Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi folks,

I recently joined this forum, and just thought I'd say a few words and share a few pics of a guitar by way of introduction. I've been hanging out over at the Luthiers' Corner (Acoustic Guitar mag web site), but I think I'll be hanging out over here now for the most part, as this seems to be where it's at. I've met several of you at GAL conventions and/or ASIA Symposia. I'm a novice builder, determined to make a career of it. The guitar pictured here I made in Sergei de Jonge's 4 week building course this past July:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/toddawrose/

If anyone's interested in any aspect of this instrument, I'd be happy to talk about it - ask away.

I wrote a fairly long post about the course in the Luthiers' Corner forum. If you're interested in hearing about that, go to:

www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f =12;t=002261

I look forward to participating in discussions here, and getting to know more of you. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

Warm regards to all,
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY
Todd Rose38681.7158680556

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

For some reason the link to the Luthiers' Corner topic doesn't seem to be working, but if you just go to the forum, you'll find it.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Hi Todd!
Welcome to the OLF!
That is a fine looking guitar you build there!
I love the look of the lattes bracing. The only other
guitar Ive ever seen braced that way was a guitar by
one of our OLF sponsors Mark Kett. Was he by chance
helping as an instructor during your class at Sergei de Jonge's place? Im pretty sure he spent some time there this past summer.

Anyways - again, welcome to the OLF!

LanceK

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Very Nice looking guitar. The bridge design looks very interesting and I looks like part of the lattice bracing is not as tall as the others...How did you voice it or were you relieving wood on the bass side to open up the tone? How does it sound?

Very interesting bracing pattern. I have considered something like that myself but haven't tried it yet. Tell us about the results.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Todd, welcome here.

I like the pinless bridge design you've done, very elegant.
All around very nice first effort.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Welcome to the OLF Todd. I've seen your posts over at AGM and look forward to your participation. Like the other folks, I'd like to hear about your lattice bracing.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Nice little town you live in...been there a few times. I got to see Phil Keaggy play the Strand Theater many moons ago...perhaps the most amazing concert I've ever been to.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Todd

Welcome! I am a student of Sergei's from 2 years back. I took the last course he taught before he moved his shop to where it is presently.

Great looking guitar! I braced my first guitar very similar to what you did. I have since made some changes and have made my pattern considerable lighter. I am still using a symetrical latice design and am a really big fan of it. I really like sound results from this style of pattern.

Lance

To my knowledge Mark hasn't helped with Sergie's courses for a few years now. I think he is to busy building great jigs for us who build. Mark used to live fairly close to Sergie but know I think they are probably 6-8 hours drive from one another.

Josh
Josh H38681.7702314815

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Hi Todd, and welcome!

Well, another "newbie" with a winner right out of the box. I'm not sure if I should be even further humbled, or simply inspired. I'm still hoping my first won't be a boat paddle, and yours looks awesome.

Actually, I am inspired!

I think in the link above, there's a space. Try this one:
Todd's Article

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Hi Todd,
Welcome to the OLF, the most sincere group of people I think you'll ever meet. Nice guitar, by the way.

Craig

Welcome Todd, This is a great place to hang out with a great bunch of guys. Very nice guitar you built!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Welcome Todd. Please speak up often, it's a great forum.
Very Nice Guitar!!

Welcome Todd
   Great looking guitar. I really like the symmetrical look to the bridge and the creativity o fthe pinless design. Also am curious about the lattice designed bracing. Let us know about the sound and about the width and shape of those braces.
   Beautiful walnut.

John

Wow, many thanks to all of you, both for the warm welcome and for the kind words about my guitar. Much appreciated.

Mark, the Guitar Jigs guy, was there for a few days during the course. He came for a big annual party the de Jonges throw each summer, which those of us who were there building guitars were lucky enough to be able to partake in as well. It was great to meet Mark and some of the others who came in for the party.

In answer to the questions about the sound of my guitar, I'll just cut and paste what I wrote for the AG forum:

By all accounts, the guitar sounds really good. It favors the midrange and treble, but is no slouch in the bass, either; great clarity, not too bright; good sustain; extremely responsive to subtle variations in tone by the player; great note separation in chords; great, clear tone whether played lightly or strummed hard; beautiful, singing, rich quality to single-note playing, esp up the neck. I'm very happy with it.

A couple things I'll add to that - with the long scale (65 cm) and the overall clarity of tone, low tunings sound really good, e.g. a low D on the 6th string is clear, rich, and powerful. On the other hand, the guitar isn't especially loud overall. It's no wimp, mind you, and I certainly don't have any sense of lacking anything when I play it, but it's not going to win a contest for sheer volume. For tone, though, and especially tonal responsiveness, I think it really shines. I find that it really invites and conveys the expressiveness of my playing. With strong mids and highs, it also cuts through and has great punch.

By the way, in case it isn't obvious from the photos, that's black walnut for the back and sides (and the neck, from the same tree). I suspect the walnut is a factor in the relative strength of the mids and highs.

As for the bracing... I used some example drawings by Sergei as models, then went with my own intuition and thinking in drawing up my design. When it came to the specific sizing of the braces, I followed Sergei's guidance. He relies on his many years of experience and essentially builds with structural integrity being the guiding principle. My interpretation of what he was teaching is that you brace it just strong enough to hold up well against the string tension, and no more. That, of course, has to take into account the many variables, such as the size and shape of the guitar, the stiffness of the spruce, the scale length and bridge placement, and the string gauge you're planning to use. Again, his years of experience are his guide. He looked at my bracing drawing, asked me what gauge of strings I was going to use, and gave me measurements for the height and width of each brace (or set of braces). I sized them accordingly, and then just tapered/scooped the ends and carved wood away from the sides until I felt I'd removed as much mass as I could.

I'm not a believer in the idea of bass and treble sides to the guitar top (in terms of resonance behavior), and neither is Sergei, but he finds that it works well as a construction method to make the braces going one way higher than those crossing the other way, then just notching out the higher ones to let the lower ones through. In this regard, the bracing is asymmetrical. Just in case there is anything to the theory of bass and treble sides to the guitar top, I made the braces that extend into the bass side the lower ones... what the heck.

Am I making myself clear? Any other questions or comments?

Thanks again,
Todd         &n bsp;  

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Hey Todd,

Good to see you on the OLF. I met you at the ASIA symposium in 03 ... and saw you there this year too. Thanks for the articles you have written and really nice work on your guitars.

John O

Welcome Todd and beautiful work. I wish you luck!

Hey John (Osthoff) - good to "see" you, too!

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

In response to John Kinnaird's question about shapes and sizes of the braces, I put some more photos of the bracing on my yahoo photos page.
   http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/toddawrose/

The X braces are about 6.5 mm wide. The tall one is about 16 mm high, and the short one is about 13 mm high.

The little braces are about 4.5 mm wide. The taller ones are about 9mm high and the shorter ones are about 5 mm high.

All the taller braces are notched to go over the shorter ones (i.e. only the taller ones are notched).

All the braces that go over the bridge plate do just that - they are cut out to fit over the plate. That was pretty painstaking. I intend to think up a way to streamline that process if I do a bracing pattern like this again (which I think I will).

This guitar is about 15 1/2" wide at the lower bout.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/