Freeman Keller
Multimeh
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
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,
glue it in and level it
and here it the top and back plates
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
I was pretty paranoid about all the figure in the coco but it bent like butter.
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
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,
glue it in and level it
and here it the top and back plates
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
I was pretty paranoid about all the figure in the coco but it bent like butter.