Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here, and my first guitar. I've lurked on OLF for almost a year, so it's about time that I finally say hello!

You guys have built a great forum. I've learned so much here and hope to eventually contribute something useful. I've been into woodworking and modelmaking since I was a kid. I got the idea of building a guitar after seeing Lynn Dudenbostel building a mandolin on DIY network's Handmade Music series.

The guitar is a 12-fret 000 built from StewMac's kit. It's mostly "stock" from the kit, though I was brave and used curly maple binding with side purfling. It's finished with Tru-Oil. The rosewood and mahogany were pore-filled with Z-poxy, and the top has a thin coat of shellac beneath the Tru-Oil.

When I say this is my first guitar, I mean that *literally*. I'm now busy learning to play my first chords, but that's another story!

I'm itching to get started building a second guitar (not from a kit this time!). Any advice on what to build for a second guitar would be really appreciated...

Well, here's some photos... I also kept a web album of each step in building this guitar. It's at http://picasaweb.google.com/hobbyist17/BuildingTheStewMacOOOGuitar.

Ray

Hi Ray - Welcome to the forum! It looks like a great guitar (and better than my first I might add) - hope you had fun building it too.

I can't offer much in advice for #2....I'd go a little different than #1, just to keep it interesting, but similar enough that you don't have to rework everything (scale length, neck size, bracing pattern, etc). I used black walnut for #1 and it works easily and is relatively cheap, so I would consider it for the next one.

Happy building...

Laurie

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Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Welcome to OLF, Ray. That is a great looking first guitar. I'll give you the glad hands now.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I love the finish. That's probably the hardest thing to really get right. What was your schedule with the Tru-Oil and how did you rub it out? Looks really nice. Great job. Advice? Well if you are serious about this stuff taking a good building course will shave years off your learning curve.
Terry
http://www.kennedyguitars.com

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

That is you first guitar?!



Curly maple bindings, mitered side purflings, the finish; those can be hard to do and you did a great job on all of them. I hope at least it sounds awful, or we'll really have to hate you!

Kidding of course, WELCOME! I checked out your link, it looks like you have a really nice shop and you invested in a many new tools for this build (I really like your pin router). That can only mean you are hooked, and there is a long list of instruments with waiting to be built ahead! Looking forward to seeing what you’ll come up with next, I have a feeling you will put many of us to shame.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Wow, that looks great! Congratulations, and welcome!

How about an OLF SJ for your next? You can get the plans here. Michael P. designed it and drew the plans. It's a gorgeous shape. I'm planning on an SJ myself, and I keep thinking about if/how I might slightly alter Michael's shape to make it my own, and more to my liking, but he nailed it so well! I might have to adopt his shape as my standard SJ (with credit to [and permission from] Michael, of course; and I would change the bracing according to my own ideas). Todd Stock also designed a perfect Florentine cutaway for it which he might be willing to share (Todd?). With your abilities, I'm sure you'd handle the cutaway without a problem.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress and any questions that come up.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Hi Ray and welcome to the OLF!

I too am amazed that this is your first because it looks fantastic!!! You have some real talent here so keep at it my friend and enjoy every step along the way.

Great to have you here.

Welcome Ray. That is one professional looking instrument
The smaller body shapes are really beginning to grow on me . I hope my No 3 turns out half as good as your first.

Regards

Craig.

Welcome Ray. That is one professional looking instrument
The smaller body shapes are really beginning to grow on me . I hope my No 3 turns out half as good as your first.

Regards

Craig.

Welcome to the OLF Ray. Very good job on your first geetar! I think an SJ
would be a great choice for your 2nd too as Todd said. I built one and Love it.
And yes Michaels plans are A-#1.Your first looks great,how does she sound ?

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Nice work Ray!!!!!
Welcome to "luthiers addiction site"

Glad to see you used wood bindings!

Nice finish

Mike

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Mike Collins

wow....That's really nice....great work....I am gonna have to look into this true oil. THat finish looks great.
big John

Nice first guitar! And mitered side purfs too!
Welcome to the wood bending junkie site!!

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Brad Tucker

Ray, I just went through your build album. It is really nice. Excellent pictures and presentation. You are much neater and cleaner than I am. We may put you up for the "Hesh, Jr. Award" for the "Where's the Sawdust?" Contest. You have really done an excellent job. I am also very impressed with the Tru-Oil finish, and the luster you were able to achieve with it. It is not known for it's high gloss capabilities, but is for it's acoustic properties. Your finish is superb!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Way to go, Ray, and welcome. Terrific work all round. As far as your second goes, you have most of the knowledge you need. However, you probably will need some new tools. Getting new tools/jigs is almost as fun as building imo.

Gorgeous. Just finishing my first and yours puts mine to shame, looks-wise. Very professional!

Nice job Ray!
Welcome to the forum.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

welcome to the olf Ray

That guitar looks great! You did a lot of hard stuff very nicely, and the action, looking at the saddle height looks perfect

John

Great job Ray.What did you use to polish the tru-oil?I`m sure everyone would be interested in your finishing schedule.
James W B

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Thanks everyone for the welcome, compliments, and suggestions!

Tru-Oil is a nice stuff to work with. I had never used it before. It felt strange to buy the finish for a guitar at WalMart! (Interestingly, I was at WalMart this weekend and they no longer had Tru-Oil...)

I applied about one coat per day with a cotton cloth. Were it not for the day job, I'm sure I could've done a lot more per day! I started applying it straight out of the bottle, but later began thinning it with mineral spirits. Thinned 50-50, the Tru-Oil wiped on beautifully, but took forever to build. I kept adding thin coats and sanding between them (for about two weeks). I was probably sanding away as much finish as I was adding. I lost count, but I probably applied around 15 "coats", though many were thinned 50-50 and sanded mostly away.

I've attached a photo showing how it looked after the last coat of Tru-Oil, but before polishing. It was shiny, but the sheen was uneven.

The finish cured for a whole month while I continued an ongoing project of installing hardwood flooring in my house (nowhere near as fun as building a guitar!!). I then polished it by hand with Novus 3 & 2 plastic polish. The Novus 2 polish worked great. I also tried Novus 1, but it didn't seem to be doing much. I used the Novus polishing cloths included with their polishing kit. They look like paper napkins but worked better anything else that I tried.

The guitar sounds great to me, but I'm the last person qualified to judge. At this point, I'm barely able to finger an F-chord without injuring myself!

I need to do some searching here tonight for the OLF SJ...

Ray

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http://precisionworkshop.com

Welcome to the OLF Ray! Great first effort!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)