending upon your kit with the small shop builder and a modest tool budget in location and the season, you may need to humidify or dehu- mind, with the exception of a few specialty guitar making midify your shop to maintain the desired relative humidity .

  • Page 5: Kit Parts List

    Kit parts list 1 Bent sides, rosewood or 15 Blueprint, body and bracing mahogany, depending on patterns your kit (2) 16 Heel cap and end trim 2 Kerfed lining (8) 17 Herringbone rosette (3 pieces) 3 Fretboard 18 Top brace set, plus 2 unshaped 4 Mahogany neck, dovetail X-braces or bolt-on...

  • Page 6: Side Assembly

    Side Assembly Assembling the sides Save the cardboard box your kit came in. Cut away the Clamping caul with sides of the box and use the large top and bottom to create curved face a double-thick cardboard surface on your workboard . Each bent guitar side has been formed from a tapered piece waxed of wood .

  • Page 7: Making A Body Mold

    Making a body mold Using the two heavy cardboard body forms (supplied with the kit) create a guitarmaking form which supports the body during the early stages of assembly . First, place two scraps of 3/4" plywood onto the work surface inside the guitar .

  • Page 8: Installing Kerfed Linings

    Installing kerfed linings Eight kerfed (notched) wooden lining strips, or “kerfing”, are supplied for reinforcing the glue joints between the soundboard, sides and back . Dry-clamp (no glue) the kerfing strips to the top edge of the side assembly using ordinary spring-tension clothespins (pictured) .

  • Page 9: Leveling The Kerfed Linings

    Leveling the kerfed linings Prepare a “sanding board” from a straight flat piece of wood 1-1/2° wedge about 3-4" wide, at least 1" thick, and 24" long (illustrated) . for sanding top edge Add a wedge on each side of one end of the sanding board . These wedges will tip the sanding board to match the angles Sandpaper of the top and back as you sand the kerfed linings, neck and...

  • Page 10: Soundboard Bracing And Fitting

    Soundboard bracing and fitting Installing the soundhole rosette Three bent wooden purflings form the soundhole rosette . The two narrow rings composed of parallel black and white strips install in the inner and outer rings of the rosette, and the wide decorative ring goes in the middle channel . The purflings are longer than needed, to enable the removal of the straightened ends on each ring left from the bending process .
  • Page 11 The two long X-braces (T-1 on the blueprint), the tall front shoulder brace (T-5), and the tone-bars (T-2) are radiused . The flat shoulder brace and the four small braces (T-3) are not radiused . With the soundboard face down on your workboard, place these two X-braces on the penciled lines and mark where they cross .

  • Page 12: Bridge And Shoulder Brace Clamping Cauls

    Bridge and shoulder brace clamping cauls While the braces are accessible, prepare a bridge clamping Bridge clamping caul caul and a shoulder brace caul that will be used in the “Install- These surfaces must contact the soundboard; ing the neck” and “Installing the bridge” sections . The bridge the notches should not contact the braces.

  • Page 13: Opening The Dovetail Joint

    KIT TIP: Trimming soundboard overhang An option to leaving the top overhang is to remove it in the neck block and tailblock areas only . This gives you an opportunity to re-check the square- ness of the sides to the top in these areas during gluing .

  • Page 14: Installing The Soundboard

    Installing the soundboard With the waist clamp still in place on the side assembly, and with the assembly resting top-down on the flat plywood, recheck the squareness of the neck block and tailblock to the sides . Make slight adjustments if necessary by adding or removing a wedge of wood between the blocks and the cardboard .

  • Page 15: Back Bracing And Fitting

    Back bracing and fitting Installing the back bracing Choose the less attractive side of the joined guitar back as As was done with the soundboard braces, follow the taper the inside surface, and transfer the back bracing pattern from and shape of the pre-machined back braces and chisel the the blueprint to this surface .

  • Page 16: Installing The Side Reinforcing Strips

    length pencil mark on the back, gently push the sides and back braces on the sides . File . 1 00"-deep notches in the tailblock slightly until the body length mark meets the sides, kerfed linings and the sides to accept the braces, as you did and lightly dry-clamp .

  • Page 17: Routing And Binding

    Routing and binding Trimming the top and back overhang With a saw, chisel and file, remove the section of soundboard that covers the top of the neck joint cavity, and smooth the edges . Routing for the body bindings is easier if the excess top and back overhang is removed first .
  • Page 18 KIT TIP: Router base compensation Interior trim: black/white strips Here’s a tip for routing the top and back more ac- Soundboard curately: The arch of the top, and especially the Outer binding: 7/32" tall back, will change the router alignment . Coupled Kerfed lining with any irregularities in the wood, this can cause the routed channel to be too deep or too shallow .

  • Page 19: Shaping The Heel Cap And End Trim

    Shaping the end trim and heel cap Clean up the cut edges with a file . Take care to file along the whole length of the piece, so you don’t lose the straightness Cut off 2-1/4" from the rectangular blank, to be used for of the edges .

  • Page 20: Fit And Fill The Truss Rod Channel

    Fit and fill the truss rod channel Fitting the truss rod The neck block has been drilled to allow access to the truss rod’s adjusting nut, but the rod is not designed to extend beyond the neck (pictured) . This allows for neck removal, should it ever become necessary (this is normal on a dovetail neck reset) .

  • Page 21: Peghead Shaping And Drilling

    Peghead shaping and drilling Peghead overlay Align the nut end of the fretboard with the break angle, where the peghead begins . Pencil a mark on the peghead face 3/16" from the nut line . Align the peghead overlay with this mark .

