Myka Guitars

Thanks MiKro! This is a big help. I sent you an email with my info.

~David

ps: Thanks to you too Scott. I appreciate the offer!

Thanks for the links, I appreciate it. I didn't even think of pen blanks!

The wood is going to be made into little knobs for the slidercontrols on a Fishman preamp. I am mounting it in the side of an acoustic guitar I am building and the little plastic gray knobs it comes with have to go. The guitar has bloodwood binding so it is either this or ebony. I think the bloodwood is the way to go.

This is the guitar.

Mikro, I will wait until I hear from you.

~David

Got it covered thanks to MiKro!

Thanks,

~David

Thanks guys! This one really took me in a different direction. I am currently designing a version of this style guitar that I will have as a standard model. It will be slightly smaller in size, about 15" in the lower bout, but it will be a fully carved guitar just like this one but I will probably use the Lollar humbuckers.

So where exactly does one buy a Skyway tremolo? Very classy.

Love the nice and simple top on this one....and I like the choice of the TV jones too.

To order a Skyway you need to contact the maker at http://www.skywaymusic.com/. Rick Huff is a great guy to work with and he is a total stickler for details. The finish on the tremolos are perfect! This tremolo is a different concept than anything out there. He uses a flexure beam that is basically a set of four flexible metal bars securely fastened at right angles to each other. It 'pivots' where they intersect. Hard to describe but the benefit is that each bar is solidly attached to the base of the trem and the moveable part. This results in a very positive contact between the strings and the guitar body. It has the sustain of a hard tail setup because there is no separation between the moving parts of the trem. The only drawback for me is that the trem is not yet available with piezo/hexaphonic capabilities.

The TV Jones pickups are pretty nice and they nail that jangly tone perfectly. With the separate volume controls for each pickup you can roll back the output and get a good variety of tones. My client has a specific need for the TV Jones tone and from his description of what he is hoping to do with the guitar these are the right choice. Overdriven this guitar was amazing. It cuts through like butter!

~David

After many delays this guitar is finally complete. This was one of those projects where the specs kept changing throughout the build. Not a recommended practice since it really tends to stretch the schedule out a bit. It is better to have your clients stick with a design. Having said that the end result is better than the original concept so it did work out for the best.

If any of you ever had the chance to play a 335 style with all solid woods you know how good this guitar sounds. The acoustic tone is beautiful. I rpesonally woudl have put a set of humbuckers (Lollars are sweet) but my client is into that jangly tone so we went with TV Jones instead. These are still some great pickups that can acheive a great variety of tones.

For more finished pictures click here.

To see progress pictures click here.

~David

I understand that the neck block will be larger but it will not be rosewood like the heel would be and should be lighter. In my experience this area (neckblock/heel) is not really that important in terms of weight since it is so close to center of balance when sitting or playing with a strap. Using a lighter or heavier tail block would make more of a difference I would think. For me it is not as much cutting down on weight but achieving an overall balance. That is why I woudl not hesitate to use a rosewood neck heel or not.

An acoustic without a heel is pretty easy to get over once you play one. Without a structural purpose it just gets in the way of the player (just my opinion, of course).

You will like the cocobolo for an electric. It is my favorite rosewood to use and they feel awesome. Keep us posted if you do a cocobolo necked OM. I would like to see your approach to it.

~David

Dylan,

No problem. I played one of Klein's L45s and it had a rosewood neck. The balance was really nice. You can see his neck joint on this page.

Yes, the neck joint on my asymmetric acoustic is similar to a Klein except that I glued mine in instead of using the 3 bolts that Klein uses (it was a client request). Basically all you need is a neck block thick enough to hold the neck heel (which does not need to be more than 3/4" if you want (mine was 7/8")). Then install some inserts into the neck and use some machine screws with washers to hold it down.

I agree that getting rid of the heel makes for some great accessiblity. It makes sense when using a dovetail but for a bolt on style there really is no need for a heel at all. Just enough to hold the inserts seems fine to me. I think my next acoustic will also have a rosewood neck. I have a piece of Boi d'Rose that is almost as light as black limba and it just rings like a bell. Very sweet!

~David

Man that is sweet! Your finishes are very, very nice. Great job on the design too, I always liked that one. Can't wait to see what you do with your acoustic.

~David

Rosewood necks on acoustics do sound really nice. Steve Klein uses rosewood for a lot of his acoustics and I have not heard that they are neck heavy at all. He doesn't use a large heel like a traditional guitar. It is built like an electric neck and bolted from underneath inside the body. I agree that rosewood is not that much heavier than maple or even some heavier mahoganies I have used. Stay away from cocobolo unless you use a very heavy body wood, but most other rosewoods should be fine. A bigger factor would be the tuning keys due to the leverage they have at the end of the neck. Use the lightest possible like the open backed vintage style (Waverly's are very nice).

