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Acoustic Builds? C'mon, Where Are They?


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yeah, where are they? There hasn't been a good old acoustic since Godin sd's way back when.

i'll be starting my build in a couple of weeks as soon as i get enough money

I had to redo my HHG on my X brace, man didnt use enough water or something. Tried it 'from a squeeze bottle', man, no way, it doesnt work for me.Jelled up really really quick... Maybe it was too thick.

Anyway, its back to the brush and jar. Got one x side glued up, and I ordered a 12mm plane blade for a home-made Ziricote plane to scallop the braces with, so its gonna be another week or so, as I dont want to scallop with all the finger braces and bass bars in the way. (Doing a practice top really helped me figure that out, as well as how thick thin to go!)

This is great stuff though, just as good as woodcarving. Well, some of it is woodcarving!

My next guitar will be a Padouk and Adi Dred!! I hope it will go much faster, I cheated and got a martin factory neck for it. :D

Edited by GoodWood
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There was a wicked acoustic in the GOTM last month or month before that I believe and Russ recently put together a cool acoustic as well, though I don't believe he made a thread here for it, not certain though. Either way, both were very cool acoustics in my book. This place definitely seems mostly electric/solid body oriented, it would be cool to see more acoustics. I definitely plan on getting into acoustics, but it will be a little bit before I start, I have yet to purchase all the tools I want for electrics and acoustics will require a new set of tools.

Well, I can't wait to see what you guys got going on! I really enjoy checking out the acoustics, which is why I like OLF so much. Plenty of acoustics to see in progress there. Best of luck guys. J

PS: Here is something I read a while back that might be useful to you, might not be. Just some general info on Hide glue.

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I'm sort of stalled, waiting for some slats for the bender, that sort of thing, but I'm hoping to get my bracing laminated, end and tail blocks made, lining kerfed, bending form finished and make a start on my rosette routing jig thingy today. Been absurdly busy doing all sorts of non-guitarbuilding related nonsense, ergo the not so much talk.

I did get a thickness sander recently. Makes thicknessing sides and backs sort of fun!

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I have had the timber for my first for a long time, but it seems my days go like this - Wake up @ 6, Work till 3, Get angry at traffic on the way home, Rest for a while, Sleep, Repeat.

Then weekends are filled with other crap i get forced into!

I wish i had some time to do something with all these random necks and bodies and timber!

:D

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RG man, I know how that is, what you have to do is set aside an hour here and an hour there. Fridays and Saturdays are my main luthier work days. Believe me, its a little here and a little there, order more of this, wait, redo this that etc....

You have to do a little bit at a time, then you get inspired to do more.

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I am pretty much in the same boat as Mattia and Rgman (Rg's situation REALLY sounds familiar) . I am working, but progress is really hit and miss. I am really bad about taking pics, and keeping up with in progress topics, especially because I get such small bits of time here and there. When I get my week off around Christmas(this is when I get a good steady chunk of build time), I try to take pics of what I am doing. Right now I am working on inlay for a project that has been slowely going over for 8 months(pretty sad :D ).

Peace,Rich

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I got two projects going at the moment 1 acoustic the other electric, although I really want to concentrate on the acoustic. I have the headstock scarfed on and when the truss rod finally arrived ( 4 weeks ) It was to long ( will do for the electric tho ) when I tried to re order it from allparts ( in the UK ) they don't do it in the length for an acoustic.

The one I wanted is a 2 way like the Stew Mac hot rods but a flat steel bar welded to the end nuts rather than two bars.

I'll have to phone David Dykes next week and get a suitable one from there.

I routered down a piece of 10mm ish mahogany to make the headstock veneer, glued it on and being that the edge of the veneer at the nut end is 90 degrees to the fret board ( as opposed to being level with it ) I will have to put some kind of rails so under the router when I route the truss rod channel so that the router ride over the top of the edge.

I remember somewhere on here someone said "sometimes it's not what you do, but the order inwhich you do it" wish I waited until that channel was routered before I stuck on that veneer.

And I must get a camera

Edited by jaycee
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I got two projects going at the moment 1 acoustic the other electric, although I really want to concentrate on the acoustic. I have the headstock scarfed on and when the truss rod finally arrived ( 4 weeks ) It was to long ( will do for the electric tho ) when I tried to re order it from allparts ( in the UK ) they don't do it in the length for an acoustic.

The one I wanted is a 2 way like the Stew Mac hot rods but a flat steel bar welded to the end nuts rather than two bars.

I'll have to phone David Dykes next week and get a suitable one from there.

I routered down a piece of 10mm ish mahogany to make the headstock veneer, glued it on and being that the edge of the veneer at the nut end is 90 degrees to the fret board ( as opposed to being level with it ) I will have to put some kind of rails so under the router when I route the truss rod channel so that the router ride over the top of the edge.

