Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm in, I just finished up a White Oak, Lutz, Walnut, Persimmon, 14 fret, size O.
With 9 months to play with and finishing in October (bday is in October) I think a 13 fret, Maple, Nick Lucas would be a nice present to myself. Scratch build. I grew up in and out of my dads cabinet/furniture shop and I have a decent shop of my own. I enjoy all aspects of procuring instrument wood, cutting the tree, sawing into billets, curing (least enjoyable) and re-sawing.

Maple, back & sides
Maple neck,
Fretboard, & bridge, not sure?
Top, Red Spruce or Lutz

Anyway have to think about the details and get started?

Are you working from plans for the Nick Lucas? If so, from where? Really excited to follow your build as I've been dreaming about the same 13 fretter for #2.

Look forward to watching this one! I want to play it when you're done.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I have a body template for a Gibson L-OO from Waldron Instruments. And I have a local luthier/collector/vintage expert, that actually has a Nick Lucas or two. He said next time I'm up that way we can take a good look

Deal! I want to play that new Dread, also you need to post some pics of that J-45 refurbish.

And I wanna play both! We will just have to have an OLF TN convention

Dug through the stash today and this is the best I could do
Some Ted Davis wood I got from John Arnold. Right now I'm into really cheap wood, typically stuff I cut and mill myself, I believe I paid John $15.00 for a foot tall stack of curly maple, most of it 8" wide and 3' long. All of it is insanely curly.

nice score!

I believe that the main difference between a Gibson, Nick Lucas and an L-OO are body depth, (Nick Lucas being deeper) the numbers I have for the Nick Lucas are Rib height, at heel: (3-29/32″), Rib height, at waist (4-7/16″),Rib height, at end block (4-11/16″)

I'm currently working on plans for a Nick Lucas, I'm getting my information here:
http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/PluckedStrings/ ... uitar.html

_________________
A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Well sign me up for a set when your finished. I've checked out that guitar many times. I have a local musician with a Nick Lucas I have access too also.

Paul Hostetter goes into great detail about the move from 12-14 frets and his work on the Nick Lucas inspired H13 from Santa Cruz GC: http://www.lutherie.net/model_h.html. I'm sure you've seen it but I post for interested bystanders. As I said looking forward to this one!

Going to be a little slow out of the gate, need to build a mold.

Got the back cut out and bracing glued on (HHG for everything) might get carved this weekend. Also need to pick out a top and get it joined and braced. Humidity is super low this past week for Tennessee.

Looking like a good start! And the humidity has been real low in TN! Dry as a bone and snow on the way tonight! Better run to the store and buy all the bread and milk! (I've never understood that what are you gonna do with bread an milk?)

Why you can make "Milk Bread" of course! Here, let me google that for you:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=milk+and+bread+recipes

No need to thank me.

Clinch,
That maple is pretty nice! It's going to make a purty guitar!

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

[/quote]
Clinch,
That maple is pretty nice! It's going to make a purty guitar![/quote]
Tony, thanks. Your avatar........ you really need to make it to Waynefest this year.


Back Bracing %99 carved.

Picked out a top, Bridge Stringer Lutz. Sticking to my cheap wood plan I got it for next to nothing because it has a flaw (knot shadow??) which I'm hiding under the bridge. Shot the edge with my antique Stanley 4-1/2, and glued up with HHG. Not the prettiest top in my stash but its super stiff and really has a nice ring when thumped.

Do you have any pics of the 14-fret you just finished?

Looks like a million bucks from 5' away, it has a better that decent set up and a very balanced sound. What I learned getting the first one finished was priceless.

Thanks for posting the pics. That's a nice looking guitar. I love the idea of a persimmon fingerboard. A persimmon tree recently fell at my father-in-law's place and we're going to mill it up. Hopefully I'll be able to use some of it.

Thanks, the bridge & fingerboard are persimmon. I cut this wood from a tree right next to my house that a storm blew the top out of. I'm still thinking about staining them black.

One of my neighbors has a big band saw mill and he called and told me he had a nice White Oak that was split for about 15' from the butt. It was two perfect quarters and a half, saved me from having to split it

Woodcraft in Knoxville is hosting what may become the East Tennessee Luthiers next Sunday, 2/10/2013 see if you can make it.

That oak guitar is a real looker Clinch!

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Really busy around here. I have several projects going plus a 13 year old daughter playing on two soccer teams.
First top went up in smoke, so here is 2nd time around Lutz top with first attempt at a bound sound hole. Very little consistency bending curly maple next time I'll just cut out a circle and inlay one piece.

Looking good. My "bound" soundhole is just getting cut out of a solid inlay. less trouble with bending

Yeah I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, I did a test run with a piece of maple I had in the scrap box and it bent with out heating I picked out some spectacular looking maple, bent on the pipe it was tough to get a good fit.
Making a mess, and some kerfed linings