Official Luthiers Forum!

As I stated in an earlier thread I am spending my Tuesdays with my
luthier friend Robert Sayers. He is teaching me the Cumpiano method of
building. Today, 10/24 was my second Tuesday. Not much to report week
one as we spent the day joining the tops and thickness sanding.
Day two was a little more interesting.

This is the port orford cedar top with the rosette installed and roughly
sanded for thickness.

This is my custom designed headplate and my first stab at inlay work.

Gluing up back braces.

A good look at the nicely figured walnut and it's sapwood.
NOTE: Back & sides are from Beach Tonewood! Thanks Brian

This is the higly spectacular piece of ebony I have chosen for the
fretboard.

That's it for this week. Next week is gluing up and shaping the top
braces.uncleshish39014.9245486111

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Christopher C. Cordle
North Muskegon, MI

http://www.yardsaleunderwear.com
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.cordle

Looking good, look forward to your next report. That is some wild looking ebony.

Mike

Nice work! I especially like the back!

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

Great start. I bet that you are working more in your head than just on Tuesdays. It gets to be rather consuming. Keep us posted with progress pics.

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] Chris you have made a lot of progress and it all
looks fantastic!!

I really like the rosette and all of your work looks very neat and clean.

Are you going to attend the Michigan Guild of Luthiers meeting Dec. 2nd?
You should, most of us are new at this and it should be very fun.

Thanks for sharing.[/QUOTE]

Hesh,
Thanks for the kind words. I pay very close attention to cleanliness and
neatness because I know if I don't it will be obvious to those that do!

I don't know anything about the meeting Dec. 2nd. Is there a link you
could point me to to catch me up to date with what's going on?

Is that a redwood topper in your avatar picture? My main guitar right now
is a redwood/EIR OMD built for me by Mr. Sayers last year.

_________________
Christopher C. Cordle
North Muskegon, MI

http://www.yardsaleunderwear.com
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.cordle

It looks tremendous. The sapwood is the coolest thing I've seen in a
while! I've never seen that in walnut.   What a great back. Man...

I just bought a redwood top like that and was wondering what thickness you might sand it to, and how does it sound. Beautiful. That port orford looks like it has real tight and nice grain too.nickton39015.0294444444

_________________
"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Beautiful work so far Nick, keep it up and i can't wait to see more pics of this one, i have a walnut OM-H here that sounds WOW so yours should turn out great also!

Very nice Chris!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Very Nice.
I have one port orford...I used 0.115
Love the fretboard

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] Yes this was guitar 7 that I built amost a year ago
with a Zootman Redwood top, EIRW back and sides, and BRW bindings
that just disappear.

How do you like your redwood top guitar, I have not played mine at all
yet.....[/QUOTE]

You haven't played it yet? How could you not! I absolutely love mine.
I was a longtime cedar fan but the redwood has all that cedar has to offer
plus so much more headroom if you dig in.

Here's mine.

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Christopher C. Cordle
North Muskegon, MI

http://www.yardsaleunderwear.com
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.cordle

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] Chris it's beautiful!!!!


I rarely play my guitars some have less than 20 minutes time on them.....
It's getting to be a problem since I know that I could learn a great deal
from breaking a few of them in and seeing how they do.

Most have the original, now crispy....., strings on them too..... SO much
to do..... [/QUOTE]

I'd be happy to break them in for you...as long as you din't mind a scratch
or ding here & there. I love my guitars but I do play out and they do
obtain the occasional ugly.

I was checking out your sight, looks great, I'm headed back there to
rummage around some more very soon.

Not sure If I'll make the meeting or not at this point. Big Rapids is roughly
a little over an hour from me. I'll do some checking.

_________________
Christopher C. Cordle
North Muskegon, MI

http://www.yardsaleunderwear.com
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.cordle

Chris,

Your guitar is shaping up really well! Nice choice of woods and neat workmanship. Your rosette looks especially crisp and attractive. How did you cut the channel?

[QUOTE=CarltonM] Chris,

Your guitar is shaping up really well! Nice choice of woods and neat
workmanship. Your rosette looks especially crisp and attractive. How did
you cut the channel?[/QUOTE]

Hi Carlton,
I cut the channel with a Dremel and the Stew-Mac attachments.

_________________
Christopher C. Cordle
North Muskegon, MI

http://www.yardsaleunderwear.com
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.cordle

Well, this Halloween day at the shop brought me more tricks than treats!
I did learn something today...that my chiseling skills could use...well,
some sharpening! Ok, enough with the bad jokes. This weeks pics aren't
too impressive as I spent the majority of my day chiseling and shaping
the back braces. I know that my instructor believes in traditional
craftsman methods but it sure seems to me that a fella could have similar
success shaping these braces with a dremel.

These are my finished carved braces. Not too shabby but took far longer
to accomplish than I had anticipated.

This is the top laid out for the bracing.

This is the upper transverse brace and bridge plate being glued and
clamped.

And here, clamps removed and squeeze-out cleaned up.
I did get a bit more work done that isn't pictured such as shaping the
upper transverse, upper face brace and the addittion of carving the
soundhole braces.

I know these pics aren't too exciting and my progress is pretty slow-
going only having one day per week to actually work on it at this point.
Next week we will bend the sides and finish bracing and shaping the top
braces.

_________________
Christopher C. Cordle
North Muskegon, MI

http://www.yardsaleunderwear.com
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.cordle

Neat job Chris, i can relate to the lack of time when having a full time job , keep up the good work!

Chris,

That sure is a nice back and side set! That curly Claro is going to really pop with a finish on it.

I was unfamiliar with Port Orford Cedar (except by name) until just a day ago when a friend sent me a chunk. Man, that stuff really has a wonderful, long-sustaining bell-like taptone!

This is going to be one heck of a nice first guitar!

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

[QUOTE=DennisLeahy] I was unfamiliar with Port Orford Cedar (except by
name) until just a day ago when a friend sent me a chunk. Man, that stuff
really has a wonderful, long-sustaining bell-like taptone!

Dennis[/QUOTE]

Hi Dennis,

And it smells very good too!

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Christopher C. Cordle
North Muskegon, MI

http://www.yardsaleunderwear.com
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.cordle

Great looking guitar in progress Chris. I enjoyed listening to your music. Good stuff!! Too bad though, after you get sucked into this hobby, you won't have time for playing anymore

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.