I remember somewhere on here someone said "sometimes it's not what you do, but the order inwhich you do it" wish I waited until that channel was routered before I stuck on that veneer.

And I must get a camera

Well, in a pinch, you can make your own one way truss rod, but the stewi mack thing is welded etc..

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yeah, where are they? There hasn't been a good old acoustic since Godin sd's way back when.

i'll be starting my build in a couple of weeks as soon as i get enough money

By the way I redid the neck joint on that guitar, french polished it and it's playing and looking good now. It's my main guitar, I played it out last night and got a bunch of compliments on it's tone.

My life has been a bit busy lately and I have not had a chance to post on here as much as I'd like. But even though you may not see any new progress pictures for a stretch I'm still working on guitars. I had to put the new acoustic build on hold because I got a part time job and was also doing some repair work. But now I've picked it back up and made a lot of headway in the last few days.

The body is done and the binding is oh so beautiful. All thats left is to fret/carve the neck and rout the neck joint. Then its off to the finishing booth.

Shouldn't be much longer now since I started working on it like crazy again.

I'll update the build thread with some current pictures later today. It's really looking nice and the tap tone is good, it should sound nice.

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acoustic builds?

like this you mean?

Walnut back & sides,

sitka top

mahogany binding

Maple mahogany maple lammed necks

rosewood fretboards

rosewood bridges to follow.........

Hoipefully I'll have her strung up by Hallowe'en

40600697.jpg

ALRIGHT!!

And lets hear some MP3's of these. Ill post some pics if my plane blade comes in Saturday. Top is X braced, and the sides will get matched this weekend for a top glue up next week hopefully. Then on to the neck!

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acoustic builds?

like this you mean?

Walnut back & sides,

sitka top

mahogany binding

Maple mahogany maple lammed necks

rosewood fretboards

rosewood bridges to follow.........

Hoipefully I'll have her strung up by Hallowe'en

40600697.jpg

Martin,

I would really like to see how you braced that monkey. That soundboard is going to have a fair amount of tension with 18 strings. The bridge configuration and placement looks like it would pose plenty of design challenges. It will be interesting to see how you worked that out. I am also curious about the width and depth of the box.

Peace,Rich

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OK, the soundhole patch is a bit rough round the edges, but it's for me and not for sale, and no-one will ever see inside but me and anyone who looks at this forum!!

I'd only started carving the braces in this pic.

there is another V running from the main X back to the tail block that went in after this pic.

This is the second of these beasts I've built and the other has had 10 months at full tension (none of yer detune a 12 rubbish here!!) with no problems.......

40600513.jpg

and the back.......

40600514.jpg

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OK, the soundhole patch is a bit rough round the edges, but it's for me and not for sale, and no-one will ever see inside but me and anyone who looks at this forum!!

I'd only started carving the braces in this pic.

there is another V running from the main X back to the tail block that went in after this pic.

This is the second of these beasts I've built and the other has had 10 months at full tension (none of yer detune a 12 rubbish here!!) with no problems.......

%7Boption%7Dhttp://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600513.jpg

and the back.......

%7Boption%7Dhttp://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600514.jpg

Interesting, That looks like it would be strong for sure. A sturdy A pattern with the main X between the bridges, very unique. Looks like the body is a bit oversized, how wide is the lower bout? and how deep did you make the box at the tail?

Oh yes, I neglected to mention. That rosette looks classy as all get out. Sharp!

Peace,Rich

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Looks like the body is a bit oversized, how wide is the lower bout? and how deep did you make the box at the tail?

dunno, it's still hanging up in work, drying over the weekend.........

l'll try to remember to measure it on Monday.........

Oh yes, I neglected to mention. That rosette looks classy as all get out. Sharp!

thanks!!

lt's definitely my best yet!!

it's only segmented as I didn't have a big enough offcut to make a solid one :D

40600674.jpg

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OK, the doubleneck progresses...

Double neck bridge.....

40600678-1.jpg

removing the varnish from the top so that the glue will hold the bridge in place.....

40600679-1.jpg

glued & clamped

40600681-1.jpg

SOME strings!!

now at this point the nut isn't glued in place. the screws which hold the tuners are still in the bag. the saddle isn't intonated (or even level) and the frets have been pressed into place but NOT filed or levelled in ANY way......

40600684.jpg

action's not TOO bad.....

40600685.jpg

and you know what's amazing?

it plays!!!

there is one high fret about #15 that need looked at, but below the 12th all the notes ring free!!

some one asked dimensions.....

body is 17 1/2" at it's widest and 3 1/2" deep

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