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Congratulations, Bryan! I can't wait to hear it. The design is awesome....

So here is where I stand with the bridge. I would call it a success, but it could use some tweaks. It is currently strung with a temporary (read crappy/hastily made) saddle made of jatoba. I will experiment with different saddles in the next few months. I want to let the top settle in for a while first. I still need some intonation adjustment and a couple of the slots are not filed cleanly enough and I am getting a little noise at the saddle but those are easy fixes.

The pins are just some stainless steel decorative nails I had laying around. I looked at the hardware store and found similar for $5 per hundred count. They ended up needing to be pretty close together so the length of exposed pin is staggered. The inside edge of the head has been filed away slightly to allow the string loops to pass each other. I didn't want to have to take off one string to get to the other. . .


From the side you can see that the break angle is not a disaster either. The bridge wings are really thin to save weight. I wanted to keep the foot print big so it ended up being pretty wide and I felt like it was too heavy so I thinned the wings.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

When I get around to monkeying with the saddle, I will also buff out the shellac. It may be superstitious, but I like to let it harden for a few weeks before I polish it out. I expect it will shine up nicely though. I am a lousy photographer with a cheap camera, so I had a hard time getting pictures that show off the figure in the maple and couldn't get the medullary rays in the spruce at all. The maple is not tightly curled or wildly figured but it does have quite a 3d effect in person; the pictures remove all the depth. These the best I could do before frustration set in.

Here is the front on shot. I am not happy with the pickguard shape. I cut out a ton of paper templates and tried to find a shape that looked nice and covered the areas I was likely to hit with the pick. I thought I had a winner; it looked pretty good in white paper. When I glued on the red wood veneer, the shape looked terrible to my eye.



I have never attempted a cutaway with the neck heel flush to the treble side. The sides of the heel had to be straight because of the faux scroll. I started to doubt my decision to not bind the junction of the side and the heel. I was right to doubt myself. The endgrain ended up getting darker during the finishing process and the joint looks pretty bad from certain angles. See example below:



And a couple more shots trying to capture the figure:

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Really nice, Bryan. I think the pickguard looks fine.

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

I like it - it came out really nice and I also think the pickguard looks fine.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Looks great!

I'm sort of torn on the side-to-heel binding. It looks cool having the maple continue with only minor seam interruption, but it is still a seam, plus the top binding just cuts off. Probably would have been better to bind. Or make it an integral neck so you could make the cutaway side an actual continuous piece of the neck like Padma's wishbone style construction (which would work especially well with a laminated neck like that, since only the treble side lamination slice would need to be extra long, thus less waste than a one-piece neck). Plus then you could do some fancy binding channel cutting that continues onto the neck a bit, to have it smoothly merge into the fingerboard binding.

I like the nails in the bridge And mirroring the stagger pattern like that looks good.

The bridge does looks a little large to my eye, but that is a lot of strings, so plenty of glue area is a good thing, especially being pinless.

I never did like the teardrop pickguard shape myself, but it looks as good as any other teardrop I would have gone more like Gibson Hummingbird shape, since the upper point would coincide nicely with the cutaway point.

And that is not superstition on letting the shellac sit for a week or two. It feels dry to the touch and can be sanded very soon after application, but does continue to shrink for quite a while.

Can't wait to hear it!

Thanks guys. Dennis, all along I thought I was going to use a gibsonish shaped pickguard. Somehow, I couldn't get it to look right. The point being so close to the soundhole (and it being oval) just threw off the look. you are right on about the binding at the neck joint. Live and learn. This was an experiment in a lot of ways. If I were to make another, I would do several things differently. I almost want to make a full sized gutar using the same woods and incorporate these changes. Maybe a 12 string. . . it would look like her big sister.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Bryan , I love it ! That is a beautiful Instrument

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When I would show a work in progress to visitors, I always started pointing out all the flaws. My partner told me to stop doing that. Not everyone will see them, not everyone who sees them will think they ARE flaws. I love the style of the instrument. I think the larger saddle footprint gives it originality, and love the staggered nails for pins; the wood has a beautiful, warm character top and back/sides; the binding choice is stunning, and your faux curl is really neat. And those are just the first things that come to mind when describing what I like about it. You've done a wonderful job! Can't wait to hear the clip. Beth

Dude...that came out great! Awesome job.


Posted using two tin cans and some string.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

As the late, great Freddie Prinze would say, "LOOKING GOOD"!

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Ok, I couldn't help giving a shot at it

Thanks a lot Dennis, where the heck were you two nights ago?
That is much better than the version I came up with. For some reason, I was more focused on following the lines of the cutaway point. Your version is much nicer; it compliments it rather than just following it.

Beth, thanks. The above is the perfect example of why I am pointing out the flaws. There is much I can learn from this place. One of the areas I need help is refining my sense of design. A couple of years ago I posted some pics of another experimental design. I asked for critiques but I think everyone was too nice to criticize. Dennis just demonstrated how changing a couple lines subtly can make all the difference in the world. I often see a well executed aesthetic element but can't describe why it works so well. Seeing people discuss the whys and alternatives helps me learn.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Just found out I can upload straight from my phone. Here is a test to see if it will take multiple images with the same file name.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

She's a real beauty, Bryan!!!

Yup. It looks good alright.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Please feel free to ignore this post. I am having a hard time finding someone with a video camera that interfaces with a computer for upload. This is a quick and dirty video of my brother playing the L-00 I made for him a few months ago. It is shot on an ipad with the regular mic. The video quality is very poor. I just wanted to see what it looks and sounds like once it was youtubed. If I can't find a better option by the time I hook up with the guy who is going to play for me, I'll at least have something. . .
I figured I might as well do a trial run embedding it here.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I think it sounds good. Sure is better than the video I'll be making from my digital camera and built in mic!

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Its not any worse than the videos I have posted! So you have that going for you.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Yeah, I think it will be adequate, but I hope I can get better quality. In real life, the gutar is old growth Brazillian Rosewood with a lucky strike top, the Srtings are wound with unobtanioum and has a face melting tone that can lead sailors to crash into the rocks. Oh yeah, and my brother looks like George Clooney. Darn poor quality video. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I'd say that is adequate as well. I just shot 3 video's with my Cannon Powershot and was quite impressed how the mic picked up the tone.

There is all kinds of free video software out there too that you might want to look into.

I hope I can record as well as yours. I will probably just have an MP3 file if I can get the finish on mine in time. I expect to record the morning of the 30th

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks Todd, I think it sound kinda' nice. It is certainly not a bluegrass chop monster, but then it wasn't intended to be. . .

Get plenty of fluids!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Yeah I'm always amazed when I show people an instrument and they completely miss the OBVIOUS flaws

So true I learned that lesson from my boss way back when I was doing trim carpentry.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"