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My oldest granddaughter graduates this May from high School and on track to graduate with a 4.0 GPA. She has been excepted into the University of New Mexico. Where she will be a music major and be in their guitar studies program under tutelage of Michael Champdelaine. In recognition of her accomplishments I am building her an SJ with Quilted Maple back and sides,Caucasian Spruce top. She wants abalone purffling top, neck and peghead. I told that it would be overly busy but she said she wants it to be very flashy. So I am trying to decide what binding to use. y'all did so good in helping me with the Rosette on the Japanese Maple themed OM I thought I lean on you again for ideas. Got any?

P.S. BobC I will be ordering a laminated Maple neck with this one.MichaelP38392.5850347222

For flashy... my vote would be snakewood or flame koa. but with all that abalone I'd personally prefer dark BRW or ebony.

Ebony binding with abalone purfling against an ebony fingerboard would be a very classy look...

Regards,
Joshua Frenchjfrench38392.5942824074

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I vote for Ebony too -- if she HAS to have fancy, over the top, snake wood or flamed Koa..LanceK38392.6058101852

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Hi Michael!!
Well, how exciting. Congratulations to your grandaughter.
In my humble opinion, I would keep the binding simple and not exagerated. Since you will have all that shell and figuring with the quilted maple, I would find a straight grained wood that compliments but will not detract from the other figured parts. If the maple is to be natural color(blonde) then dye the binding a little darker, or vice versa.
Just an idea to think about!
Good luck.
WalterK

I've used cocobolo with quilted maple before, and it looks great. I've also seen white plastic bindings accompanied with some purfling lines that looked stunning. First decide if you want a contrasting (darker) color or a light color. Congratulations to both of you!

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That is where I have been stuck at. With all the abalone that she wants I think I need to go dark to give some contrast but I don't think I want to go real dark. I kinda like the snake-wood idea. If it was for me with all this abalone I would think about Tobacco staining the maple but she wants it natural. I am still trying to talk her out of the abalone purfling but not real hard. It is hers, she has earned it.

Michael:

What color of abalone are you going to use: Blue, red, green...? Bob's bloodwood binding would really be a hoot if you used red abalone.

I like the ebony theme too. Orrrr you could use coco as previously suggested with a bookmatched coco headplate. So many choices....

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I have not choose yet because I figured it would depend on the binding. I'm going to do some 3d rendered testing on everyones suggestion. I think I may like the blood wood idea with red abalone. I like dealing with darker back and side woods. Lighter back and side wood binding combos don't jump at me as easy.

MIchael IMHO ebony binding with maple is the cats meow!

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How about some flamed black walnut???
I think you need some "dark" contrast against the maple and to "calm the flash"..IMHO.

Congratulations and good for your grand-daughter. Michael Chapdelaine is a very well respected classical (and finger-style) guitarist. I suspect your grand-daughter may never touch a steel-string guitar if she is going to be in their classical guitar performance track. That's the program I was in in college and I wouldn't touch anything that would mess up my tone on classical, especially steel strings. The program will change her and her playing for life. BTW, did you know Michael C. was in a very bad bike/car accident and won't be playing the guitar for awhile? It sounds like he will recover but thank God he had a helmet on.

Let's see, as for the guitar, I vote EIRW with a cedar top, RW bindings, 650mm scale, and Gilbert tuners. I know, that doesn't help much.

Cheers!

John

Oh no! I'm agreeing with Tim again! One day I'll disagree with him and have to put a big red circle on the calendar.

I'd use bloodwood with red abalone, I think the red would set off the maple superbly, and don't forget the bloodwood pufling round the abalone of the soundhole.

Colin

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No.. When did this happen.

We were up there visiting the campus about 9 months ago When she was deciding where she wanted to go next year. I have seen Michael play on several occasions around the Albuquerque. I have actually seen him playing Steel sting at an informal jig down in Old Town.

I know Cortney will not be using the steel string in her studies. She already has a Classical built based on the Meguel Rodriguez Design.

Cortney, like myself is a Koi nut. We have been raising them togather for about nine years now. I fact each of my six grand kids have their own Koi in my ponds. Anyway last night I had an idea to stain the Quilted Maple blue and inlay an image of her favorite Koi on the back.
It is a Kohaku, White body with a three step red pattern. If I stain the Maple blue I could inlay the body of the Koi in figured MOP and the red step pattern in red abalone with bubbles done in blue paua. I sketched up a rough layout of the inlay last night.I think I could use curly Eucalyptus or Koa for the binding. I am going to run this by her this weekend to see if she likes this idea.