~David

Thanks. I went with a set neck on this one. It works pretty well and as you can see there is plenty of room to work with on that saddle. It sits up pretty tall. Of course the neck can be steamed out if necessary in the future just like a dovetail (only easier). If I were to make one for myself I probably would use bolts for the neck attachment.

~David

Great looking guitar! My compliments to the monkey that made it .

Oink.

I agree that side stiffness might be a very good thing. The less vibrational energy that gets absorbed by anything other than the top the better, it seems. Maybe laminated sides might also be a good thing. That woudl be way stiffer. And a laminated, brace free back like the Smallman classicals? Who knows what will come out of the laboratory next?

do you have any pictures of the un-assembled joint?

No I don't. I is a simple neck pocket like a solidbody electric. You just need to make the neck block thick enough to accept the neck heel.

~David

Long time no post. I have completed the wild asymmetrical acoustic guitar at last. The result is a wonderfully balanced guitar with some serious volume and projection. I am very pleased with the results of this one. There are some unconventional concepts at play in the bracing, especially the top. I do think that the carbon fiber rods are a great idea for string tension transfer to the sides. It stiffens the whole side assembly immensly. This redirecion of stress allows the top to be braced more lightly then before. The double x-brace is still standard thickness but the rest of the braces are lighter.

The finish is Tru-Oil. Yes, even on the top. And you know what? It sounds great. Of course there is much speculation on how oil affects the resonance of an acoustic top. I didn't lacquer it first and then remove the finish and put the oil on so I have no way to compare the results of one over the other (it is my guess that no one who condems oil has done this either). The guitar has so much sustain and the harmonics jump right out of the guitar. Of course the old spruce and mahogany might have something to do with it. I cannot tell any difference from oil to lacquer except for softness of finish. I still recommend lacquer for the top but this was a client request.

Great results overall for such a wierd design concept. I am pretty pleased. It shipped this afternoon to Seattle, WA. Home to the mother tree.

Here is a picture of the completed guitar:

For more pictures click here.

~David

The wood is pretty easy to get a hold of. If you are using mahogany and korina you don't really need 'archtop wood'. As long as the wood is in the dimensions you need it will work. Preferably you would want quartersawn wood (as suggested in the Benedetto book). Look up Gilmer Wood Company, Gallery Hardwoods, LMII.com, and even StewMac (watch out for prices). You will find a lot of wood to choose from. PM me if you can't find what you need.

Air dried may not be an option with some of the african woods like korina which is always kiln dried. Most wood is actually. Air dried wood is preferable to some people but it can hardly be said that you need to use it. There are so many guitars that are made with kiln dried wood that sound great.

Planing is a process where the wood is machined to a uniiform thickness. Jointing produces a smooth straight edge 90 degrees to the planed surface. Ideally a jointed edge is ready to glue together. Some builders use a handplane to make it perfectly smooth.

You can tap a board to hear if it resonates at all before you buy it but tap tuning is a different thing. This was talked about in this thread (discussion starts on the 2nd page about halfway down).

Are you building a straight up Benedetto archtop or something of your own design?

~David

No reason to hold out! It has been done before, I actually got the idea from TimTone (who builds amazing instruments). The new supply is Silver Supplies. The tubing size is .129"OD with .105" ID. It's a cool touch. I get my brass and copper for doing the same thing from Home Depot.

~David

Thanks everyone for the support! Mykian, I like it!~

Most of my guitars are actually not like the 335. The 335 styles have a big block of wood down the center and are not true hollowbodies. #051 is a one-off project that was client designed.

I prefer the tone and playablility of the Dragonfly guitars personally. They are designed as a fully hollow carved top hybrid electric. They have all the big box jazz tone with a very comfortable body size. Add in an acoustic pickup and you have some great tones. Actually the Dragonfly sounds great unplugged. Since the top is carved and the spce beneath is fully hollow with bracing (like an arcthop) they have that alive feel. I know what that is and I love it too! Nothing else has it. Oh, and the action can be set up however you want it, it's just a matter of the setup.

wierdOne, I sent you a PM.

~David

Before you spend the cash at LMII or any other place try the source:

Omega Engineering-silicone heating blankets. Product number SRFG-636 is 6x36 and will cost about $75 US. The cheaper price may offset shipping a bit. They have many different sizes as well so you can customize your setup to your needs.

~David

Did some more work last night. I decided to add some carbon fiber supports from the end of the neck block to the sides. I have always wanted to see how this affects top vibration by transferring most of the string tension to the sides where it can easily be absorbed without the chances of twisting or warping. It is extremely stiff now. I like it!

I noticed that you use a similar type of neck block like I do. Do you use a bolt on neck joint?

You know I had something designed almost like yours at first. My cleint changed his mind and wanted something more like an electric so I am going to glue the neck in in the same way as I do my solidbodies. That is why the neck block is so thick. It has to accommodate 1-1/4" of neck heel.

