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I finished this instrument earlier in the week and I haven't posted any instruments here for a while so here goes.

It's a Victorian Blackwood back and sides Hawaiian lap slide with a Surian top, The bindings and rosette are also Blackwood and the fingerboard and bridge are ebony. Finish is pre-cat laquer.

Surian is found throughout Asia and is a member of the Meliaceae family (Toona calantas) so it's sort of a cousin of Mahogany.
A distant cousin I reckon because this stuff is really light and soft and has pores like the Grand Canyon.

It sound great though. Interestingly the Fishman Neo D pickup sounded really unbalanced (lacking bottom and very loud unwound strings) so I turned 180 degrees in the soundhole and it now sounds fine. It's left handed so it seems that the neo D pole pieces are preset with a right handed instrument in mind.

Any how enough of my rambling. Here's the pics.

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

Beautifull work. I love that wood !

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Nicely done!

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Excellent!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

That looks very nicely executed, a fine looker!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

A1 nice!

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Great looking lap slide Bob. The wood is beautiful. Nice pictures too!

-Ron

Beautiful, Bob!
How tall is your bridge and nut?
Looks like really high string action.

Beautiful wood. Nice work. Really nice.

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PMoMC

Thanks for your kind comments everyone.

Alan yes it is quite high at present. The bridge itself is half an inch and I do intened to lower the saddle before I deliver it.

At present it has John Pearse Weissenborn D tuning strings on it which are fairly hefty (.060-.015) I'll replace these with a set of Martin SPs which are .056 on the low string. I usually replace the unwound strings with an .018 and a .015 otherwise its a standard set of mediums for the wound strings.

I find that the .060 sounds a bit muffled when fretted above the fith fret.

The heavier strings will give the glue joint of the bridge a workout at least for a week or so anyway

Regards

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

Very nice, Bob--as usual! Very much enjoy seeing your work.
The term "Victorian" Blackwood throws me a bit--is that just a further tightening of the more general term "Australian" Blackwood, or "Tasmanian" Blackwood?
Looks quite like something I'm throwing together right now.

Steve

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Steve - you can get Blackwood (Acacia melanaloxylon) all the way up the eastern seaboard of Australia.

The source I have for Victorian Blackwood is from the Otway Ranges quite near where I live and it is very similar to Tasmanian Blackwood. I fact I don't think anyone would be able to tell the difference if you were handed a piece and asked to identify where it cam from. Maybe the Victorian has more black colouring in it as opposed to the Tasmanian being more golden but there is variation from tree to tree. Both grow in cool temperate rainforests with very similar climates.

Some of the Blackwood that grows up as far as Queensland is a lot different. Smaller trees and very, very dense. Too small for guitar sets but makes great bridges and fingerboards.

Regards

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

Steve - you can get Blackwood (Acacia melanaloxylon) all the way up the eastern seaboard of Australia.

The source I have for Victorian Blackwood is from the Otway Ranges quite near where I live and it is very similar to Tasmanian Blackwood. I fact I don't think anyone would be able to tell the difference if you were handed a piece and asked to identify where it cam from. Maybe the Victorian has more black colouring in it as opposed to the Tasmanian being more golden but there is variation from tree to tree. Both grow in cool temperate rainforests with very similar climates.

Some of the Blackwood that grows up as far as Queensland is a lot different. Smaller trees and very, very dense. Too small for guitar sets but makes great bridges and fingerboards.

Regards

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

sweet! that's a real beauty

It came out beautiful. I bet the sund is great also. Nicely done.
Chuck