Carl's guitar project.

[warpedbored]

I doubt I will ever go find him but if I did I would shake his hand and call him "Lao Shi" I like the idea of posting pics of my progress. I don't have any yet but a brief description,

 

. The theme of this guitar is red, black andwhite. I am going to dye the back and sides cardinal red and the top will be black. I’m using white binding with black/white/black purfling. Fret board, bridge and tail stock will be ziricote and I’m using redSperzel tuners.The sides and back will be ribbon figure African mahogany and the top Sitka spruce. The neck will be African mahogany as well.

 

Ziricote

 

http://www.kwcabs.com/ziricote.jpg

 

 

 

Sperzel tuners

 

http://oi55.tinypic.com/vc8ew.jpg

 

The guitar is a Gibson J-200 style that will look very much like this except the bridge, neck inlay and pick guard.

 

http://www.jamesstevenson.info/images/tools/Gibson%20J200%20Black92700016.jpg

[Mick]

Wow, Carl! That is quite an undertaking. I wish I was handy with wood, but alas, during my years in shop class my most consistent contact with wood was the wrong end of a paddle. From your description, it should be beautiful when finished and I am anticipating seeing the photos as you proceed. The red and black theme sounds perfect. I recently purchased a new guitar, actually, it was a present from Li and Salina. It is an Ibanez acoustic/electric combo and get this, the primary wood used in construction is Sycamore. Although it has significantly less depth than a standard acoustic, it sounds great unplugged. Chords are full and rich, which I didn't expect considering its relatively small size. Good luck with the project and keep those pictures coming.

[chilton747]

What a worthy cause to undertake! Can't wait to see it or perhaps hear what it sounds like. Any plans to put a pickup in it?

 

Mr Ellis is a collector of fine and exotic guitars. I bet he would be interested in seeing it as well.

[warpedbored]

No plans to put a pick up in it as yet. I doubt I'll ever play it anywhere I'd need one. Still I could put a pick up jack end pin on the body just in case. Thanks for mentioning it Charles.

[chilton747]

No plans to put a pick up in it as yet. I doubt I'll ever play it anywhere I'd need one. Still I could put a pick up jack end pin on the body just in case. Thanks for mentioning it Charles.

 

 

The cool thing about the jack end pickup is that it doesn't take away from the looks of the guitar. People won't even notice it is there.

[warpedbored]

I decided to start a new thread and move some of the previous posts about the guitar I'm making here.

 

Yesterday I went with a luthier friend of mine to Gilmer's wood products to select a sound board for my guitar. Once we got there they told us they don't have any because of too much competition on line and they are having a hard time finding any for wholesale prices. I was disappointed because I was really looking forward to having my friends experience in selecting the wood. An experienced luthier can pick up a board look at the grain orientation, run out and flexibility as well as tap it and check for tone. These are things all of my woodworking skills can't help me with. I can only get this from doing it. We went back to my friends house and he rummaged around in his closet and came out with a book matched sitka spruce set that he had rejected because of color. Color won't matter for my guitar because I'm dying the sound board black anyway. Tonally the set is perfect. While we were there he offered to show me how to use a shooting board and a hand plane to perfectly joint the two halves together. I'm no fool, I'll take advantage of anything this guy is willing to teach me. He's a top notch luthier who makes guitars for The Everly Brothers for example. He is also one of the best in the country at restoring vintage collectible guitars.

 

http://www.steinyguitars.com/

 

Now I have the top glued up and ready for thickness. It's a little out of the order I had planned but it's progress. I'll take a photo later when I have time.

[SheLikesME?]

Sounds like your with a real expert there Carl.

I don't know if it is useful or not, but I was amazed at the guys building violins and violas, and even larger instruments at these music stores that rent and sell to Jr & Sr High students. In Plano ISD the mid school students are required to be in the orchestra, band, or chior. Heck I learned a little. One viola was thick we used at first, but the thinner wood viola was louder, we later found out. This helped Lil One so we sent the old one back, and went to the other shop for the new thin wall one. Beside it was lighter weight for her to hold up. The guys in the back in these Plano, TX stores are all Asian and I believe Chinese. They repair, build new (maybe from kits? I don't know) and they can take the whole thing apart and replace any piece of wood on it. I know thye had higher end stuff, but we didn't go for that at this point.

 

Anyway perhaps just another source for you to look at and talk to them???

[chilton747]

Check this out: http://www.schrammguitars.com/lattice.html

 

I think the idea of an adjustable neck vs the saddle adjustment for tweaking the action is really a cool idea! Looks like some sho nuff fancy stuff!!

 

Have you ever heard of this?

[warpedbored]

From what I can see it appears to be just an adjustable truss rod. I'm using a two way truss rod from Stewmac.

 

http://www.stewmac.com/product_images/1lg/2550/4mm_Allen_Nut_Hot_Rod_lg.jpg

 

 

That's some pretty fancy bracing Charles. I wonder how it sounds. I'm going to stick with more traditional X bracing that millions of great sounding guitars have been built with. Maybe if I build more guitars I'll experiment with something else.

[chilton747]

They have sound samples from various stages. Their guitars are classical nylon string, a different animal than your steel string. Actually their neck pivots instead of "bowing" as the truss rod does.

Looks like a great truss rod you are using so the neck should set up good.

[warpedbored]

Some progress made. I got the neck blank glued up and the sound board glued together. Rather than cut the neck all out of one piece of mahogany I used a scarf joint where the head stock meets the nut. This avoids short grain at a fragile point. It also uses less wood.

 

The neck

http://oi55.tinypic.com/149vbbp.jpg

 

 

 

 

The sound board

http://oi56.tinypic.com/iooylx.jpg

[chilton747]

Cool!! Keep the updates comin!!

[warpedbored]

Today I had a real treat. I was invited to visit the shop of Charles Fox. Those of you unfamiliar with the world of lutherie probably don't know who he is but I assure you there isn't a serious luthier in the country who doesn't. He owns The American School of Lutherie and has a waiting list to take his classes. The class size limit is 4 and I can tell you it ain't cheap. He is one of the pre-eminent guitar makers in the US. he has a line of guitars he sells called "The Ergo Guitar". The cheapest model is 18K.

 

 

 

The Ergo Guitar

 

http://www.americanschooloflutherie.com/IMAGES/ergo%20shot%20advanced%20design.jpg

 

 

Today his students were putting the binding and purfling on their guitars. I learned a lot just watching and listening.

 

The master his own self

http://oi54.tinypic.com/2n8y7tt.jpg

 

 

putting on binding

http://oi56.tinypic.com/15x236e.jpg

[Mick]

Wow, those are some neat pics Carl. Those Ergo guitars really look great and I would imagine at 18K, just for starters, they probably sound even better than they look. I love fine guitars but have never been able to afford one of the more expensive models. I have a birthday coming in a few weeks and Li bought me a new acoustic/electric hybrid, along with a small amp to go with it. It is a beautiful guitar - an Ibanez with Rosewood soundboard and the front is made of flamed Sycamore. Sounds great, both plugged and unplugged. I wish I had talent to make an ax like you do, but alas, I have trouble just tying my shoes. I remember in seventh grade I got tossed out of wood shop class. Our project was to make a lamp out of a bowling pin, but I couldn't get a cord hole drilled straight through the thing. Ended up trashing about a dozen bowling pins before I got the boot.

[warpedbored]

I got to play one once Mick. We had a musical instrument show at the store and Charles brought one. I was astounded that he let me touch it let alone play it. It was so smooth it almost played itself.