I love what you are doing as well. The Kasha variation is very cool. I eventually want to try to build with the Kasha style, or perhaps mopre influenced by Steve Klein. Whatever I do I have decided to build more acoustics in the future. They are such wonderful instruments to build and play.

Thanks Godin, it helps to have a creative and exerimental client to work with. I am trying to make the guitar a balanced strumming instrument so I will carve the braces so the top remains a bit stiff. This way you can lean into it without it going into plate distrotion. The asymmetry stems from the concept of having the bass side more flexible and the treble side stiffer. I want to try and get as much headroom out fo the treble frequnecies as possible hence the number of finger braces on that side. This area taps out with a crisp 'ping' so I think I am on the right track with it. I learned bracing theory from a builder who did not focus on specific geometry but instead emphasised working with the concept of a soundboard that has different areas of frequency response and bracing and carving to acheive that. A good amount of the work is in the carving of the braces. I will try and even out the gradual changes in pitch by tapping aroudn on the top and carving where I need to.

The back will be tuned to a lower frquency as this is where a lot of the bass is generated in my experience. I think of the top as a steel drum with overlapping areas of frequncy response. And I think of the back and a big sub-woofer and tune it accordingly. Since the body is going to be fairly thin the guitar shoudl have a lot fo projection as well.

Ideally it will sound pretty darn good! When I complete the guitar I will record the it and we will hear how close I get to my goals.

~David

Wow there are some awesome builds going on in this thread. Very cool!

I finally have something to add to this threadand it is an oddball for sure. My client (my good friend Rick) gave me a drawing of a shape with soundhole locations and a wierd bridge shape. The construction details are all up to me as long as the aesthetics are followed so naturally I decided to have a little fun. The body is a slanted asymmetrical shape with 2 soundholes at opposite quadrants of the soundboard. I went with a double x-brace system of bracing with finger braces stiffening up the rest. The neck will be a glue in design much like my solidbodies simply because I wanted to try something different. There will be very little neck heel. All in all this one is a radical departure from my regular designs but I am pretty excited to get to play around a bit.

The woods are figured Honduran mahogany for the back and sides and some old Sitka spruce for the top. The braces are stiff Sitka as well. The neck will be Honduran mahogany with a boi d'rose rosewood fingerboard.

Here is the top:

And here is the rest of the gallery: Acoustic #013

Braces are profiles but not yet carved. I will do that after I get the kerfing on the sides and before I glue the top and back on. This project is going to go quick so I will more pictures soon.

~David

I would reapir it and play it. I don't know of any builder who actually prefers their instruments in a case or in disrepair. Do the instrument justice and maintain it so that it can play music again. Can you imagine anyone leaving a Stradivarius unplayed? They certainly would not be as collectable if they were all left broken.

Here's a goo article from Frank Ford:

simple top crack repair.

You can see more articles here:

Frets.com lutheir page. Scroll down for repair articles.

Do the repair and get another 100 years out of it. That would honor the instrument much more.

Just my $0.02.

~David

Sweet looking axe Drak. That wood is the bomb. Oh, man!

You have inspired me. After seeing another of your posts I went and bought an angle grinder. After you get past the gyro-wierdness of it you can really get precise with it. I roughed out the inside of a maple back plate in about 30 minutes and was able to attain a fairly uniform 1/4" thickness all the way around. Nice!

Question: where do you find the flap sander discs?

~David

I like the analogy of a speaker cabinet. Imagine if all you had was a woofer. Tweeters really add some dimension to the overall sound. This is how I envision the guitar's top. In fact the way I do mine is not in half at all but a gradual increase in stiffenss from bass side to treble side similar in concept to a steel drum.

Of course a single speaker cone does cover everything and illustrates that a uniform soundboard can also work. The trouble with this theory is that as far as I know it has never been tried. Even a Martin soundboard has areas of differing stiffness. The asymmetry is more back to front than side to side.

Russ, Tom Ribbecke makes a halfling bass that is close to what you describe. Check it out.

~David

Rich is right, the guitar might need to be altered too much to make a taipliece work correctly. The Selmer-Maccaferri style has that classic gypsy jazz tone that Django was popular for. If this is the sound you want then a taipliece is essential.

Check out this site (last picture shows bridge/neck angles and action): Selmer style guitar

Here is another site: http://www.michaeldunnguitars.com/

~David

Cool, this should be a pretty good thread.

As for special bridge area treatment have a look at this page (scroll down): Frederich Holtier, classical builder

As for materials I would choose what you are already familiar with so the subtle changes will be more perceptable to you. I would imagine a significant change in the overall character of the top but with differing materials it might get lost in the mix. I do think a side by side method of experimentation is an excellent way to do this if you do go with unfamiliar materials. I mention this only because I speak with many people who change 5 or 6 variables at once and can't eplain their results.

I am not sure what would work best for gluing the nomex composite but perhaps epoxy is a goo dway to go. I would call LMI and ask them. They should have that information.

I'll try and dig up some more info and post later.

~David