Official Luthiers Forum!

And first mussed up posting. Don't you hate that when you write something all out, and then -poof- you press the wrong key or something and it all goes away?

Well, anyway... I took Robbie OBrien's guitar building class at a community college here in Colorado. After 130 or so hours I (or was it Robbie?) built a guitar. It's just the standard classical kit from LMI. Nothing fancy.

For the finish, I didn't pore fill, as you can tell. We sprayed it just once with some form of lacquer. I don't remember what. I just wanted a completed guitar, so simple and satin is what I got. I didn't have the time to make it all shiny. I kinda like how it looks anyway. More like wood and not a mirror.

It turned out much better than I thought. It's not the fancy pile of firewood, or tin can with some strings on it that I though it was going to be. I did make the mistake of playing it next to my Hippner Santos the other day. But if I play it next to my super cheap Samick, I feel real good again. Basses seem a little weak. Could have been my bracing, as I didn't use a plan really for that. Just kinda laid them out in a fan. Could be why it's about a stiff as a piece of tissue paper on jello.

now if I can figure out how to post pics...

Wait, select all, right click, copy, ok... Safe!

Bummer, well I get a page cannot be displayed. Hmm...

Anyway, without pics, my post! Thanks for reading, hopefully soon there will be something else to look at.

bbeardb38706.0303935185

B-
Gotta get those pics uploaded. Right above the text box, there's an icon that is a tree with a blue up arrow...use that to upload.
You were one of the first ones to string up, weren't you? I have to say I was pretty impressed. I thought it sounded great and pretty dang accurate. Nice job.
I, too just finished Robbie's class and am re-enlisting for a 2nd tour.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Tried that, I got the good old web error page...

"The page cannot be displayed

The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings."bbeardb38705.9666550926

B, welcome to the forum. You probably need to resize the photo to not more than 150 Kb, I think.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

B,
What Ron said. 150K Max, and welcome to the OLF. Glad to have you here.

They are at about 120k

Well I can't get it to work, so please look at this link:

http://photos.yahoo.com/bbeardb

Very good first effort!

How long ago did you string it up? You mention that it is weak in the bass; that is typical of how a new guitar sounds until it has a chance to adjust to the string tension. You should notice fuller sound within a couple weeks after stringing it up, and it should continue to improve noticeably for the first month or two. On the other hand, if your bracing was a bit "experimental" as you suggest, that may be a different story.

Nothing is quite as gratifying as your first one you complete. Good job.

It doesnt matter what went wrong or what you would have done different...it is too late, now you are hooked

Give the guitar some time to break in and for the sound to develop.

I like the idea of keeping it between a lesser guitar and a pro built guitar...It shows you all that you did right and yet will push you to get more out of the next one. When I started building I had no plans and only one book to glean from. All that I had to measure and build from were an old Harmony and a Ramirez. I was happy when my first "looked" like a Ramirez but at least sounded alot better than the Harmony

Good looking guitar.
Keep it up, you obviously have talent.

John

well, I tried uploading a pic and got the same error as Brandon. Apparently the size is now 500kb and must be of the type "asp". I have never heard of asp.

Huh?

ASP = microsoft's active server page. It's not an image format. I smell a bug.

Yeah, I signed up for the 2nd tour of duty myself. I'm going pure Flamenca Blanca this time, and I'm going to put a little more effort in my soundboard bracing this time. I got this book, Making Master Guitars, which is awesome, and I now have all kinds of bracing patterns I can pick from. The book really made me aware of how "bad" a job bracing I did.

But like Shawn said, it doesn't matter now, because I am hooked! Who cares if I have a cracked binding, dings and dents, a gap here and there, and bass that I'm nary aware. It's only my first. And it really could have been a lot worse!

The Dr. Sues thing just happened. Sorry.bbeardb38706.4558101852

Good on ya B,

Keep the Doctor around, we loke to smile around here!

Shane

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Canada

I just gotta see if I can post pics










Yike, I guess I got a little picture posting crazy. Well, I'd also like to say that I seems to have better basses now. So that is really cool! I'm embarrased to post my bracing pic, but I will anyway. Like I said, I just kinda eyeballed it...



Thanks for looking,

Actually, it's an excellent first effort. Far better than mine, that's for durn sure

As for your bracing pattern, it looks very flamenco-ish. Seems that's what you might have had in mind -- namely to build a flamenco negra -- judging by the tap plates and all. But now since you have Making Master Guitars you'll have plenty of patterns to choose from on your next build.

Regarding your comments about the soundboard's stiffness, or lack of it, some of that is due to the narrow angle of the fan braces and the fact that the bottom angle braces do not extend farther toward the middle. But this is, like I mentioned, a rather flamenco-ish looking pattern. Conde Hermanos comes to mind, for some reason. Some of the flex might also be due to the top material. Cedar often needs to be left a little thicker than spruce, for example. Still, a somewhat flexible top usually does not harm the bass response, although it can make it sound somewhat thumpy. It does, however, affect the trebles. On a nylon string, trebles are improved when various techniques are used to stiffen the top on the treble side.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

[QUOTE=Shane Neifer] Good on ya B,

Keep the Doctor around, we loke to smile around here!

Shane[/QUOTE]

And here's the doctor ... anybody needs resuscitation?

Gg

WOW! Very nice. I really like the bindings. They are very striking. As is the rest of the guitar.

great guitar for your first try B, better lookin' than mine which i made out of oak and cedar plywood to allow myself all the mistakes possible which i did BTW. And no, i won.t post a pic. of that one cause my dovetail neck joint went too crooked to show here with all the masters lurkin' around ho!ho!ho!

I just wanted to post an update about my guitar as I'm kinda excited. I took it to my guitar teacher, Steve Mullins, who I haven't seen in awhile (cuase I've been building a guitar) and he gave it a whirl.

He thought it was actaully pretty good and it almost held it's own agains his Felix Manzenero. My Basses were a little hollow, but the trebles kept up no problem. I was really scared I'd walk away from that lesson "hating" my guitar after it was pitted against something fancy. The opposite happened.

It's nice to have someone who really knows how play with your guitar for a good amount of time.

Anyway, happy! Really looking forward to making number two.

I thought you guys would like seeing this. This is a picture of Brandon just after stringing up his guitar and hearing the sound for the first time. I think the smile says it all.

Sweet!    That photo does say it all!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

That was a very happy day!