Official Luthiers Forum!

    Here are a few photos of the materials that were so generously and graciously donated as part of the porject to build that guitar that will be auctioned to benefit the Tumaini Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.


   Thanks to all who have been a part and to all who offered to be.

   I'll post a final updated list of all parties responsible for the great materials and some progress pics of the wotk I've done so far on the guitar.

Thanks again,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars










Kevin Gallagher38790.0944675926

Thanks for the pics. My dialup sucked on this thread for several minutes to get it downloaded. Kevin, we want a MP3 now, just so happens there is a place for that at the top of the page. Italian Spruce, that's a new one for me, very pretty materials all around. Hats off to your effort, these kids are going to love it when they hear you play and sing to them.

I just heard of a story from Africa called Ryan's Well. Ryan was a first grader in Canada. He heard for $75 he could get clean water for children in Africa. He worked and saved the money only to find out that was in error. The real cost to drill a well in Africa was $2,000.

He simply went back to work doing more chores and sharing his idea for clean water for the African children. He did it, and I saw him on television, now a handsome strapping young man. He's raised over one million dollars for clean water for African children to date. What a vision the young man had to help others.

Thanks for what you are doing.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Thanks for the awesome pics Kevin, this guitar will be amazing i'm sure! keep up the beautiful work and God bless you my friend!

Regards

Serge

    Here are a few smaller images of some of the work that is done on the guitar going to Africa


Thanks for taking a look. 'll post them as I have a few more at a time. I've been squeezing in a hour here and there between my regular work in order to keep on track for completion in time for the trip.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars











Kevin Gallagher38790.0931944444

It's going to be beautiful. I love your work, Kevin.

Cool! IMAX lutherie!

Side Braces Forget It, SIDE PILLARS TWELVE!

Kevin, now this is one cool florentine guitar. And I can see from the side braces, errr PILLARS, that you don't intend to have the sides on this guitar crack.

I've often thought this would work, but wondered if the side brace ends would show through especially the top finish? Probably not, but did want to ask. You know how sometimes you can see about every brace on a guitar top. Do these little ends show? TIA

Another thing, I see two side braces right on the waist curve. How did you come up with this number and spacing? TIA

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Bruce,

   I typically use the herringbone pattern brown ribbon as side reinforcement on my guitars and with exceptionally rigid sides, don't install any. It always depends on the back and side material.

   This particular set of beautifully quilted Sapele was very flexible across and along the sides and even in the tighter bend areas after they were together. With the deep quilting and the inherent difficulty in bending members of the Mahogany family, I went slightly thinner on my sides than normal at about .075" The wood is already very light and what I will usually do before bending any wood that is not a regular visitor to my bench or bender is to take the excess of the stock sides that is trimmed off to provide the proper taper for the body shape and bend them at two different thicknesses to get an idea of how the set is going to behave during the actual bend process.

   This set was very stubborn inspite of its lightness and seeming flexibility away from the heat and water used to bend it and fibers wanted to pop out with every bit of contact with and pressure against the bending iron. I picked out a piece of very lightweight, but very rigid, fine grained German Spruce for those side braces to allow for a bit more size with little to no difference in weight than smaller ones fabricated from a different piece of wood. They've actually been shaved slightly since that photo was taken as well. They now have a slightly scalloped appearance instead of being straight across the top edge. I did this to be able to flex the sides as I shaved them in order to maintain the desired rigidity while reducing weight and mass considerably. I always keep my bracing stock separated according to whether it has a low or high resonant frequency and then select for use to match and compliment the top or back it will be married to in the guitar. These pieces were no exception.

   As far as their being able to show through the top, there's little chance of that since they are only very slightly wider at either end than the cedar kerfing the Italian Spruce top will be allowed to stay at about .135" as I go very thin and light on the Adirondack braces for it and voice them. The top has a very powerful tap tone and great sustain at that thickness and I never lock into a default thickness on tops, but flex them and tap them with each pass through the thickness sander and stop when I hear what I consider to be the top's optimal thickness for the particular guitar it's being used on. These steps in the construction of any guitar are so subjective that it's futile take them beyond intuition that comes through exposure to sheer numbers of tops and the results that their respective treatment present in the final guitar and its tone.

    With the normal recurve or relief of the top that thins it slightly at the outer one and a half inches or so around the lower bout, it will still end up at well over .100" so no flexing or distortion will occur due to the side braces. I've seen the exact phenomenom that you're talking about on guitars where the top is exceptionally thin at the outer edges and stiffer side braces can ause themselves to show up in the right light or reflection.

    My Mahogany guitars tend to be very dry and woody and are quick in presenting the full harmonic content of both nores and chords and I beleive the treatment that I give to the sdes as individual sets contributes to any consistencey that I've enjoyed there. I'm a stong advocate for the use of Mahogany in any size body and have never viewed it as inferior to the Rosewoods in any way. I love a fast dry little 000-18 as much as or maybe more than the darker 000-28 with its Rosewood back and sides.

   Also, this guitar is going to Africa for a few weeks and will passed around for a time following the trip to promote its auction by the radio station. With the back stretched across the rim set now, it has a loud and very resonant tap tone that should compliment the Italian Spruce top well. I'll still go through a series of shaving steps on the back braces in a few days as the glue cures and fully hardens and it will take its final tone on then.

It'll all work together for a nice sounding guitar in the end. Sorry for being so long, but I just came in from the shop an am not ready for sleep yet.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega GuitarsKevin Gallagher38790.0381597222

    I'm just trying to resize the images to get them out of the IMAX format and into a web friendly size.

   Here are the rest of what i have so far.

Thanks again,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars






Kevin Gallagher38790.8060416667

Thanks Kevin for sharing the build with us. I used to get a thrill taking a pile of VW engine parts and building an engine. That same thrill happens when I string one up these days. It's nice to see someone like you, doing common things, uncommonly well. You're the best!

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Kevin,

Thanks for the re-size!    Thanks, too, for showing us the process. It's always fun to see how someone else makes a guitar grow. Nice work!

   Here are a few more images of the work I was able to squeeze in between my orders on the African Mission Guitar today. The body is closed now and will be ready for binding tomorrow, but will have to sit until I have a few others ready to run binding on with it.

I'll be picking away at the neck along with a few necks for commissioned guitars that I'll be working on for the next few days so I'll post some images of it as it comes along too.

The top purfling on the body will match the rosette with a line of Bloodwood and a line of tightly flamed African Mahogany to either side of a Maple/Ebony/Maple centerpiece. The colors will offer a nice subtle warm package with the Bubinga Bindings and center strip in the back.

Thanks,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars







Kevin Gallagher38790.8432986111

Excellent work, Kevin. I love that rosette, as well as the rest of it. My God continue to bless your efforts, as well as the lives of the children that you are working so hard for.

What's up with the abalone, is it faceted? That is cool. I like the lines. Thanks Kevin for posting the updates.    Bruce Dickey38790.8520833333

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Absolutely amazing!! And to top it off you took the time to document it all with photos??

Man, what a blessing!!

This one is surely a masterpiece!!

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Kevin that is coming together very nicely. It's going to be very beautiful when finished. Happy to be able to contribute. thanks for the pic's

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