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Yep, my first completed classical is out the door tomorrow, moving to a new home in Florida. Some pictures may be found here

The guitar is built following the Tom Blackshear drawing of his version of Miguel Rodriquez' guitars, from GAL.

After reading all the stories of glorious zoot here, I have to say that this guitar was built under constraints that I would not like to replicate again. In particular, "build it as cheap as you can". Thus, it includes

Sitka top - 2nd or 3d grade, out of a pile of 20 or so random tops.

Grizzly EIR back and side set.

scale changed to 647mm (25.5") to take advantage of an available pre-slotted Fender fretboard (ebony).

Spanish cedar neck, Sitka bracing.

First French Polishing attempt.

All-in-all, the guitar came out pretty solid. I have no experience with classical guitars, though, and no way to test it's capacity or tonal balance during playing. I thus asked the university's resident classical guitar instructor (Christiaan Taggart) to take a look at it, which he agreed to do.

I arrived at his office feeling like I was back in grad school, walking into my qualifying exams again. He asked a lot of questions about how I got into guitar building, and finally said "let's see it". He played it for the next 15 minutes or so. It was magical, listening to someone who knew how to play the instrument put it through it's paces - I could not have ever provided this for myself. And, surprise, it sounded good!

When he got done, Christiaan commented that the guitar sounded a little muffled (not his words - he described it by putting his hand a few inches in front of his mouth while talking), but attributed this to the needed spruce break in period. He said that when I opened the case and he saw how large the guitar was (the Rodriguez is a pretty large body), he was initially worried that the guitar would be really boomy and bass heavy. He found it to be really well balanced across all 6 strings, though, and spent some time playing scales to show me the balance.

My most gratifying moments:

(1) I expected to get some comparative lessons on the work guitar sitting on it's stand in the office. This was never touched. Instead, about 3 or 4 minutes into playing, he said "I wish I'd brought my Humphries in"

(2) He invited me to give a talk on building in his guitar class.

I was on cloud 9 as I left. Happy dad, and proud dad. But now, I have to learn to live without the child's company. Better get back to the bench.

The next Rodriguez on the bench has a really nice WRC top and good EIR B&S set. Should be done in a month or two.

As always, thanks to all of you for the helpful hints and unsurpassed environment here. And I have to get up to GaryL's neck of the woods, to talk about these classicals and FP some more.

Jim (some call him Kirby, too).

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Jim;

Isn't it great when someone who knows how a guitar should sound likes the one YOU MADE???????  Looks sweet.  I like the backstrap going through the heal cap. 

Good Job.

Kirby (call me dale if it's confusing)

Oh, it was indeed. I was hyperventilating for most of the rest of the afternoon. But I also felt a little bad that I would never be able to provide that much of an evaluation for myself. I started thinking about taking lessons again. But then I realized that would be time I didn't have a chisel in my hand. ... Naaahhhh!

Oh, one other technical comment. The frets on this guitar were done using the Stew-Mac 0155, as recommended by David Schramm on the Onlineapprentice.com course. Christiaan said he thought they were too tall or something, but he qualified this by saying maybe they were just too new.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Jim, That is one nice looking guitar. Very nice in fact that it's a first classical. Congratulations.

Bruce

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Thanks Bruce. Thanks Hesh. She's a little asymmetrical. No-one take out any measuring tools!

The next few don't have this problem, but I really think about moving to an outside form sometimes, as in the really nice new book by John Bogdonovich.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Hi Jim,
That looks very sexy.
French polish looks Great.
Congratulations on a beutiful job. :D


Claire

Claire - Ha! I've duped you with the right selection of pictures.   The FP has a looonnggggg, llloonnnngggg! way to go.   

But thanks for the compliment. Next time will be more up to it.

(This one may be OK after some Meguires, but I just wish it were there without.)

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Jim--really lovely.
2nd or 3rd grade Sitka???
That top is beautiful. Next time you see some "cheap" spruce like that, buy me some!

Very nice instrument, and congrats on the high praise.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

[QUOTE=Steve Kinnaird] Jim--really lovely.
2nd or 3rd grade Sitka???
That top is beautiful. Next time you see some "cheap" spruce like that, buy me some!

Very nice instrument, and congrats on the high praise.

Steve[/QUOTE]

Steve - No, really, this came out of a batch of leftover tops I bought on ebay for nothing - this top cost about $8. It had enough runout to actually make it hard to sand and get rid of all the feathery ends, but it is still silked like crazy. Go figure.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

NICE!

Robbie - Thanks! I'm going to try your FP schedule on the next one.

Jim

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Great job Jim, looks like a winner. Nice finish.

The top looks higher grade than 2nd or 3rd.

I was with you in the OA II class until it sort of just stopped. My Miguel Rodriquez came out pretty good, I also built mine as cheaply as possible. I compared the sound of mine to a $5k ramirez, mine sounded a little muted on the highs by comparison, but warmer in the bass, maybe that is just a result of the thicker body. I also had a little trouble finding a case that would fit.

Congrats Jim!
What a great looking guitar! Even if it IS a classical

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Marc - The Access Stage 3 small body case fits it like it was designed for it.
A more averaged size classical would rattle around in there.

Lance - I could have done a 'burst, but the garnet shellac just doesn't build to a dense enough color fast enough

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Jim,

I'm confused by the comment about the guitar being big. I've built from the plan twice, and the guitar isn't big at all.

Did you note that the original tracing is for a larger guiter build for a 660mm guitar, but that Blackshear modified the outline for a 650mm guitar? The modified outline does not make for a large guitar.

I don't recall the exact dimensions but I think it was around 106 mm total thickness at the tail block. That's pretty thick for a classical.

Yeah, it's big alright. Christiaan said that he thought he would find it tiring to have to put his arm around a body that deep all the time. Also, I've got a picture around here somewhere (that I can't post, of course) of a Romanillos plantilla pattern lying on top of the built Rodriguez body - The Romanillos pattern is just swallowed by the Rodriguez. The Robriguez must be an inch longer and usually at least an inch wider at most body cross sections.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu