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Finished First Parlor
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Author:  Terence Kennedy [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:22 am ]
Post subject:  Finished First Parlor
Greetings,
Finally strung up my first Parlor started as a prototype a while back and worked on intermittently. Thanks a million to Todd Stock, J.J. and others for the suggestions when I started. It's based on the Antes plans. I splurged for the Luthier tools headstock slotting jig and a fine luthier tool it is. Well worth the $$$$. It's mahogany with rosewood bindings. The body is USL but the neck is Tru-Oil. Another first. I'm really impressed with Tru-Oil for necks. Went on easy over a porefill of Z-Poxy and feels great. I could become my favorite neck finish.
I plan to build many more, I'm hooked on these little babies.

Pros:
A real conversion piece. Folks seem to love it.
Really an enormous amount of fun to play, great highs. Tru-Oil neck is awesome.

Cons:
A little tubby in the Bass right out of the box. Top was around 0.90 and back 0.100. Could probably have gone lighter on the back and back braces.

Mistakes I learned from:
I ran the carbon bar neck reinforcement across the headstock joint as usual. (3/8" X 1/8") Hit the edge of one cutting the slots and It shows slightly. The neck is pretty stiff too. Only went into about 0.003 relief with string Tension and truss rod neutral. I'll probably use smaller shorter bars on the next one. Plays fine though.
Spayed the X brace too much, and had to make the bridge a little over 6.5" to hit the arms and then just barely.

Thanks for looking

Terry

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Author:  Howard Klepper [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Very tasteful. Cuban mahogany?
Author:  burbank [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Sweet little thing. What scale length?
Author:  JJ Donohue [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Very, Very nicely done Terry! The details are superb and I just love the choices of wood.

I've built 2 of these so far and both took quite a while before they opened up...in spite of bracing them much lighter than the Antes plans call for. They are both very responsive after 3 years and are comfortable to play...in the parlor.

I wholeheartedly agree with you about the feel of oiled necks. BTW...how do you like the USL finish?

Well done, Doc! [clap] [clap]
Author:  KenH [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Beautiful craftsmanship Terry!
Author:  WaddyThomson [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Really nice, Terry. Great work. [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap]
Author:  Sam Price [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Beautiful!
Author:  Dave White [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Terence,

That's a cool little dude - great looks and workmanship!! I'd play the daylights (and delights) out of that little beauty for a while yet until you judge where it will end up sound wise. Sometimes the bass takes a little while to come out.

Any chance of any soundclips?
Author:  DannyV [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Really great looking! I picked up that plan and hope to make that my #2. Couple of questions. I've heard the bracing is a little heavy on the plan. Did you take it down a little? And, when you pore fill a neck with epoxy, what do you use and how do you apply it? Not being a flat surface like a back, there must be a technique that works better than others.

Nice One,
Danny
Author:  John Kinnaird [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Very clean work Terence. I like the looks of that guitar.

John
Author:  AndrewGribble [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Terry, very nice! I really like how you kept everything very simple with this guitar's appointments. Looks the way it should; like they did 100 years ago.
Author:  gozierdt [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Terry,

Very nice [clap] [clap] . I like the detail work- inlays, mitered purflings, and shell rosette.
I'm currently building a small 0 size, just a little bigger than yours. Using Sapelle, and
still trying to decide on binding wood. I like the look of the dark rosewood you used,
I may go in that direction. I switched to an X-braced back, I'm anxious to string it up
and see how it sounds- but that's probably a month away...
Author:  Rich Schnee [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Nice work Terry.
Author:  Terence Kennedy [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Thanks Guys,
Howard- the Mahogany is from Walter Lipton at Euphonon. He just calls it "Mahogany" Always assumed it was Honduran but it could be Cuban.

