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Here is the latest classical to come off the bench. It was built during my classical guitar building course this past semester.
The guitar was built from an LMI kit. I substituted the Englemann spruce top for a Lutz spruce top from Shane. It had a very promising tap tone and I was not disappointed. The guitar has my signature shamrock soundport. The finish is blonde French polish.
ENJOY.

Congratulations on a fine guitar!

Beautiful! I'd really like to hear more about the Lutz in a classical application. Can you talk about it a bit? Pehaps some anecdotal comparisons against the standard englemann and euro spruce tops.

Again beautiful... Love your FP

Another one?

Great job!! Gotta love that soundport....

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Very Nice!

Mike

Looks very nice, Robbie!

What is the line you used for the purfling? In the photos it appears to be figured but it could just be the photos...it definitely doesnt look like white fiber purfling....which while it gives a good contrast can look too white.

Fine looking guitar Robbie, but we'd expect no less. If I want a pale purfling I use holly, but that looks like maple to me?

That's the second classical we've heard about using Lutz.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Robbie,
The guitar has no class. Since I don't either, I will take this weak attempt off your hands.

Another great looking one coach Robbie!

Love the soundport and nice looking wood!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Robbie!

very nice

Beautiful, Robbie! What bracing pattern did you use? How's it sound?

[QUOTE=RCoates] Beautiful! I'd really like to hear more about the Lutz in a classical application. Can you talk about it a bit? Pehaps some anecdotal comparisons against the standard englemann and euro spruce tops.
[/QUOTE]

I build classicals, and the spruce I prefer is Lutz. Based on my own experiences, I think it sounds every bit as good as premium Euro spruce. Shane's Lutz is great stuff!

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Simply classical Robbie! Would also be interested in a run down on the sound of the Lutz top.

The purfling line is maple. When I make my own bindings I use either pine or maple. These bindings came from LMI and are rosewood with maple.

[QUOTE=Michael McBroom] Beautiful, Robbie! What bracing pattern did you use? How's it sound?

[QUOTE=RCoates] Beautiful! I'd really like to hear more about the Lutz in a classical application. Can you talk about it a bit? Pehaps some anecdotal comparisons against the standard englemann and euro spruce tops.
[/QUOTE]

I build classicals, and the spruce I prefer is Lutz. Based on my own experiences, I think it sounds every bit as good as premium Euro spruce. Shane's Lutz is great stuff!

Best,

Michael
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for all the compliments. This guitar has my own version of a 5 fan brace pattern. I did use a bridge patch underneath but sometimes I don't. The transverse brace below the soundhole I angled thus extending the resonating area of the bass side and closing the area on the treble side.
As far as working with Lutz, this was my first time using it and I will definitely use it again. This piece came from Shane's promotion a while back and was under 20 bucks. It had some streaking that grew on me and now I like the color in the finished product. One of the things that impressed me about the Lutz is that right out of the box I got from Shane every top had a nice ringing crisp tap tone! The difference between the Englemann and the Lutz was very noticeable. Every piece Shane sent me had the same promising tap tone. Once I had the top thicknessed it was still quite a bit stiffer both across and with the grain than the Englemann. I had several students this semester using the Lutz and several using Englemann so we had a bunch of tops to compare. Without exception the lutz tops had more sustain, ring, and stiffness. I thinned this top to around 2.2mm in the bridge area and around 2.0mm around the edges. I think next time I could go a bit thinner. This wood is very promising and like I said, I will be using it again if everyone here doesn't buy up Shane's stock first. haha
Merry Christmas and Happy Building in the upcoming year!