Official Luthiers Forum!

I've been poking around here long enough. Time for show and tell. I haven't posted a picture yet, but here goes.



This is a Martin kit I bought 15 years ago. Finally finished it last December.
FP finish and my own maple-walnut bindings.






Ok, let's see if this works.

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Horton, MI

Fantastic work, Kirt. I like how nicely the purfling lines up going round the heel. Nice FP, too!!!

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

15 years??? DRAT! I no longer hold the record for the longest build!    

Looking sweeeeet!!! Great job.



my own maple-walnut bindings

Sounds YUMMY! Did you save the shavings for ice cream?

Very Nice! Congratulations on finishing

Mike

What? is 15 years a long time?

Here's what I'm working on now. This time from scratch. 4 piece walnut backs, lutz tops, mahogany/maple necks. This is my own pattern, and I'm doing 2 at the same time. I hope to do better than 15 years on these.



Well, that's it.

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Horton, MI

Very nice work over all.
I love the dark top on that guitar! Looks like some old sitka. For a second I thought it was an all-mahogany guitar. Very nice.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I thought it was a mahagony top as well. Old sitka??

Either way, it looks great!

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53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

Nice job Kirt. I really like the walnut trim.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Hi Kirt,
Welcome to the OLF!!
You will find a group of swell fo;ks here. I think you know that already.
You will find help for just about any problem.
It's more like a Fraternity!!!
Say...your guitar looks great. You have what it takes that's for sure.
Have fun and keep building.
Don't forget to check with our vendors and sponsors if you need anything, they are very helpful///no rip-offs here.

take care and welcome.

walterK

Yep, that's about 15 year old sitka. It spent about 5 years in a closet as a box. I changed jobs 3 times, moved once, put a kid through college. You know, life in general kinda held me up. At least that's my excuse. I got tired of everybody saying "hey did you ever finish that guitar?" Time to get serious, I've got full blown TAS and WAS now.

Thanks for the kind comments.

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Horton, MI

Nice work, Kirt! And, yeah, the FP looks great!

Your new work is moving along nicely, too.

I'll try not to challenge your record. However, I may set one for intentions or procrastination as far as getting started is concerned. Of course, I've got 15 years, don't I? (see profile) BTW, it's a beaut! Chock one up for Michiganders!!

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DES - Shepherd, MI

WOW, Very beautiful first Kirt!

Serge

Nice drednaught there Kirt! It took you a while,but is very nice indeed. I like that top!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Now, that's what I call a "vintage" guitar! Congrats on finishing! Now, do it again!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Dude you should have posted before now...cause that's a fine looking guitar. Like the others, that' rather impressive. Congrats.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Well, it does have a few warts, (I know, compound-W), but overall I'm quite happy. I've been playing the heck out of it.

I started out with extra light strings, but now I have lights on it and it sounds much better. I could have thinned the top more, I think it ended up at about .120".

The change to heavier strings also raised my action a little. I adjusted the truss rod, but I need a little more, so I'm going to thin the bridge some and bring the saddle down. The bridge is just shy of 3/8" so I should be able to bring it down some. I'm thinking I can go down to 5/16" if need be, since the top is so thick. It's had about 9 months to settle in so hopefully it should be safe to tweak in some more.

One of the biggest bo-bo's was to use Stewmac paste pore filler before I sealed the guitar. It muddied up my maple purfling, you can't really see it in these photos. I ended up pumice filling everything after that.

Darin, your going to have to work pretty hard to match this level of procrastination. But like you said, you got 15 years.

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Horton, MI

Looks good Kirt! Hey you built a guitar in less time than I completed my BS in computer science!

-Mark

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Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

trippguitars.com
OR
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Horton, MI

Nice work, Kirt. Time is sort of irrelevant. The finished product is well worth the time and perseverance. Hopefully, the next few years will have a higher yield for you. Or not. Still great way to spend your time!

Donovan

Great looking guitar Kirt! I'll echo the cudos for the purfling line crossing over the heal... Very nice!

Keep up the great work... Looking forward to no.2 and no.3... (I'm patient)!

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Nice guitar, Kirt! That walnut is gonna make a gorgeous back!

Chris