Donovan Zhong

About The Project

The goal of this project is to create something that encapsulate my two passions: music and STEM.

I am building a Triple-O model guitar and through it, learning traditional luthier woodworking method, analyze the physical properties of sound, and understanding the complicated components that makes up a guitar.

I will record a video of me playing it when I finish (it is not finished due to COVID19).

Project Demo

Although not necessarily a demo, this is my progress on the project thus far. I am 40% complete with building the guitar. I have finished the bracing, soundboard, the side of the guitar, and was in the process of gluing the soundboard when COVID19 hit and I had to halt.

Hopefully I will be able to do more work during summer.

Progress Pictures

Before we get into the build pictures, here are all the components in the kit.

And the finished product will look like the picture below.

The guitar can be separated into two big parts: the neck and the body. I started work on the body first and glued the sides together with the tail and neck block. The gluing process is more complicated as it looks as I had to prepare carefully radiused caul to protect the wood from the clamp. I then applied a waist clamp to a cardboard mold for the wood to shape, and I glued on the kerfings using clothpins as clamps.

I then moved on one of the more technically challenging part of the project: the soundboard.

I needed to shape the braces to the instruction and since I've never used a chisel for woodworking before, it took me some time to learn how to use the chisel for fine woodworking and scalloping the braces to the exact shapes.

I first planned out and drafted the position of the braces onto the wood using the provided plan and pencil.

During this time, I learned how to chisel and created the X braces.

After finishing the X braces, I started gluing the pieces on. I had to make a lot of cauls for the clamps.

After everything is glued on, I scalloped and sanded the wood to the instructed thickness and length.

And that's where I am now! I ignored a lot of steps in this presentation, although a majority of time went in to creating precaution cauls and protection layers for the wood, those weren't that exciting. I hope to finish it before college.

Poster

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