Pat- The scale is 24.9

JJ- I've used USL on four guitars. ( I used KTM9 on quite a few) It's very forgiving and easy to use but I still can't get that deep gloss of a solvent based finish. Maybe some guys can but it eludes me. From 5 feet it looks great but it seems like in the right light there are always some slightly hazy areas. Pretty similar to KTM9. This guitar had 16 thin coats, two levelings before final, and 4 weeks cure. 1000-2000 Abralon, really flat, med and fine on the wheel. Top wound up at around 0.003. Looked really nice but still some haze with the right light angle. Most of my guitars wind up getting outsourced for finish these days.

Dave-Thanks, I'll try to get a sound clip later. All my mics are tied up at a theater right now for a show.

Danny- Yes I did modify the top bracing a little, mostly by maintaining height and creating a triangular cross section with some Martin type scalloping. On necks I usually wipe on the epoxy full strength with a paper towel dampened in alcohol. This one also has a total bolt-on neck. Here's a picture of the top bracing. It's 1/4". I splayed the X too much, had to use a longer bridge to catch the corners.
I'd appreciate any critique of my bracing by folks that have made a few of these.

Terry

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Author:  Ken Franklin [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Very nice work Terry. [clap] [clap] [clap]
Author:  Steve Kinnaird [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Oooh, that is a sweet little thing.
Well done!

Steve

No critique on the bracing--per se--but is that pic reversed?
Looks like you ran the tone bar so that it tightened up the bass side,
and let the treble be more flexible?
Author:  Terence Kennedy [ Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
You know Steve I hadn't looked at that picture for a while and was just wondering why I did that too. I looked at the Antes plans again and they have it on that side but I just realized they are showing it from a top projection and I must have thought it was from the back like most other plans. Oh well there's always another one. Add that to the goof list. Thanks for the picking that up
Terry
Author:  Laurent Brondel [ Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Nice little guitar Terry.
I've not made parlors per se, but a few 0 size 12 fret guitars (13 1/2" lower bout).
About the bracing: I think you are right, the X could be tighter. That would reduce the width of the bridgeplate and allow the tonebar to be angled a little more longitudinally. The fingerbraces' peaks look high to me. Also the scoops at each end of the tonebar could be longer. I think that would allow the top to vibrate more laterally, thus more bass to come out of such a small box.
Author:  Dave Anderson [ Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Hey Terry ,
Great little Parlor guitar!! Great work on your mitres and inlays.Very clean and precise.
I want to do one of these soon so I'll be asking you some questions I'm sure. I really like it. WTG !!!
Do you always use scalloped bracing on your guitars ?
[:Y:] [clap] [clap]
Author:  douglas ingram [ Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Very nice little guitar. A parlour is about the only steel string that I have any desire to build.

Good that you used miters on your purfling. I think that it looks SO much better than ignoring the joints and just running the binding past the back strip or the end graft.
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:43 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Refreshingly clean and elegant; fine materials, appointments and detailing all around. Congrats!
Author:  Colin S [ Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Don't you just love those neat little parlour guitars, beautiful work Terrence. Looks Honduran to me, but whatever, mahogany really suits the small body guitars. No need for a case for that one, just put it on a stand next to your chair, because your going to want to keep picking it up to play. Oh and yes I've found that the samll tops seem to take a while to grow into their bass, patience.

Colin
Author:  Marc [ Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Great looking guitar, clean work, I really like it.
Author:  Bruce Dickey [ Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Nice Guitar Terry.

Great catch on the brace Stephen!

Those pesky plans sometimes getcha don't they?

I primarily use the dred plans from my Martin original kit and remember having to ferret out the correct way to build it......

Congrats Terry on such a nice instrument. [clap]
Author:  charliewood [ Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished First Parlor
Very nice work - I really like this design - which is why Im building it as my #1... Im glad to see a detailed show and tell on the Antes parlour....
Im glad to hear that it sounds reasonable and the hints about what you might do differently or just what you did that you really appreciated!
As for the bass being a little tubby,(I think you said?), do you think it has to do solely with the tonebar positioning?
or do you figure it might focus with age a bit?
Anything that you think you might do differently that...
you havent mentioned would also be appreciated,,, if anything
Cheers
Charlie
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