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McCutcheon Music Brent Benfield, luthier
Brent has been working with wood since 1972, and has been creating guitars since 1992. He builds classical and steel string acoustics with attention to detail and a sense of sound which marries technical knowledge and skill with a love for the craft of creating artistically beautiful instruments which are very pleasing to both the eye and the ear. He holds a diploma from Timeless Instruments School (Canada) and has studied with Jose Romanillos. He has published articles in American Lutherie (1997 and 2004) . One of his articles is reprinted below. Many unique design features make these completely handmade guitars not only a joy to play and hear, but a sight to behold. And they are available at very affordable prices for handmade instruments with a big sound - $1800+. Features include:
Benfield guitars are available at * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Some of Brent's published articles: 1997: Doming the Soundboard.- American Lutherie, Issue # 49 2004: Attaching the Sides to the Neck using Wedges - AL, Issue # 80 2007: The Norris Lattice Design - American Lutherie, Issue # 89 2009: Doming using the fixture seen Nov 30 '08 - AL Issue # 97 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Here is one of Brent's articles published in
(Reprinted here with permission) Joining the Body to the Neck I never liked fitting bent sides into slots cut into the sides of the Spanish heel to join the neck to the body. In his book, Making Master Guitars, Roy Courtnall describes how Jose’ Romanillos handles these joints. At the ‘95 GAL Convention, Mastro Romanillos himself told us how he opens up the slots and uses wedges to make these joints. Light bulb On. Here is what works for me. The neck blank in built up and accurately laid out, with clear marks all around. The table saw blade I use has sharp carbide teeth and cuts a thin kerf. It cuts Mahogany like butter and leaves a smooth surface. The blade height is set to the layout marks, and the blade is tilted 1 1/2 to 2 degrees. The blade tilt and height are left that way for all cuts. I hold the neck to the miter gauge and make four main passes over the blade. This assures symmetry of the slots on both sides of the neck. The miter gauge will have four different orientations around the blade; forward and backwards on both the right and left sides of the blade. The gauge’s angle is precisely set off of a line extended from one edge of the blade, drawn on a piece of masking tape stuck to the saw’s table. The only critical cuts are the two outside cuts where you will see the sides meet the heel. The inside cuts angle ~ 3 degrees to make the wider opening towards the back of the Guitar, because I build in a dished workboard, face down. The wider end of the wedge will be up. To remove in-between wood, angle the miter back towards zero a degree at a time and saw it out carefully. You could do this with a chisel. The resulting slots are keystone shaped, which forces the wedges inwards. Wider slots make it easier to carve and sand the heel--more room. Sand the heel and the sides out ~ 3 or 4 inches to as fine as they will need to be for finishing so that once the neck and body are together you won’t have to try to sand in the corner. Making the wedges goes quickly. Transfer the top and bottom widths, and the lengths and depths of the slots to pieces of Mahogany, and bandsaw close. Plane and block sand the surface flat. The fit needs to be exact. A few minutes elbow grease results in wedges which touch everywhere, and which will press the sides tight to the neck. The first time I did this I got the wedges fit ‘perfect’, quickly applied Titebond, and tried to get it all back together again. Things swelled, of course. Next time I used Devcon 2-Ton slow-cure epoxy. I put a tiny bit of glue between the sides and the heel, too, for a stronger, more solid joint. Any squeeze-out can be cleaned up with acetone and q-tips. The wedges press the sides to the heel for a visually superior joint. I like this method and have been very satisfied with the results. |
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