Official Luthiers Forum!

Greetings all,
Here are some pictures of my recently finished steel string guitar. It's my very first attempt at guitar building & like all of you, I've caught the luthier bug pretty badly. I owe a great debt of thanks to many of the people on this board (and also on MIMF). I've been lurking on these sites & planning / building this guitar for over eight months. I was always able to find out just about everything I needed to know by searching the archives here and the library on MIMF. The Cumpiano book was also very helpful. So here's the result of your unknowing collaboration & five months of my slow & plodding wood butchery.

Some specs:
Engelmann top (dyed slightly darker); Grenadillo sides & back; curly Koa binding; Pau Ferro bridge, fingerboard, & headplate; Cocoabolo rear headplate veneer; Mahogany neck, curly Maple peghead leaf inlay, carved Maple pressure-fitted & removeable rose; inlayed nickel silver band around sound hole; carved (and reinforced) sound ports; MOP side markers; MOP 12th fret inlay and lute-ish heart inlay on the lower bout. Finish is Z-poxy filler with thinned Tru-Oil wiped on over a few weeks. I still need to do a final rub-out & polishing but will wait another two weeks or so for it to fully harden.



The back bracing is standard ladder-style, the top bracing is a symetrical 93 degrees X-pattern. I basically copied (stole) Bruce Petros' symetrical top bracing scheme including the 45 degree oriented spruce bridge plate. (Thanks Bruce, I hope you'll feel complimented rather than pissed!)

This guitar was designed for light or extra-light strings so it is pretty thin on top - around the lower bout perimeter especially & the braces are thin but tall and well-scalloped. I have designed & built many stereo speaker systems over the last 25 years & as far as the acoustics & physics are concerned, the "guitar top as speaker cone" analogy makes the most sense to me. The x-brace upper ends are tucked into the reverse kerfed lining - as are all of the back braces. Side reinforcement was with cloth bias tape & LMI glue. LMI glue was used here for almost everything - great stuff! Most of the woods came from LMI & the hardware from Stew-Mac. Grover 18:1 tuners.



The guitar shape is the S. Hernandez classical design modified for a slightly wider and rounder lower bout. Lower bout width is 15.25" and the max. depth is 4.75". Peghead shape is in homage to Torres. The neck joint is a simple butt joint with a pair of bolts & epoxied inserts. This joint is remarkably solid and I can't imagine it needing more strength.

This thing sounds better than I had reason to hope! Nice sweet highs, a "growling" mildly prominant midrange, and a pleasant round low end - not at all boomy but still deep and balanced. Volume level is very good. I love the sound port on the upper bout. When I first played this guitar with my friend, who was playing his Martin D-18, I had to ask him if I was too loud by comparison as I had never heard myself so clearly while playing guitar with him before. Over the last three weeks the guitar has been strung up, it has opened up even more & sounds even better on the bass to low mids. I'm very pleased with the sound.



I spent a great deal of time and energy on planning & finding designs for the inlays & other decorative aspects of this box. Now, as I look at it, the overall visual scheme seems a bit disjointed. It incorporates a Baroque-style lute rose and heart inlay then pairs that with two 20th century inlay designs (peghead & 12th fret). Does that look odd? Sometimes I think so. Since the rose is removeable, I could construct a simple press-in replacement of curly Koa as an alternative. Unfortunately, the inlayed MOP heart on the lower bout is there to stay (it covers an ugly tearout).

Also, I was surprised that visually the tone of the Grenadillo sides & curly Koa binding was so close. The picture actually looks better than reality in this respect. I would have wished for more contrast here. Maybe a black purfling between the sides & binding would have done the trick. Anyway this is a learning process & it can't be perfect from the start. Please chime in with your views on these aesthetic considerations. I have seen photos of some of the most beautiful guitars imagineable on this forum and your opinions & insights would be highly valued.

Sorry to be so long-winded but I wanted to share as much info. as I could ... feeling somewhat the proud papa!   Again, thanks to all of you for your generosity in publicly sharing your skills, ideas, and talents on this wonderful forum. Those of us newbies who are rather inexperienced but truly enthusiastic about your craft can only benefit.

Skip Beach

Hey Skip
Great job! I really like the creative designs, from the peghead to the side cutouts. Creative but traditional at the same time. I would like to hear more about how you managed to carve the rose and how you think that oil finish turned out. What were some of your inspirations for the creative departures from the troden path.

John

Skip,

Welcome to the OLF! Wow!!!

You should be proud. What a 1st guitar. You incorporated all kinds of cool things. Way to go for it! I really like it and think you did a great job.

What is next?

Jeff

Great job Skip, wish my first effort was as nice. Your finish looks great. That's hard to get right on the first effort. All around, great guitar. Paul

Some really interesting design features. Good cover on the tear-out.. A wise old woodworker once told me that great woodworkers don't stop making mistakes they just get better at hiding them I think a Koa rose might tie the package together a little better aesthetically but I wouldn't bother. It's exactly what you wanted so thats whats important

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You sir are now a luthier. You're woodworking prowess is incredible, no doubt you've made other wooden articles in the past. I saved all your pictures on my hard drive, may be an idea or two that will need referencing. If you were an athlete from my state I'd say "Woooooo Pigs Sooooie, Razorbacks!" Great job!

