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Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
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Author:  Dave Livermore [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Hey everyone,
I'm very happy to be done with an instrument that spent way too much time in the works.

This is a great place to show people who can appreciate the work, effort and skill needed to put something together like this.

Details;

About ten years ago I was at the family farm in South Dakota where I noticed that the cattle yard was fenced with old growth Western Red Cedar. They tore the fence down recently and I picked through the lumber for the single quarter-sawn board. It turned out that the Cedar was actually Douglas Fir and my Father-In-Law remembers the day in 1960 when the truckload of lumber for the fence was delivered.

Fortunately the board was twenty feet long and I was able to experiment a bit with it before putting together a nice top.

The back and sides were from a OO size Martin factory reject set that I got from a stock pile of factory seconds someone had on E-bay.

Inay is reconstituted turcquoise from LMI

Bindings were made from the off-cuts from a Rosewood guitar.
Purfling was made with Maple veneer

The neck is a laminate of Mahogany/Rock Maple/Rosewood

24.5" fingerboard came from Todd Stock
I built a custom compression rod for the neck.

Finish is Oxford USL. I don't have enough good things to say about how the finish turned out. I've done Nitrocellulose, French Polish and now WB Lacquer. This was by far the easiest finish I've ever done. It was extremely forgiving, very easy to apply (with a cheap HVLP gun) and it looks just great. I did put a thick coat of 2lb shellac on for a sealer and to pop the figure and grain on the woods. I filled the pores with McFaddens.

Bridge and Saddle were made from a fossilized bone I found at the farm in SD, probably from a buffalo.

The instrument was built for my five year old daughter who will one day learn to play it (hopefully sooner than later.)

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I'm pretty excited about the tone. It is full, and LOUD! The Fir is really surprisingly fine. This early in the game I can't make a comparison, but all signs are pointing to a great playing and sounding little guitar.

After checking out my archive of sent messages, there are many people on this site who helped make this guitar a successful venture.

Thanks for the help.
Thanks for checking it out. Hope you enjoy.

Dave
Author:  Geordie Adams [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 5:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
hi
I like your little guitar a lot and with all the family and connections
it'll come to mean more as the years go by.
yours Geordie
Author:  WaddyThomson [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 5:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
That's a really nice looking guitar. It would also appear that you have a happy player.
Author:  Hesh [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 5:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Great looking guitar Dave my friend and you should be very proud! [:Y:] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap]

Your daughter, who is a real cutie by the way, looks like she really likes it too!

Great job!!
Author:  BobK [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Sweet little guitar and a nice story as well.

[:Y:]
Author:  rjeffery [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Sweet guitar, Beautiful child.
the only thing better would be some sound clips... Pretty please?
Author:  Ken Jones [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Dave --

That is such a wonderful guitar chock full of personal meaning and family connections. I'm fascinated by the doug fir top, as well as the...buffalo bone nut and saddle, was it? Too cool. Also, I can't wait to build a guitar for our son, though right now he really wants an electric so he can shred, so there may be a 3/4 scale flying V in my future. ;)

I'd love to hear more about the finish. Again, great work!

Ken
Author:  Terence Kennedy [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Great story. That instrument is destined to become a bona fide heirloom.
Terry
Author:  Sam Price [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Parlors are such classic looking instruments. This one is beautiful.
Author:  Sam Price [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:58 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Parlors are such classic looking instruments. This one is beautiful.
Author:  Dave White [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Dave,

Lovely guitar and one very happy looking new owner. You realise that this is the start of a slippery slope don't you? I suspect the customer will want additional models as her playing develops over the coming years - and quite right too :D Lovely history and personal connection to the top wood too and I like the dragonfly theme. Very nicely done.

I have a set of douglas-fir that I'm still working out what sort of instrument to make from. I've only heard one instrument live with a douglas-fir top - a dread - and I was impressed with the projection and punch. Any chance of some sound clips? Some first ones from the new owner would be very precious too!
Author:  Kirt Myers [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Love the doug fir, and the guitar looks great. Not to mention the happy customer.

