She sings
Well after 2 years, she's finally finished (well almost). Life tends to take precedent over our hobbies that's for sure.
I really wanted to hear this one sing. The box was finished construction in Jan 2007 and I'm just finishing it off now
. Thanks ok, I've had a great year of pain and suffering but it was all worth it.After some suggestion from my wife I've named the guitar Grace. The #5 represents grace and the definition of Grace is this: Grace is an enabling power for progression. It is an indispensable gift for development, improvement & character expansion, irrespective of actions, earned worth or proven goodness.
Ok specs on this guitar
It's an OM size but deeper body
15" lower bout
19-1/2" length
4-5/8" at the tail
4" at the heel of the neck
Scale is 25.4"
Curly maple back and sides
WRC top with spaulted maple rosette
All these woods came form Jason Voth (where are you buddy?) just down the highway from me
The neck is a 5 piece lamination of Mahogany/Maple/EIR/Maple/Mahogany with an allied 2-way truss rod (thanks Mark Blanchard for these killer rods
![[:Y:]](./images/smilies/smiley20.gif "Thumbs Up")
)All appointments are gaboon ebony (thanks to JJ for coming through with the fretboard, bridge and HSV 2 years ago)
Finish on the body is French Polished shellac. It was very fun to do. It's not perfect (is any finish ever perfect?) and I still have the glazing sessions to do but I couldn't wait any longer, I wanted to hear her sing
The neck finish is watco danish oil rubbed out with oooo steelwool and paste wax. I want to re-finish the neck at some point as I didn't let it cure out long enough but I know it will be nice when I get some patience
Tuners are the Gotoh 510's that we got from the group buy last year (Thanks Peter M
) and I have to say that these are killer tuners. They are so smooth and with the 18:1 ratio you can really dial the string in well. I love them.Bone nut and saddle, still need to set the intonation although I have very very little to do right now as it's about 95% there with a totally flat saddle (measure 100 time before attaching the bridge will do that for ya
). Also I need to lower the action in a couple weeks after she's set in a bit more. It's to high right now for me (0.120" at the Low E and 0.085" at the high E) and it won't be a problem to lower it about 1/64-1/32".Thank you to Mario, Rick and JJ for steering me in their direction of neck construction. I have to say that installing the frets on the board before being on the neck, making sure all is dead level than attaching to the neck is the cat's meow. I don't even need to touch the frets they are dead level all the way up the neck. Thanks guys, you've made a believer out of me and have help increase the quality of my building
And for those who are interested, she weighs in at 3.8 Lbs and is the lightest guitar I've built to date
She has a very lovely voice. At first I felt a little bit disappointed in her but I soon started to hear her true beauty after 24 hours and she's still opening up of course and will over the next several months. I'll try and describe the sound although I know I'm not very good at that.
The sound is very clear, almost bright but I can't say it's bright because of the warmth and mellow woody sound (from the cedar I'm sure). The sound remains clear all the way up the neck to the higher registers which I'm really liking. She has lots of power and because I've only been playing her at night after the kids are in bed, I haven't even opened up on her yet, but so far she really can belt it out and every note is distinct in the chords. In a couple of weeks I'll get a sound clip together to post (I'll have to get a good player to play it though) so you can all hear what she sounds like.
Onto the pictures, not the best but they give you an idea. Still need to make a truss rod cover, put some finish on the bridge and fine tune the nut and saddle.
Enjoy
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![[clap]](./images/smilies/smiley32.gif "adulations")
