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Thought I'd throw this one out here...currently residing in its second coat of epoxy grain fill, awaiting a level sand and shellac seal tomorrow before getting sprayed (well, that and a neck fitting, but that should take about 2 hours, tops). I've shown off the rosette a few times already, so I won't repeat that picture. I'll be cutting the rest of the inlay tomorrow, I hope, and inlaying Tuesday.

The guitar's my own version of a jumbo, inspired by Kevin Ryan's Grand Cathedral and Gibson's J-200. In terms of features, I've gone a little overboard:
- Wedge body (with thanks to Linda Manzer
- Adjsutable bolt-on neck (thanks to Mike Doolin for the inspiration, although I do wonder if he remembers my questioning him, oh, almost two years ago when I was drafting the plans for this guitar)
- CF flying buttress braces (thanks to Rick Turner)
- CF reinforced X-braces (thanks to Mario Proulx)
- Soundport

It's 16.6" wide across the lower bout, 5" deep at the bass side (4.7" tailblock), so it's HUGE (possibly a bit too big, but it feels like a 'regular' large guitar), Black Walnut back/sides and flamed maple binding from Uncle Bob, WRC top from Rivolta, Neck's maple/wenge/walnut, scarfed and backstrapped heastock, ebony (bound) fingerboard.

A few detail shots during construction. Hopefully I'll get you pics of the completed guitar in a few weeks time:

Headstock, before binding went on:


The back, two CF reinforced X-braces. Seems stiff enough with them layed out like this, back's keeping its dome. Pictured is the arsenal of shaping tools - Blue Spruce chisels, fingerplanes, and the sacrificial two cherries (the CF destroys blades). Was my first time using HHG for the bracing, a bit nerve wracking, but not too bad.


Gratuitous posed shot with our new baby grand piano - 50's, German, solid walnut with flamed walnut veneering. And it sounds even better than it looks (girlfriend's a pianist at heart, really, I'm the guitarist).


As I'm an idiot, these are the best pictures I have of the bracing - before it went on I did a bit of Chladni pattern tuning (got a reasonably nice ring and a half at 245 Hz in the end), and the fingers went much smaller, the tone bars lower and tapered more steeply, and I took off more from the lower X brace legs. Took pictures, but that doesn't work well when the memory card's in the card reader, not the camera. Anyway, the idea behind the upper bout bracing is not to lock it in too much (the A braces are inlet, but scalloped at the ends) as the CF buttresses take up a bunch of slack, and the fingerboard's glued to a floating extension, not the top.


...skip a few steps, and a shot through the side soundhole. I'm not as neat as some folks here, but bear with me, this is the third acoustic I've built...


The box, closed, from the back:


...and the front:


Rosette after a spit coat of shellac:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpi ... /Ban11.jpg

Coat of Z-poxy - figured I'd protect the wood from CA drips and give it an initial pore fill in one go. I've since bound the guitar and installed paua purfling on the top - again, took picutres, memory card not in camera. Am officially a moron that way.


More pics tomorrow and the day after if folks are interested...and assuming I remember to put the card in the camera.

Sweeeeeet the more I see walnut the more I like. Also the more I look at others work it humbles me that I have soooooooooo much to learn from my crude attempts at no1 so far.

Well done keep it up I wanna see the finished thing

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

Great job Mattia. I love rosewood.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Beautiful guitar, Mattia!
Love that walnut!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

So do, except there's not a single piece of rosewood on this particular guitar

Couple more. Re-epoxied the sides (sanded through too far in too many spots), leveled the back, evened out the colour with diluted z-poxy. Will fit the neck this afternoon/evening, then scuff sand, seal with shellac, scuff sand again, and spray finish on it tomorrow. Going pleasantly swift. Pics time now, though.

Guitar, with abalone purfling. My first attempt, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.



Gratuitous close-up of rosette and purfling:


And a shot of the end graft, with (if you squint) mitred purflings, but mostly showing off the wedge-ness:

She's looking gorgeous Mattia. Another fan of walnut here.
Good job on the ab. purfling. And Man, That's a fine rosette!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

What, this one:


Fanned fret modified twist on the headless travel guitar I made way back when (second guitar, made with scraps from the first), designed in collaboration with and being built for GregP (PG poster). I'll post it when it's actually done, it's turning into a very cool little guitar...

Very Cool, Mattia!...both of them. Nice work!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

You've got a couple of winners in the oven, Mattia. Great looking work.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Very good work, Mattia. I really like the "roundness" of this guitar; especially the upper bouts; very Lowdenesque.

