The OM (non) build thread

1 - I'm new to the forum
2 - I'm an amateur guitar builder
3 - I've been working on what might be my dream guitar and have taken a few progress pictures
4 - I thought I would post them and see what kind of reaction I get

This is not going to be a traditional "build thread" - I've done a bunch of those and while they can be fun they are a great deal of work. And besides, you really don't want to see every detail of carving every brace, so here are the highlights.

I've been building for a dozen years now and have accumulated a small stash of wood that is quietly stored away in a corner of my wine cellar (wine and wood like the same environment). Sometimes when I go down to get a nice cabernet for dinner I'll look thru the wood and think about what I want to make out of it.

Anyway, I've had a set of cocobolo that I bought some time ago and some western red cedar that I bought for another project and since I was kind of bored it seemed like a good time to make something out of them. So I brought them up along with that 2002 Cayuse that I had been saving

The coco is fairly stunning

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I have a bunch of different sized acoustic guitars, but I don't happen to own what is probably the most versatile all around size - the infamous Orchestra Model. OM's are considered "small body" (I think they are medium body), long scale, 14 frets clear, tend to be wonderfully balanced and are probably the best guitar for fingerstyle play. I kept asking myself why I didn't own one.

Cocobolo is related to the rosewoods, tends to be lovely wood but is a bit difficult to work with. It is very oily which means it can be hard to glue and finish and some people are allergic to its dust or oils. I tend towards allergies - I'll wear a dust mask.

Every time I play a cedar topped guitar I'm impressed by the warmth and complexity, but again, I don't own one so maybe its time to fix that too.

Took all the plates to a friend who has a thickness sander, then I glued the back and tops together. I want the trim on this guitar to be very simple (I know I can do bling, I don't what bling on this guitar) so the rosette is going to be a simple ring of cocobolo with a few purfling lines. I'll try to carry that theme all the way thru the guitar. Route out the rosette channel,

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glue it in and level it

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and here it the top and back plates

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Since this is a new size for me I had to build a mold and a form for bending the sides. Then I fired up the old Fox bender and did sides and bindings

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I was pretty paranoid about all the figure in the coco but it bent like butter.
 
While this is all going on I cut up a piece of mahogany to make the neck. I am a great believer in multi piece necks - cutting a neck out of a single piece of wood is wasteful and you end up with something that wants to break right at the head. Instead I cut the end off of a 1 x 3 piece of wood

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Flip it over and glue it on. The grain runs parallel with the head and the glue joint is stronger than the parent wood.

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Cut a few more blocks of wood and they become the heel. Yeah, you can see some lines where the glue joints are, I think that is kind of cool

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A bunch of stuff got done that I didn't take pictures of - sides are in their mold and are kerffed, top and back got some braces, the neck got a truss rod channel routed. Sawdust got made

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Neck gets roughly shaped

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Box got put together. I mostly use bolt on necks these days unless there is a compelling reason to make a dovetail.

One of the nice things about a bolt on is that I can put it together, work on the geometry or neck shape, then take it back apart

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Impressive. Not many people build their own acoustics. How did you learn to build acoustics?
 
Impressive. Not many people build their own acoustics. How did you learn to build acoustics?

There are a couple of classic and very good books - almost all of us have them. Of course there is a lot of instant lutherie stuff on the interweb - as with all web information some is good, some is terrible.

This will be my 13th acoustic, 24th overall. I learned a little something on each one of them. The interesting thing, however, is that my first home built guitar is still my go to favorite - blind stupid luck I guess.
 
A few more pictures. Routed out the binding channels and end graft

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and bound it. Binding is simply more coco with a couple of little maple stripes to set it off

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One thing that is a little funky here - I'm totally paranoid about the oil and color from the coco bleeding into the maple purfling so I did the pore fill before binding it. The back and sides have two coats of Zpoxy at this time. Zpoxy really pops the grain in highly figured wood - compare the top picture with no filler to the one above with the Zpoxy.

Next problem is that I like to stain mahogany necks so they are closer in color to the body. This might be a little too red but I think its close.

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Glued a couple of cutoffs from the back together and made a head plate. Bound it to match the body, put my best reading glasses on and adjusted the light. Engraved my initials

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and stuck some shell in there. This is probably as much bling as you're going to get

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I'll be gone for a few days, more next week.
 
I’m not an acoustic guy, but the talent and skill it takes to build one are truly impressive. Hats off to you sir.
 
I read this quote on The Fretboard Journal Facebook page and immediately thought of this build.

"There is no decoration more beautiful than the grain of wood, and no shape more elegant than the curves of a well-proportioned instrument."
 
Actually my "shop" in one corner of a three car garage (that is currently storing four cars). In fact its a tribute to the fact that you don't need a fancy shop to build guitars but I keep telling my wife that I really need one.
ok....lemme re-phrase.....you have quite the nice equipment there. :grin:
 
I haven't updated this in a while. Since the last pictures were posted I've fretted the fretboard. Since its a bound board the frets have to be trimmed to fit in between the binding, each one is a different length. Here are the first two and a little gauge that I made out of a piece of fretwire - its used to make sure the slot is clean and deep enough

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I use a combination of pressing and hammering frets - the quill of a drill press isn't really designed for this but thats what I use. One of these days I'll buy an arbor press

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Here is t he board all fretted but before I've trimmed the ends or done any dressing.

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I like to fret before I glue the board to the neck, others do it afterwards. I think it is much easier to support but it does introduce some backbow to the board. Anyway, now that its fretted I can glue it to the neck

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The other thing I can do now is check the geometry

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This operation is called "flossing" the neck, basically holding it at a very slight angle and pulling piece of sandpaper against the cheeks of the heel. When you hear someone talk about "setting" or "resetting" a neck, this is part of the procedure. Basically it is setting the angle so the geometry is correct at the bridge.

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