I'd really like to make one of these, if I could ever finish the projects I'm working on now.
Author:  joel Thompson [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:31 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Very pretty guitar, well done.

i love the fact its not to blingy just as a palour should be imho.
[clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap]


Joel.
Author:  Ken Franklin [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Everything about this post is sweet!
Author:  Dave Anderson [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Very cool parlor Dave! Definitely a family heirloom in years to come.
Thats great you used the materials at hand and your daughter
looks thrilled. Thanks for posting. Great guitar and story!! [:Y:]
Author:  gilmoreguitars [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Dave
That is a great looking guitar. Couple questions...how deep is the body, and what did you use for a plan? And how did you brace the top. I am curious, because the project on my bench right now is a parlour guitar as well. I traced a pre-1920 parlour that I repaired. So far so good.
Very nice work!
david
Author:  Doug-Guitar-Buckler [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Awesome guitar & great story behind it! I love the turquoise and have been thinking about trying some of that stuff myself.
Author:  Dave Livermore [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Thanks everyone for the very kind words.

I'll try to do a recording by this weekend. The tone just builds and builds and builds as it opens up more and more each day.
A true sound bite should be one that I wait to take for about six months.
That said, the tone matches my daughter perfectly. Dainty, and beautiful, yet LOUD!!!

Ken, the USL finish was forgiving in that, 1. It was the first time I'd used a gravity fed HVLP gun. No practice, no scraps, just point and spray (though I did get the stream dialed in using plain old tap water.) 2. I coated on the hour every hour for five hours over the course of four days. If a coat was a bit thick it would get milky white. If I held the gun a little too close I might have ended up with a bit of Orange peel. (I sprayed into the night, and in MN that's when bugs come out) If a bug got stuck in the spray, I dug it out with my fingernail. But at the end of the next hour, it was cured out, fairly level and ready for the next coat. 3. Each day I would level with 400 grit (dry sanded) and start spraying again. There were really no issues. I did fill a couple pores with CA, and they leveled out with the rest of the finish and are undetectable now.
In the early coats I sanded through to bare wood on the neck in a few spots. Those were fixed by re-sealing with shellac and picking up with the regular spray schedule.
We went on a one week vacation and I let it cure the entire time. When I returned I leveled it again and buffed it to a high gloss with a 12" wheel and two grits of Menzerma.
After the bridge was glued on, I taped around it and finished that with a light French Polish. A little of the Shellac got through the tape and onto the top. That was simply sanded off with 400, 600, 1200, 2000 and buffed back to a shine. You'd never know it happened.
Like I said, it was extremely forgiving. Even a dolt like myself finally produced a decent finish with this stuff.
Now we sit back and see what time does to it.

David, the instrument was built pretty faithfully to the Scott Antes Parlor plan... right down to the reversed tone bars (which I know is a mistake others have made with this plan.) The plan is drawn so that you see both the top of the top and bottom of the top in one view, which made it very confusing for me. I left it with the mistake and hoped for the best and so far I'm not disappointed one bit.
The bracing material is Douglas Fir as well and I kept it to 1/4"X1/2" throughout and used Hesh's parabolic bracing method. Everything feathered into the top except the UTB and upper X legs.
It is 4" deep at the lower bout and about 3 5/8" at the heel.

Thanks again everyone for the very kind words. I'll record something as soon as I can.

Dave
Author:  Darrin D Oilar [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
Great looking little guitar. The picture of your daughter's smile being reflected in the back of the guitar is fantastic. To me that picture tells how happy she is. She's not smiling for the camera...she's smiling looking at her guitar. Perfect.

Darrin
Author:  yakmatter [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Finished Parlor - Douglas Fir/Mahogany
fine looking guitar ...and a great story. likewise, i'd love to hear it.
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