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Well as some know i am way behind on a classical commission for a client. but I thought I would stop and give a peak at on of two micro size humming birds going in teh rosette on this classical. These are the smallest mulit piece gritters I have ever done.

Well as some know I am way behind on a classical commission for a client. but I thought I would stop and give a peak at on of two micro size humming birds going in the rosette on this classical. These are the smallest multi piece critters I have ever done.

I got to get use to proof reading and no edit

Wow, Michael, that is amazing work!! Outstanding, can't wait to see the finished rosette.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I really like that little hummer Michael! Great job

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

I use an unusual scribing technique. being an Old shutter bug and having a bunch of 35mm black/ white film around and access to a dark room I glued together the 11 pieces together with CA after assembling them on a piece of double sided tape. Once the CA was good and cured I removed the assembled piece from the tape. took it to the dark room and laid it on a piece of undeveloped film. and then exposed it to a light source perpendicular to the film to avoid shadowing. this took a couple attempts.

Once I got a good shot and developed the negative I was left with the a clear patch where the inlay sat. Then again use clear double sided tape taped the negative in place. and using a #5 exacto carefully scribed the pattern.

While I could have glued the inlay piece to the wood and scribed around it with less over all process required. I was worried about the fragility of the feathered areas while scribing as they are cut lines not scribed lines. and thought if this template method would produce a better template than drawing or photocopying could. and it worked like a charm.

This process would not be for everyone but is just an example of outside the box thinking can help solve problems.

The back of the bodies are Paua, the throat is recon corral, the breast is bronze MOP, The beak and eye are gold MOP and of course the wing and tail feathers are white MOP.

Man those are beautiful.  Great likeness of the real thing.  The one on the Headplate looks outstanding there.  That's gonna be some guitar.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I always like birds. They make for easier inlay design due to their strong color patterns.

Keep it up!

Craig L

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www.handcraftinlay.com

Michael, that’s beautiful workmanship!

I can’t wait to see the rosette!

I’m wondering though, how you are going to incorporate the hummingbird into the rosette?

Robert

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Everything has beauty, But, not everyone see's it!

How elegant, beautiful work Michael

Cheers

Kim

That's very nice. 

Excellent work Michael. Way 2 Go.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

WOW

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Most excellent Michael!

Its nice to have you back at the OLF!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Looks like perfection to me!

Congrats on a job well done! Cant wait to see the finished rosette

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Reguards,

Ken H

i guess great minds think alike. just the other day i was admiring a silver hb that sweetie has just taken shipment of to adorn some of the lampwork bead jewelry she makes. i was going to use it for an inlay pattern and was puzzling over the shell to use. thanks for such an outstanding lesson on how to accomplish what i was intending.

by the way, it is good to see you defying convention and inlaying a classical hs.

very nice indeed!!

[QUOTE=crazymanmichael]
by the way, it is good to see you defying convention and inlaying a classical hs.[/QUOTE]

Interesting you say that. I personally do not care for the conventional mosaic type classical rosettes. But That had nothing to do with this guitar. The client is a professor of music and head of classical guitar studies at a regional university here in West Texas. She has lots of classical performing in her resume. and has several guitars by renowned classical builders. All of them have the typical mosaic rosettes. When she commissioned this guitar she told me that she did not want a mosaic rosette. She wanted wood ring rosette with humming birds inlaid. She said that she had spoke with Penmantel about such an rosette with the humming bird inlays in the rosette and he hesitated about agreeing to it.

I don't know? Maybe it is because I come from a steel string background but I cant see declining a commission on the basis of the type of rosette unless I did not have the skill to pull it of. I know Penmentel does as Ive seen many of his steel string guitars with elaborate inlaid rosettes. Oh well. My gain.

Beautiful inlay Michael. Its certainly nice to see not only a builder, but a client too thinking out of the box.

Is the rest of the guitar constructed in the traditional manner for classicals?

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

[QUOTE=JBreault] Beautiful inlay Michael. Its certainly nice to see not only a builder, but a client too thinking out of the box.

Is the rest of the guitar constructed in the traditional manner for classicals?[/QUOTE]

Yes, it is being built on Hausser 1945 plans for the bracing and base shape, Hand carved Spanish Heel neck. Made from some beautiful light Spanish Cedar. The tonewoods are BC Sitka (despite my recommendation to not use bear claw) Malaysian Ebony back and sides. Binding is snakewood with mitered BWB purfling all edges. The end graft wedge is Snakewood/ Mayl. Ebony/Snakewood.

Mike,

Very nice! Nicely fitted pieces and good lines for the feathers; It only takes one wrong cut to mess up those dang feathers!!!
Well done.

Paul

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Paul Bordeaux
http://www.bordeauxinlay.com

[QUOTE=crazymanmichael] i guess great minds think alike. just the other day i was admiring a silver hb that sweetie has just taken shipment of to adorn some of the lampwork bead jewelry she makes. i was going to use it for an inlay pattern and was puzzling over the shell to use. thanks for such an outstanding lesson on how to accomplish what i was intending.

by the way, it is good to see you defying convention and inlaying a classical hs.

very nice indeed!![/QUOTE]

Michael I hope the colors look right. viewing the post on my computer here at work the colors are muted and kind of brownish but on my computer at home the pictures a clear and bright. like I aid the breast is made from bronze MOP hand has the typical faint rainbow effect common in bronze MOP but it does not show up on this computer at all but dose at home. The throat is really a bright red corral it look dark dull on this computer. This computer has an ultra high end 128 bit graphics card for High res 3d rendering work. I fear it may be going bad. but if the pictures, in particular the peghead is hazy dull to you guys. Let me know would you?

OK now my keyboard is acting up

Michael I hope the colors look right. Viewing the post on my computer here at work the colors are muted and kind of brownish, but on my computer at home the pictures are clear and bright. like I said the breast is made from bronze MOP hand has the typical faint rainbow effect common in bronze MOP but it does not show up on this computer at all but dose at home. The throat is really a bright red corral it look dark dull on this computer. This computer has an ultra high end 128 bit graphics card for High res 3d rendering work. I fear it may be going bad. But if the pictures, in particular the peghead, are hazy dull to you guys. Let me know would you?

Michael,

The headstock inlay indeed has a bright red throat on this display, but on the rosette it's brownish. Could be the way your camera was reading the light. It's difficult to get the 3-D effect of pearl to show up in a photo, especially one that has to have lower resolution for the web.

In any case, nice work!

tje bronze is not showing up real well but the other colours are great. it's a success, believe me.