Hey guys,
As many before me, I’ve taken my time lurking in the shadows before having collected enough guts to go about and post something. I am very thankful for the existence of this community as I have learnt heaps by looking at other people’s builds. Lately I’ve seen a bunch of archtops being built and now that mine is nearly done, it feels like the right time to post. Let me know what you think!
The gitir is my third build. I really enjoy building things in general but the awesome thing about guitars is that once the project is completed, I get to play it! I don’t want to build guitars just for the sake of owning more guitars and so to me, a new project needs to have added value in terms of the manufacturing process and as a (playable) guitar. Since I had never built an acoustic guitar before and do not own an archtop or multiscale, I reckon this point is dealt with. In the relative context a statement like this can be made, I drew the design myself. That is to say, I took elements off of other guitars that I liked and blended them in to create a beast to my liking. The specs are as follows:
WOODS Neck: Laminate of maple and walnut Fretboard: Ebony (scale length is 24.75” to 26.5”, 23 frets because of a huge “Doh!”-moment) Headplate front: “Art deco” maple and ebony Headplate rear: dyed veneer (since the ebony cracked at the volute) Top: Spruce Sides / back: Maple
HARDWARE Tuners: Schaller Bride: Saddles and posts from Wilkinson roller TOM bridge, remainder was fabricated by me Tailpiece: Ebony with a steel hinge. Pickup: In the making
I’ve got a lot of pictures and will not be posting them all but if anyone has a specific question I will try to answer as clearly as possible. Oh and most of them have been taken with my crappy phone camera.
The design:
The materials:
Gluing up the neck, top and back: