With a very steady hand, luthier Jeff
Huss preps a fretboard for its side-position
markers.Building an acoustic guitar may seem
like an extremely complicated process,
but it can be broken down into a series of
chronological steps. While it would take
a book (and there are some good ones out
there) to describe how to create this fairly
simple, yet elegant machine in more detail,
I’d like to give you an overview of the process
with this month’s column.
Because we build our bodies first, we
start by dimensioning the wood for our
top, back, and sides. Choosing the top
wood for its stiffness-to-weight ratio, we
generally make our tops from spruce or
cedar. This means these woods are light
enough to not act like a “tone sink,” but
strong enough to withstand the incredible
amount of tension they will be subjected
to when the guitar is strung up. While
back and side woods color the tone that
the top produces, the majority of the
sound is the result of the construction
choices made for the top.
The top and back “plates” are thickness-
sanded to dimension after they have
been joined in a book-matched pattern.
We cut a soundhole into the top, install a
rosette, and then profile them—a process
that creates a smooth, flat surface where
the top meets the rosette. Next, we brace
the plates with spruce bracing. We use a
traditional “X” pattern for our tops and
a simpler, ladder-brace pattern for the
backs. At this point, we profile the sides
to a uniform thickness and bend them to
shape using a bending jig and the help of
a little heat and moisture.
After bending the sides, we place them
into a mold that will house the body
throughout the construction process, and
install spreaders to hold the sides firmly
against our mold. Now we’ll glue the head
block, tail block, and kerfed linings into
place to create the rim onto which we
glue the top and back. When the glue is
cured, we remove the spreader mechanism
through the soundhole, pull the rough
body from the mold, trim the edges, and
finish the decorative purfling and binding
work. After the scraping and sanding work
is finished, the body is complete and ready
to be paired with a neck.
Necks begin as a large plank of hardwood—
generally mahogany—that is sawn
into smaller billets yielding two, one-piece
necks. These are rough sawn into
neck blanks on the band saw, routed for
a truss rod slot, and cut on an angle for
the peghead. After we glue the veneer for
the peghead face and shape the peghead,
we drill the holes for the tuners. Using a
jig, we then measure the angle of the body
where the neck will attach, and that angle
is transferred to the table saw where the
neck heel is cut to correspond to the body.
After cutting, we drill and install our corresponding
index holes, bolt holes, and
inserts in the body and neck heel for the
bolt-on neck joint.
Our fretboards—made from ebony or
rosewood—are shaped, slotted, radiused,
and bound. They are indexed onto the
neck blank, and the truss rod is installed
and then attached with epoxy. The neck
is now shaped, a nut slot is cut, and the
neck is final-fitted to the body to ensure
proper playability. Inlay work is then done
on the fretboard and peghead, and we fit
the nut, install side-position markers, and
sand out the body and neck and prepare
them for the finish work.
At this point, some woods, such as
mahogany, are stained, and any open-pored
woods are filled with a paste wood-filler
that lets us apply a thinner, final
finish. Then we spray the topcoats and
do leveling work between coats to ensure
a flat and thin finish. After it’s cured, the
finish is leveled once again before we fine-sand
and buff all the finished surfaces to
bring out a bright luster.
Once the finish work is complete,
the assembly can begin. The neck and
body are bolted together, the fretboard
extension is glued down, and the bridge
is glued on. The guitar is mounted on a
workbench that simulates string tension,
and the fretboard is prepared for the fretwork.
Frets are then installed, trimmed,
leveled, and polished.
After the nut has been trimmed, polished,
and slotted, we install it. Next, the
tuners are mounted, the saddle is shaped
and inserted into the bridge slot, and the
pickguard is attached. And finally, we
string up the guitar, adjust the action, and
perform any necessary tweaks. Our guitar
is now ready to begin what we hope are
many, many years of making music.
Jeff Huss
co-owner
of Huss & Dalton Guitar
Company, moved to
Virginia in the late ’80s to
play bluegrass. He and
his business partner, Mark
Dalton, formed their company
in 1995. Since then they’ve earned
world-wide recognition for their high-end,
boutique guitars and banjos.