Official Luthiers Forum!

Here's #5.
This one is englemann with euro maple B&S, Gotoh 510's, gold fretwire & Kent Armstrong smoothtop pickup. The finish is Target Ultima, with a slight toned sunburst and pigmented black USL over aniline dyed bare wood top.
As well as being a brand new design for me (it's a 16" x 3 3/8" and a bit different shape, rather than the previous 17"), it's my first attempt at a bolted neck, graphite reinforcement, & tone control.
Anyway, thanks for looking!

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

Beautiful, Dave! Great work, and nice design. Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

OK Dave, you can go back to your day job now.

Wow!!! Positively Beautiful! And the photos of this one are even better then the last batch. Also, I love the black top!

long

_________________
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Hey Dave,

How did you handle the bolt on neck joint? I've been trying to figure
out how to do this for a Gretsch-like guitar I'm working on.

Thanks guys.
Nelson, it evaporated a while back! (Actually, I'd like to bring it up to your level so maybe I could start selling them!)
re the bolt-on, after discussions and much good advice from Mark Blanchard, I went away from the dovetail and elected to go with barrel nuts in a standard M&T joint. (I think these are less of a problem given the inherent alignment difficulties drilling through the endpin hole.)
To summarize, I drill two pilot holes through the headblock, then drill them to final with a 1/4" x 24" bit from the endpin hole. After adjusting/fitting the neck exactly, I clamp it & use the headblock holes as "bushings" to drill the corresponding tenon holes (watch depth!) with the same bit. I made a quik jig to bush for a 10 mm cross hole in the tenon so I know the barrels will not be off relative to the 1/4" longitudinal (bolt) holes. Remove the neck, push in the barrels, insert bolts to align them, then attach the neck. I used KD furniture bolts (1/4" x 1 1/2", nice broad, flat head, allen socket). Oh, I made a long allen wrench by JBWELD'g a 2" cutoff into a thin steel pipe & attaching a handle.
I had the neck off & on about 20 times during construction, including for fine tuning and finishing the body & neck seperately (a big reason I went this route) & couldn't be happier with how well it worked! Won't go back!

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

That's a beauty!!!

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Wow. I never would have thought of going through the endpin hole. Great idea!

I had thought of doing something similar, but with the bolt going in through the heel.

Great job Dave!!!

_________________
Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Those pics almost look like a ProE model. Are you sure thats real?

Chris, the angles aren't negligible, which is why drilling in place, then using barrels, makes it kind of idiot-proof (good for me). Much harder I think to get threaded inserts seated at the right angles. You'd need machinists capabilities/accuracies, like Mark, to pull it off.
You have to hold the bolt through the f-hole with tweezers & plug it on the inserted wrench (which is why you want an allen socket!) It holds in place fine.

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

That is one of the most beautiful instruments I have ever seen. Just wonderful. The shape is indescribably lovely.

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

Dave, that's one awesome AT! (There used to be a "clapping" smiley...if I could find it, it'd be HERE!)

_________________
http://www.presnallguitars.com

And Joe, LOVE that avatar!

_________________
http://www.presnallguitars.com

Dave,

Wow! I really like it! I especially like how the fingerrest tracks the shape of the "f" hole. Well done.

I gotta make my way out to Milton to see it.

Stunning! Simply stunning.

Vince

Superb Dave and I agree with Steve that this is one of the most beautiful instruments that I have ever seen too.

You get the clap five times for this one........

Thanks for the very kind words guys. (Hesh, your avatar was one of the inspirations, way back when.)

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

Dave,

It would be great if you could do a "tutorial" or do an article for GuitarMaker on how you make a bolt on neck archtop.

Stunning Dave! Absolutely Stunning!

Love the "through the end pin" idea! I immediately thought how's he get that M&T neck off! Beautiful finish, Beautiful coloring( even if the top is black )

Is that avatar pic yours?

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Dave,

Fabulous guitar - well done. Gorgeous shape and details.


As for the bolts via the endpin hole - you must have been a vet in a previous existence

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

WOW, beautiful!! I started out making classical guitars but moved to violins several years ago. The Archtop is something that is on my "got to do" list. It seems it would be similar to a violin in many ways just bigger. A cross between a steel sting and a violin!!

Anthony, I'll try to put together a tutorial on my next one. (We'll talk about Guitarmaker when I see you).
Billy, the avatar is my last one, probably in the archives from Dec. (An interesting point- the avatar is much more "true colour" than the original shots. The blue backdrop & CFL lighting were confusing the hell out of my camera - daylight tunsten & white backdrop are MUCH better)
Barry, similarly, I built a violin first because I'd always wanted to! I got to the "...who the heck can play one of these things.." stage, & moved on to archtops.

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

Dave, the keyboard on my computer was just shorted out by the spray of coffee...................!

That archtop is a masterpiece of craftmanship. I'm sure it sounds as gorgeous as it looks. Like a great looking woman.....

_________________
Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

absolutely beautiful! I'm always astounded by how great luthier made archtops look. They're all so cool.