  • Page 22: Making A Fretboard

    Making a fretboard Trimming the fretboard The fretboard needs to be tapered, starting at the nut slot . so one side hangs over the edge of the shim, and sand it The nut supplied is preshaped to 1-3/4" width . with the shooting block .

  • Page 23: Installing The Fretboard Side Dots

    Installing the fretboard side dots Clamp the fretboard to a board, rest that board on its side, 12th fret . Drill all these holes with a 1/16" bit . One at a time, and clamp this assembly to your benchtop with the bass touch a drop of medium-viscosity super glue to each hole side of the fretboard facing up .

  • Page 24: Installing The Fretboard

    before running the super glue into the slot . Use wax paper against your work surface, use the mill file to bevel the fret between the caul and the fretboard . ends at about 60° . Work slowly — you can always add more bevel, but you can’t put the metal back .

  • Page 25: Neck Shaping And Fitting

    Neck shaping and fitting Shaping the neck When the glue is dry, remove the rubber bands . The neck must be trimmed to meet the edges of the fretboard, without removing any of the fretboard edges or filing deep marks into them . To complete the peghead “diamond”...

  • Page 26: Installing The Nut

    Installing the nut The guitar peghead tilts back 15° from the fretboard surface . This angle must be filed and sanded onto the bottom of the nut . Leave the top surface of the nut untouched for now . From a scrap of wood at least 1/2" thick, 2-3" wide, and long enough to clamp to the peghead face, make a “saw fence”...

  • Page 27: The Neck Heel Sets The Neck Angle

    The neck heel sets the neck angle The neck angle is controlled by the shape of the neck heel as Removing wood from the top or bottom of the neck heel it contacts the sides of the body . It is not determined by the tips the neck forward or back .

  • Page 28: Neck Adjustment: Side-To-Side

    Neck adjustment: side-to-side The first area that may need to have a small amount of wood removed is the treble or bass cheek . Wood removed here controls the “side-to-side” alignment of the neck to the centerline . If the neck is misaligned side-to-side, one of the outside E-strings will be too close to the edge of the fretboard .

  • Page 29: Neck Adjustment: Tilt The Neck Up

    from side to side . If you need to remove a lot of wood, make A small ledge of unsanded wood will remain on the bottom two or three passes before changing to the other cheek . The of the heel between the sanded cheeks . Either “pull-sand” it fit will change rapidly, so check your progress frequently .

  • Page 30: Finishing

    Finishing Introduction to finishing and materials KIT TIP: Aerosol Lacquers We recommend finishing the neck and body separately, for a better job of sanding and buffing . When the neck is attached, Aerosol lacquers have a tendency to “spit” if the it’s more difficult to fill the grain, sand, and buff around the spray tip gets clogged .

  • Page 31: Filling The Fret Ends

    Filling the fret ends Before sanding the neck, “drop-fill” the small fret slot spaces under the ends of the frets . Blend super glue with some fine wood dust, reserved from when you shaped the fingerboard . We brushed super glue accelerator on the openings first, waited five minutes, then used a toothpick to apply the super glue mixture .

  • Page 32: Staining

    Staining Wear plastic gloves when handling stains! The neck, back take more than a minute to stain the neck, nor more than and sides of the mahogany kit should be stained . For the three minutes to stain the body . Stain the peghead veneer, rosewood kit, only the neck should be stained (the back and too —...

  • Page 33: Sanding And Rubbing-Out The Finish

    KIT TIP: Running Day Seven: Scuff-sand the finish with 320-grit again . This time most of the shiny spots will disappear, leaving a uni- If you get a “run” in the finish, let the surface dry for formly dull look . Spray three more clear coats, one hour 24 hours and level-sand the problem area .

  • Page 34: Final Assembly And Setup

    Final assembly and setup Prepare for neck installation Be sure that the gluing surfaces of the neck joint and fretboard extension are free from dirt, finish and buffing residue . If your neck has a dovetail, press it, with the shim on the correct side, into the body .

  • Page 35: Prepare For Bridge Installation

    Prepare for bridge installation The bridge was positioned earlier when fitting the neck, and the process will now be repeated . Place an accurate 18" straightedge on the centerline of the fretboard, butted against the nut . Mark on the straightedge the position of the center of the 12th fret .

  • Page 36: Installing The Bridge

    Installing the bridge Apply Titebond to the bridge, and reclamp the bridge in place on the soundboard . Use at least three deep-throat clamps with your exterior and interior bridge cauls (pic- tured) . Clean up the squeezed-out glue with a damp cloth, and allow at least 24 hours drying time .

  • Page 37: Installing The Tuning Machines

    Installing the tuning machines Clean out any excess finish from the tuner post holes so that Select the proper size drill bit and place a tape stop on the the tuning machines fit easily into their hole . With the tuners shank of the bit so that the bit does not go through the slot in place on the peghead, mark the mounting holes with a walls .

  • Page 38: Adjusting String Action: Nut Slots & Saddle Height

    Adjusting string action: nut slots and saddle height The first stage of setup will produce a medium-high action Your bridge saddle may be too tall . Decide how much each (this may be suitable for bluegrass players, but can be low- string must be lowered at the 12th fret .

  • Page 39: Leveling The Frets

    Leveling the frets Reinstall the nut (without glue) and play the guitar . Check for Using a flat fine-tooth mill file, gently level the tops of the false notes or string buzzes caused by uneven frets . Buzzing frets with long full-length strokes down the fretboard . Re- is corrected by leveling the frets .
  • Page 42 21 N. Shafer St • Athens, Ohio 45701 • USA USA & Canada call toll-free: 800-848-2273 9am-6pm weekdays Eastern time 24-hour fax: 740-593-7922 www.stewmac.com i-5297 08/15...

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