I think John hit it on the head. Most university guitar programs are geared toward Classical guitar performance.

I agree with the EIR w. cedar. Fingerboard 650mm scale, ebony. The abalone purfling would still be fine for a classical if it is not too wide.

If you have already decided on a steel string, then I would opt for an OM size as it will be closer to a classical in size that she would be playing on campus and still would be good for fingerstyle which would be complimentary to training she will be recieving.

Her time in Music school will be magical and very formative. Immersion in an environment like that is very intoxicating. Just walking through the halls past practice rooms where you hear great performers of all types working on their art will give her memories she will keep for life. I went to Juilliard (for Music Composition, not guitar) and it is my fondest memories.

[QUOTE=Shawn] I think John hit it on the head. Most university guitar programs are geared toward Classical guitar performance.

I agree with the EIR w. cedar. Fingerboard 650mm scale, ebony. The abalone purfling would still be fine for a classical if it is not too wide.

If you have already decided on a steel string, then I would opt for an OM size as it will be closer to a classical in size that she would be playing on campus and still would be good for fingerstyle which would be complimentary to training she will be recieving.

Her time in Music school will be magical and very formative. Immersion in an environment like that is very intoxicating. Just walking through the halls past practice rooms where you hear great performers of all types working on their art will give her memories she will keep for life. I went to Juilliard (for Music Composition, not guitar) and it is my fondest memories.[/QUOTE]

She already has her Miguel Rodriguez design classical for her studies. This is just a gift from me in recondition of all she has done. I do not have enough experience with classicals to build her an instrument fine enough for her studies. She has been studying Classical for about six years. Her instructor found her classical two years ago when It became apparent that she was truly dedicated to her studies.

Here is another vote for the snakewood binding. I think it is the nicest stuff going, and looks great with almost anything.

Josh

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Michael--I think your sketch is superb. If you end up staining the guitar blue (what a hoot) then either ebony bindings or flamed maple. If you do like the dark idea, then for the ebony I'd look for Macassar, so that the finished look will not be like black plastic. The trouble w/ jet black ebony under finish is that it might as well be plastic--as far as looks go.

Can't wait to see your renderings!

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[QUOTE=Steve Kinnaird] Michael--I think your sketch is superb. If you end up staining the guitar blue (what a hoot) then either ebony bindings or flamed maple. If you do like the dark idea, then for the ebony I'd look for Macassar, so that the finished look will not be like black plastic. The trouble w/ jet black ebony under finish is that it might as well be plastic--as far as looks go.

Can't wait to see your renderings! [/QUOTE]

here is the colorized idea. I changed the step pattern to orange celuloid. It looks more like the real color and the bubbles to red abalone I will etch the fins and gill plate to give definition. the eye to be blue paua. She may not go for the idea. It was just one of those things that came to me just before I went to sleep.

Michael--that's just great. I wonder what Craig Lavin would say? That's the sort of thing that's right up his alley.

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[QUOTE=Steve Kinnaird] Michael--that's just great. I wonder what Craig Lavin would say? That's the sort of thing that's right up his alley. [/QUOTE]

I have not heard Craig in a long while. Though not quite as gifted as Craig, Inlay is one of my favorite things to do.. Anyway I talked to Cortney last night and she wants the Maple natural so I will file this away for another time. I think I have decided on snakewood. I am going to model it first. Then decide. Thanks everyone lots of great ideas.

Hi Mike.
That's a great looking pattern.
I would love to see you make it come to fruition.
I have not been posting much as I have been busy with smaller inlays, and my next ASIA piece, one in which John K has been helping with the guitar building side.
Pics of it soon. I tried to take some tonight, but I need to break out my tripod. The fretboard is almost totally complete.
Craig

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Well He is alive. Hi Craig. Looking forward to seeing the pic's.

I built one of these maple guitars with crazy ab purflings... at first I thought I liked it, but I have grown to kind of despise the look of that guitar. (It is a red/burgandy burst though).

I would try to make the ab component of the purf as small as possible. I think Allen Supply has stuff as thin as .04". I used that on a cedar / EIR and it looked real nice.

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