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Meet "Ju" Venezuelan Cuatro number 10-A.
We are back with updates from the workshop. That's right! Woodworking Wednesdays is back. Today we will see the last bits of work on a project that was on hold for quite some time. If you wanna know which project was it, you just need to click here. Today, we'll see the last details of Ju , one of the two projects that finishes my first run of instruments.
To recap this project, I had build two instruments as number 10 of the first run of Venezuelan Cuatros. However, I couldn't finish them since I can't work the varnish form home. Thus, both have been sitting in the couch with number 8. But last week, as I finished a quick commission, I had the chance to varnish one of these. And with that our of the way, there's was little left to do.
I used more purple heart since this is a wood already on the project. Gave it the shape and learnt to do some shaping by file. It is quite some work. However, this wood is very dense and doesn't chip or breaks easily. So you can use your strength without fear. Once we have the shape, the channel for the saddle and the holes for the stirngs, we proceed to sand the whole thing and seal it with teak oil.
The piece that connects the movement of the strings and sends the vibration into the body. Placing this isn't for the faint of heart. Fist, we need to address the distance from the fretboard. We are using a new scale length. Thus, the bridge is placed 276,05mm from fret 12. However, this is the easy part.
Now, we need to place the bridge in place and use some masking tape to border its perimeter. With this in place, we use a knife to mark the said permiter. Once this is done, we need to scrape the are inside this rectangle. This is to ensure the bridge will glue to the sound board. We go one step further and make some anchors so it will sit in place once we apply the glue.
After gluing the bridge, I left it alone for 48 hours since I was working on there instruments. And this was the result.
This two pieces are some of the last things we will place on the instrument. They are the pieces that hold the stirngs above the frets and sound board. The nut is the the one that hold the strings apart; while the saddle determines the action of the strings. These are also the modifiable pieces. They can be removed and changed according to the needs of the musician.
What's a stirngs instruments without the stirngs? Maybe it's a decoration. A weird one. The last step we take are placing the tuning machines with the help of a drill and the screws that come with them. With these in place and nut and saddle resting on the fretboard and bridge respectively, we proceed to knot the strings on the bridge and wind them on the tuning machines.
This is also the moment when we make sure to check the tuning of the instrument. The strings will also tell us if the bridge is safely glued in place. After taking all the steps and modification in need, the result is this:
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