These pics cover the polishing and finally assembly in readiness for the fit-out. The bottom of the pillar has been bolted to the soundboard to test angles and fits. The neck and soundboard will still need to be drilled for the bridge pins, tuning pegs, sharping levers and string eyelets. These holes could have been done before oiling but since the hardware isn't here yet, I pushed on regardless.
The wooden peg shown above is not a functional thing- if anything it is a design affectation, and my attempt to make the joint between neck and soundbox look better by providing a point of emphasis where the strong taper and converging lines of the soundbox suddenly intersect with the round knob of the the neck base. I tried a few different shapes there and ultimately felt that a peg worked best to allow the neck curves to sprout happily from the box.
Here the whole caboodle is propped in the shoulder vise to access the base for the spanner job on the lag bolt. You can see from these pics that the timber changes color a lot when light or angles are changed. This is because of the very strong grain, but it isn't as obvious in reality as it is in photos.
Just beautiful work. Love the oiled finish.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised at how quickly you have brought all of this together (although I realise there is some hardware fiddling to go that might be quite time consuming).
Are harps simpler and quicker to get to this stage than members of the violin family? I would imagine the plate carving and fiddly (ha, not a deliberate pun!) size issues are very different. Your guitar build seemed to go swiftly, too.
Kym
Thank you Kym- yes my next post will be all about hardware (I just got a package of metal bits that all have to go into hundreds of holes....)
ReplyDeleteI think it is hard for me to judge comparative timelines because this is my first harp, and whatever I do there are always other things going on at the same time. I just try to immerse myself in things for however long it takes, and progress sometimes seems quick, and sometimes slow, then having worked myself up into a devoted frothy lather, I fall in a heap and get despondent when there is nothing left to worry about and I'm still not able to get into the next thing. When it goes like that it doesn't feel like work, so I miss it when the job is done!
Cheers,
Rob