Official Luthiers Forum!

Everyone said start your second guitar after the first one fell apart, so here is the first picture, not much but a beginning. It is Cocobolo back with a Macassar Ebony center strip surrounded by two strips of Flamed Maple. Tell me what you think of the look.

Greg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/GregGwaltney/Gwaltney Guitar2001.jpg

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Gwaltney Guitars

That didn't work, anyone know how to move pictures from photobucket to this forum, I forgot!

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Gwaltney Guitars

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Gwaltney Guitars

It worked, wow, need to re-finish the chair, in the background you can see the beginnings of my sons lacewood electric guitar.

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Gwaltney Guitars

Greg I like the look very much. Nice looking coco.

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Greg,

Looks great!!!

Did you consider using the outside edges as the centre line instead? There looks to be some really interesting figure there that will get largely cut-out with the back shape.

I suppose the way you have it uses more of the quatersawn grain.

Onwards and upwards - the second will be better than the first, and then the third and then . . .

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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

Yeah, I saw that nice figure as well, was just thinking that the back may be more stable using the most quatersawn available. I do see many acoustics with the wild grain, so maybe I'm being over cautious? anyone think that I should have flipped these particular sides?

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Gwaltney Guitars

Hey Greg;
As soon as I saw the pic, I was impressed that you chose to use the more stable, well quartered wood in the centre.
The off-cuts will be large enough for a beautiful rosette & /or a bookmatched headplate veneer. Some bold bindings & purflings to offset the striking centre strip arrangement & you have the makings of a beautiful guitar.
Nice work!
When I am at this stage, I often will cut the body pattern out of a piece of bristol board & lay the outline "mask" on the back so I can see exactly what the back will look like once it cut out. I arrange it every way possible & mark the placement I like best. It really helps me to get the best out of an intersting piece of wood. This works great for arranging bookmatched peghead plates & working out peghead shapes too.
I find this the most exciting stage of a build. (Well, maybe striking the first chord is a little more...)
Good Luck!   Dan'l

Greg,

I don't know really. That piece has been placed on earth to tempt you really hasn't it. Normally my inclination is to go for quatersawn every time, but you are not going to get the benefit of that combined bookmatched pattern imho in something as small as a headstock veneer or rosette - it's a back that would show it off to best effect. I suspect I would have been tempted by the "dark side" and have put that in the middle and put slightly thicker bracing than usual on.

BUT, given your experience with number one, I suspect you have taken the wise route Luke Skywalker. Sorry, back to reality, too much Christmas wine

It looks fabulous either way.

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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

Here's a mockup just for the imagination. (I'm not advacating anything, just bored and needed something to do.) Even took the liberty to add some digital mineral spirits

Greg..these are just observations from another point of view. But, one way you could keep the stability of the quartersaw and also add a little more of the beautiful grain pattern on the runout. Also, this would eliminate the two spots (knot ghosts in the center of the guitar)if you were to do this.
I've used photoshop to best illustrate what I'm talking about. If you were to angle cut the center of the quartersawn part like this illustration, it would eliminate the spots.

Then when you rejoin the back pieces as the second illustrated photo, you will bring in more of the beautiul grain into the upper bout of the guitar. And from what I see of your original photograph, the pieces are plenty wide to accomodate this cut.

The downside...you might not have a piece large enough for your headstock plate. But, you could use an alternative wood for that and use the smaller pieces for your truss rod cover and heel cap to tie it together. Just food for thought.

Greg, nice wood you chose for your second guitar, i'm wondering if i'll use my piece of purple heart for my second one after seing what you have

Greg, that's a very nice looking back. After the frustration you had with your first guitar, I understand why you chose to minimize risks by going with the quartered grain! The cocobolo looks great, even the quartered section.

Although I like the backstrip, the flamed maple is pretty wide. Aesthetically, I think the maple bold enough to distract from the beauty of the cocobolo. But the subtler look is just my personal preference --- if you're going for a very bold look, this will do it!

One other issue with the width of the flamed maple is that it may present a challenge down the road when you install the binding/purfling. Again, my personal preference is that the binding,purfling on the back tie into what you do with the center strip. For me, this means I would use flamed maple purfling on the back that mitres into the flamed maple on the center strip. But with maple this thick down the center, that presents a difficult choice between two options that don't excite me. Option 1 is to use maple purfling on the back that is the same thickness as the maple on the center strip. Personally, that's too thick for me, but it's purely an aesthetic choice. Option 2 is to use thinner maple purfling, which I would prefer. Unfortunately, having maple of significantly different widths on the center strip and the purfling can make it a challenge to get a clean and aesthetically pleasing transition at the mitre joint on the back.

Don't let me discourage you, though. You could go with no back purfling, thin back purfling, or wide back purfling and still have a beautiful guitar.

I'm glad to see you getting back up on the horse. It takes a lot for a person to do that. You should be proud.
I built my 1st guitar out of Lacewood. When it's finished right, and mine was not, it looks incredible. Mine was an acoustic, and I still have it laying around. It sounds great. The wood has exceptional tonal qualities. Good luck with it. And that is a great looking back. Keep up the good work and the pics.

[QUOTE=GregG] Yeah, I saw that nice figure as well, was just thinking that the back may be more stable using the most quatersawn available. I do see many acoustics with the wild grain, so maybe I'm being over cautious? anyone think that I should have flipped these particular sides?[/QUOTE]

Yes flip it and cross brace the back in the lower bout and you'll be cooking on gas. If the wood is nice and seasoned it will be fine. And, if you don't now you'll always be thinking 'what if?'

Colin

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

Can't wait to see more pics!