Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello all,
Recently with some good timing and luck I had the opportunity to do something I've been wanting to do for a few years. I took a 5 week intensive guitar making course with Sergei De Jonge. What an experience that was! I learned lots (understatement!), met some really great people and had a lot of fun. If anyone had their eye on this course, It's truly a great experience, go for it!
I was especially happy to learn how to apply a French polish finish. It takes some getting used to but with some guidance I started to get the hang of it. I have a feeling I'm going to come to prefer this method of finish. I'm pretty happy with the results for a first try. I hope to get better at it as I build more.

I built two guitars over the course of 5 weeks (doubling my 2 year total haha.. ) and today I did some final buffing and adjustments then took some pics.

Guitar 3 is an OMD with Cutaway (De Jonge shaped OM size guitar).
- Back and sides are Ziricote with sapwood highlights.
- Top is Sitka Spruce
- Neck is Maple Laminated with Ziricote center
- Bridge, Fretboard and Headstock veneer is Ziricote as well.
- Binding is Maple.
- Soundport on upper bout
- Bolt on dovetail neckjoint
- French polish finish

I'm really happy with the sound of guitar. It had a nice deep powerful tone with nice overtones and resonance. It surprised me actually for a small body guitar to have such a strong loud sound.

Guitar 4 is a 00D (De Jonge shaped 00 size guitar).
- Back, sides and Top are Koa (with a little figure)
- Neck is Mahogany
- Bridge and Fretboard are Ebony
- Binding and headstock veneer are Koa
- Glued dovetail neck joint
- French polish finish

This little guitar is fun to play! The sound seems more concentrated on each note (if that makes any sense?!?) It really separates each note distinctly with not as much overtones as the the other guitar. It's great for fingerstyle playing. You get a nice clean clear sound.

Some pictures:



















and just because I love this picture


There are some more pics in the photo album if anyone cares to see more:
http://s148.photobucket.com/albums/s35/ ... 20and%204/

Cheers!
Chad

Very nice! Good job on the detail work. You sure must have been busy!

Thanks Chris,
Yeah it was quite an experience. I've never had the chance to build a guitar on a "full-time" schedule before. It's pretty cool to work a project through with that kind of intensity.

Cheers,
Chad

Wow, both of those are beautiful. Excellent work. I love the purfling on the koa.

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Two fabulous guitars! That must have been a great adventure, and experience.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

WOW !! thats all.

Beautiful work Chad. Looks like you "nailed" several things on your first tries - like the dovetail joints and the French polishing. Definitely good advertising for S. DeJonge's course!

Pat

_________________
There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

yeah Chad
very good work there.
how does the OM differ from the "standard"
yours Geordie

_________________
some tunes on acoustic and guitar synth.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGeordieAdams
http://www.myspace.com/geordieadams

Thanks guys,
The dovetail on the OM fought me a little, but in the end it worked out nice and tight.
For a first try at french polishing I'm pretty happy with the results for sure! I hope to keep getting better at in the future.. It can be a really nice finish when done well, and I'll most likely use it on the next guitars I make.

Geordie, I'm actually not sure how De Jonge's OM shape differs from Martin. I haven't compared them. The cutaway of course is my own chosen shape, so that's different for sure
Dimensionally they're probably close in size, the curves may be slightly different but that's just a guess.

Cheers,
Chad

Chad,

You took some superb wood, and did it proud! Very nice! Glad you love the sound.

Dennis

_________________
Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Flawless work, beautiful guitars!

De Jonge's OM is slightly smaller in width in the bouts and waist by 1/4-1/2". Congrats on the builds Chad. As a former student, I was a little surprised to see the 3-piece laminated neck and centre strips. I wouldn't mind seeing these guitars in person...

Hey Warren,

The laminated maple neck was my doing... It was something I really wanted to try. I was maybe even a little persistent about it actually. I supplied the maple (which I bought locally) as he rarely uses maple for necks anymore so he didn't have any suitable for necks. The ziricote was a piece he found for me. With the sapwood in the back and sides I thought it would really compliment the overall look of the guitar. I really didn't want to put a mahogany neck on that guitar. Even though he supplied some really great mahogany for necks. Just beautiful stuff.

The center stripe on the Koa was also my choice and material. I was going for a "Tex-Mex" look

You are certainly welcome to come by and check them out. Drop me a PM if you're interested and I'll send you my info.

Cheers,
Chad

Really nice work, Chad!
Your detail work IS impressive.

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Chad, Great looking guitars.
Congratulations !

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Wow Chad.

you set a really high bar! i'm attending school there coming up here and it was really encouraging to see what you were able to make. that ziricote om is almost identicle to the one in my head that i'm on a mission to build while i'm up there. didn't think about the laminate, which is awesome, but i think the maple is a must. good to know i should bring a piece up with me.

i can't say how great these guitars look. god i'm really excited to get on up and into the shop now.

thanks man.

brionmanor,
You'll have a great time, learn lots and you WILL build the guitar you want. That's one of the (many) things that impressed my about his course. He gives the students access to some really great materials and creative control to build the guitar they truely want. This isn't a "paint-by-number" course where everyone ends up with the same guitar at the end. It's good that you have a plan in mind as to what you want to build.

Thanks for the kind words about the guitars by the way... though I'm not sure I've set any bars... (you'll know what I mean when you get there and see some of the work that gets done in that shop!)

You have good reason to be exicted... Even though I've recently taken his course, I'm jealous!

Cheers!
Chad

P.S. He's probably going to smack me the next time he see's me if I started a whole maple neck thing because of this thread.. haha...

is the maple neck more difficult to work than the mahog? i would figure it would be a bit right?

Yes. Quite.. It took considerably more effort to carve the maple neck. Not to mention it's more difficult (to my eye anyway) to see sanding scratches in maple and to remove them.

Cheers,
Chad

Did you find it really difficult to build the second guitar? Or is this something that's fairly common at the school. You seemed to have manage it with out many compromises on quality from what I can tell from here. It is something that I would certainly like to do, if I can wrangle the extra dollars and if it seems like I would be able to.

It's so nice to have a man on the inside as it were.

Difficult... not really just that everything had to be done twice. It was very time consuming.. I put in long hours (12-16hr days) and went in on Saturdays as well so I could get all the work done. I certainly wouldn't have compromised quality just to build the second one... Not much point in having two mediocre guitars over one well made guitar. Most other students on my course started a second guitar, but didn`t finish them. I did have the advantage of having built 2 before attending the course however. What he likes to see that one guitar is considered your main guitar and that you focus on it and keep it up to schedule with the course.

Cheers,
Chad

Cool thanks so much for your info. Being a relatively compulsive person I really appreciate all the info going towards something that for me is still a relative unknown. I think the way you did it sounds really good. Work dead hard for a month on a specific task sounds like heaven to me.

Like I say I can't thank you enough!

cheers,

Brian