Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Luthiers

I am entering the challenge with my No.3 build .

A steel string Dreadnaught using timbers that were grown in Australia.

I built this guitar trying to cut my own woods where I could, the exception being the Queensland maple back and sides I bought in 7mm thick pieces,

Lets get started .

The Soundboard,

An old factory in the city was being demolished and a machine was crushing the old roof trusses and they were going into a huge skip bin, I rescued what would fit onto my ute and stashed it away,I am a serial wood rescuer . I saw a handmade guitar in same city that had a Hoop Pine top and the luthier told of his love for these tops , Light-bulb moment , I have Hoop Pine but how does one convert roof trusses to guitar tops ? Bandsaw ! Yah ! after destroying a length with thickness ranging from 12mm to zero over 500mm, I was shown how to operate said bandsaw and we had some pieces ready for machining up and gluing,







So got it machined up and thicknessed and was wondering about a sound hole design, I wanted a sound port and also a significantly larger area soundhole , thinking more hole more volume , this not being based on any science,

Bracing

I have used a forward X brace system but with the following modifications,

The X on the treble side has been left scolloped and high, more mass,

The X on the bass has been tapered off dramatically from 25mm past the join, This tapers right off to zero, Less mass

the tone bars stay tall on treble side and taper off hard on the bass side,

I added a brace across the back of the bridge plate in an effort to keep it flat over the years,

The idea was more mass = more treble and less mass = more bass.
that was the theory, its my no.3 build so I have no previous experience with this setup. time will tell.

The mids and treble are indeed very good, I feel I have taken to much out of the bass side of things and while the bass is ok, its nowhere near as good as the mids and highs,

Back and sides are Queensland Maple,

I did not cut these but did have to machine them up from thick pieces,

I didnt have a bender so got a piece of 4" galv pipe and a little gas torch and bent away till it fit the mold,

I used recycled/reclaimed Atlantic Cedar for bracing front and back, its what I had available,

I found a block of Liquid Amber under the shed and sliced it up for the neck and headstock,

For some contrast I put a piece of cedar on for the heel and sliced some binding for the laminated heel cap,

I discovered a small log of Mulga which I confiscated from my Dad and cut that up for a fretboard,

I liked the sapwood contrast so much I book matched a piece and kept the sapwood in the center,

When I discovered that I could not get my hands inside this guitar plus no truss rod access I had to to change rods to a shorter item and have it poke out the headstock,

I also need some spreader bars to keep sides symmetrical when gluing top on, so the spreaders I glued together just enough and tied a piece of string around them, when glued up and dried I just pulled the string, the bars collapsed and I could get them out,

I also put the electronics in early and the endpin jack,





Because of the triangles I couldn't get bridge clamps in properly so copied this design from my eccentric uncle.
Im glad I used hide glue because this thing came off about 5 times trying to get it to sit perfectly on the top,

Great work there! I would forever refer to that guitar as "Ironman".... Your son has a good eye!

Interesting design! Nice to see another recycled guitar - I love the fingerboard. About the top, there is no treble side and bass side as commonly believed. The whole top vibrates as one piece, shown by chladni testing. I'm sure it will sound fine, though.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Thanks, at the time I had an idea and worked with it, I have since been informed that it vibrates as a whole in modes? im yet to understand that but there's a long way to go on this journey, not just this guitar but all ahead, , there is so much to learn and its fun along the way to try things, at least I know now,

I am still glad I tried though,

Greg

I got my initials cut from White MOP and cut the slots by hand, this was hard work as the logo is pretty thin in places, like half a mm, I used a 1mmspiral downcut bit and it left some gaps, thats ok in dark woods but in hoop pine as the headstock veneer is , it was harder for me to make gaps disappear,

So time for a finish, I have used danish oil and wax on my previous 2 and although quite ok I wanted some gloss, I have no option for spraying nitro so it was french polish, not just a rub with some shellac but the real deal, well as real as I could get it . I bought a book called the "polishers Handbook" by Neil Ellis and went from there, for my first go at FP it looks pretty good, It was hard doing the top when the guitar was finished, trying to get around the bridge and neck, but Im happy with the job overall,

When I polished I did the back first, then sides , then front, then neck, this took sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long,

Of course next time I will do the whole body and headstock at once,

So here is the finished guitar,

It plays really well with the setup nice and low running on small low frets,

I used corrian kitchen bench for the nut and saddle,

So, that's my entry for this 2013 challenge,

Thanks to the owners and mods and everyone who looks after and contributes to the site,

"Iron Man" steel String Dreadnaught

Costs summary,

Tuners = $23
Strings = $2.50 (strings by mail bulk buy Martin 12-56)
Qld Maple = $60
Fishman Electronics = $80 (ebay)
Bindings - Black plastic
tortoise shell = $5 (ebay)
shellac - metho = $20

Total =$190.50

Of course there was 200 + hours of labour , and all the other costs involved in being alive, but this a joy to build, a huge learning curve and its a really cool guitar to play and hear,

Thanks for checking out my story.

Greg C
Australia