Very nice first guitar!!! It seems obvious to me that you have done some woodworking before. Otherwise you will put most of us to shame in a short time. I like it when people buck trends and build guitars with a difference. Unfortunately when you are trying to sell guitars you usually can't get away with that. Not always because there are those that refuse to conform and create new norms. Keep up the good work and don't be afraid to speak up around here. Now that your here you'll be expected to say hey as often as you can. Make yourself at home and email Lance a pic and a story about yourself. Otherwise you'll have Bruce pestering ya till ya do. Have fun, John

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Skip your first effort is really a great job. I hope my 10th or beyond is as nice. You really do great inlay and the finish is very nice. I did a koa in tru oil and liked it so may try it again. Yea, now you have the bug, and I bet we see some really gifted work from you. I like the celtic rose and hope to see and hear more of those and the design on the rim soundport. Again great job

Hi,

Gentlemen, thank you for the kind comments. I was lucky to have the time and afford the patience that comes from not having a deadline or an impatient client. I don't know how you guys who are making your living at building guitars can do it. I read that John Greven makes about 50 guitars a year. At my snail's pace, 3 a year seems about all that would be possible.

John Kinnard: The rose was simple but time consuming. I took an internet jpeg from Elena Dal Cortiva's website of a "real" traditional rose, printed it to size, glued that to a curly Maple headplate, & cut it out using a jewelers saw - not the traditional approach. Hours of needle file hand cramps & sandpaper strips later, this rose emerged. I glued a single black purfling line around the circumference to be able to more easily sand it for a better pressure fit. As for the Tru-Oil finish, I will use it again - especially for neck, back, and sides - but not for the top. Even thinning 50% with mineral spirits, It still developed streaks and any dust particles just wreak havoc. Much of this is not visable in the photographs. I finally gave up & set it aside to harden. My next instrument will probably get a shellac finish. As for design inspirations, I just looked around at Andy DePaul's site, clipart books, Acoustic Guitar magazine, all of the OLF member's web sites (of course). I really like lute music (beautiful sound) & am intrigued by these instruments so including those elements were a must. The classical guitar shape is the most beautiful and balanced-looking there is I think. All of the ideas & images that appealed most to me were just copied & compiled on the computer over about three months.

Jeff Doty: Well, If I remember correctly, much like yourself I've begun # 2 before # 1 was finished. It's a mutant classical of sorts. The body shape and structural elements (bracing, bridge, etc.) come from an circa 1816 Martinez Spanish classical. It's quite small & delicate. I plan to depart from the published plans (Red Book of Luthiere # 3) by making the finger board flush with the flat top & incorporating peghead shape & pearl inlay designs copied from the Rawlins Stradivari guitar of over a century earlier. Take a look at the Rawlins Strad on the web, it's an understated but elegant beauty. I've never had a classical guitar before so I'm quite excited about this one.

Jason: What I mean't about the alternate Koa rose was to make it just a round insert, a hoop with the center open to about 3.5" diameter ... taking away the carved rose & making the whole thing more traditional looking - as an option. It's hard to fully trust your instincts sometimes as I thought this fancy rose might be perceived as affected or "too precious". And yes, I absolutely agree that a curly Koa rose - either like this carved one or the more simplified wooden hoop - would probably tie it all in better. You've got a good eye.

Mr. Dickey: Lucky for me the photos mask a multitude of sins. I've butchered some wood in the past, mostly simple furniture projects, but enough to know which end of a drill to hold. I bought my first hand plane & my first set of chisels for this project. I found that the trick to not making too many non-repairable mistakes is to ridiculously slow down every process and think twice before lifting any tool to hand. Bruce, that Razorback reference is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me!

It's really cool to be welcomed to this forum by people whose creative work & technical skill I've been in awe of for these many months. Thank you for that.

Skip

Skip, your research and diligence has paid off for sure.
Very clssy looking guitar with lots of detail! Great stuff. Welcome to OLF and enjoy. Look forward to seeing
#2 and hearing more of your research put into practice. Keep going it only gets better.

Skip wow what a beauty. I was thinking the same thing as Bruce This guy must have some woodworking under his belt. Very nice execution. I really like the bridge , inlays and sound ports. Nice overall design with alot of thought. From the pic's it looks like the end graft may be a tad too wide. As for the problems with the true oil finish I think it may be due to the Z-Poxy filler. An oil finish needs to be applied to bare wood so that it can penetrate and dry. Oil on top of any sealer is going to lay on the surface. At least that has been my experience with oil finishes. In any event great first effort and welcome aboard.

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Welcome to the group! I am not feeling like such a "newbie" here anymore, with all the new members!