The walnut seems to glow; it's a wonderful wood that rewards you well if you prep it properly for finishing.

I was not a fan of abalone up until today, but you have just changed my mind. Seriously. I really like the way the warm hues of the top brings out the colour in the abalone. Great work!!

Wow..That is really beautiful.I love the round shape as well. I am interested in those CF reinforced braces.How many layers and what weave of carbon did you use? I have worked with carbon on my canoes..but never a guitar.Once again...really nice guitar.
Peace and respect,
big John

Thanks!

Sam: I'm not too big on pearl (a little goes a long way) on my own guitars, although I enjoy the creative process and looks of good inlay work. And I wasn't sure about doing the purfling, but I'm glad I did - I think paua looks much nicer against the warmer/darker backdrop of Cedar compared to the spruce it's usually matched with. May even do this sort of thing again on a smaller bodied redwood topped guitar (on the build list for myself)...not on anything too small - I think the size of the box helps offset the bling overpoweringness - there's a lot of real estate, and there's very little pearl realtive to the surface area.

I'm fairly certain you're going to disapprove of the vine inaly, though...

Big John: I used a solid sheet, made by Los Alomos Composites, which is unidirectional fibre. The CF is 0.020" thick, and absolute HELL on edge tools. Next time I'm doing even more shaping on the belt sander prior to gluing. Cross-section trimming's no problem, but bringing the height down is annoying!

Mattia,
Awesome job on both! Love your choice of woods, and very clean work! Don't forget to cut the truss rod access in the top! Look forward to seeing it when its done.

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Looks very good, Mattia. The back might be a bit heavily braced since you have CF in there, too but all in all it's very good! I like the top purfling.
This reminds me of the walnut/cedar jumbo guitar that I finished up earlier this summer, you may have seen it.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

In terms of weight, the bracing's not too bad, and everything resonates (tapered down to nothing at the edges, but we'll have to wait and see. I went with thin, not too tall (7mm wide) braces on the back on purpose. There was still a bit of flex there. Don't have enough experience, really, to define 'too much' and 'too little'.

I have dim memories of a walnut/cedar jumbo on the MIMF, although I've been relatively absent from forums for a lot of the summer. Last med internship took a lot of time and attention! It's a stunning combo, visually, one I'll likely recreate for myself. Just without so much pearl encrustation.

Your description of the back bracing seems right- I just question that little upper X you have there, I don't think you would need that one. Just one brace across there is good, and the X in the lower. I say this because I have found backs that I have braced in the past to be too heavy and they took from the sound of the guitar. I loosened up the back by carving off some of the back bracewood and it opened right up. That was an X-braced back, that was too stiff. But you said your back did have som flex, so you're probably OK.
Here's a pic of my walnut/cedar jumbo.....I used as much walnut as I could here. The neck, all lining and internal blocks and the bridge are all walnut.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Nice!

The upper bout is a little stiff, and given the spanish foot I could probably have done with a single cross brace. Thing is, while the tap tone there is 'tighter', it's still got some sustain and musicality. Tapping anywhere below the upper X brace intersect gives me a fairly clear ring. Not sure whether it's mostly the brace, mostly the foot, or mostly something else.

Yesterday I fitted the neck, and the Fleishmann style 'two bolts, three setscrews' allows for quick and easy angle adjustment, as well as lateral lining up adjustmust. Works a treat!

Unfortunately, since I worked an extra week last week (was supposed to have some time off, week before that was my final week of internships, but they were a bit short-handed and I'm starting there in September...) I didn't have the time needed to complete these for tomorrow. There's 'just' inlay, fretting, setup, installation and testing of electronics, finish spraying left to do, but that's all just a bit much for the 12 hours (including sleep) I've got left to do it. Guess my friend will have to visit me in Amsterdam to pick it up, and on the upside, it lets me 'live' with the guitar for a while, see how the neck joint holds up/works/etc.

As far as overall weight, the whole guitar comes in at 1.7 kilograms, or 3.75 lbs without bridge or tuners (bridge is macassar, 30 grams). I'm of two minds about the tuners - originally this was going to get 'boring' chrome Gotoh M-6 style tuners, but I think it would like about a million times nicer with the Gotoh 510 minis in XN (antique nickel) finish with ebony knobs. Or the Gold Schallers with ebony knobs (which were cheaper than the Gotohs). Will have to mock it up, and convince my buddy it's worth the minor upcharge, in the grand scheme of things. He's paying me cost plus a little bit on top, which ends up cheap, even with the K&K pickup.