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Robbinst

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Posts posted by Robbinst

  1. I'll be honest, at the time I was an apprentice still so I was broke but I wanted to gain experience and build my designs so I  chose woods I could afford. Bloodwood and hickory are cheap and readily available so that's what I went with. Both guitars sound amazing. Crisp, clear, balanced, loud, and very responsive. I used 3 plys on my sides. Both inner and outer layers are hickory and the middle ply is either maple or mahogany, I forget what I had laying around for that one.

       The back and sides do play a role in the overall tone for sure but will not make or break it as far as sound goes. My main concern is the material properties of the top. I could put an amazing top on any kind of back and sides and it would be a great instrument but I could put an okay top on a set of Brazilian and it would probably never be anything spectacular.

     

  2. So the bloodwood acoustic had been wrapped up by the end of August just in time for the Northwoods seminar at Galloup guitars. This is a 4 day seminar where the best of the best get together to learn, to teach, and to catch up on what everyone is doing. It is held once a year and is really something special. I was able to hand my guitar off to names such as Charles Fox, Tom Ribbecke, Michi Matsuda, Dan Erlewine, and TJ Thompson to have them critique my work. It was very exciting and they all had good things to say about not only the aesthetics but the sound it produced. I was also able to listen to a truly talented fingerstyle player take it for a spin and that just blew my mind. A video was taken of the player, Kinloch Nelson, trying it out but it was unfortunately lost in the thousands of photos the photographer was taking of the event (heartbreaking). I'm still hoping it pops up one day but it seems unlikely at this point. Here is link to the seminars face book page if anyone would like to know more about what takes place. 

    https://www.facebook.com/NorthwoodsSeminar?fref=ts

    Here is my buddy and fellow apprentice, Matt, trying out the newly completed build

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    The positive feed back has only made me more motivated to continue building and I am well into my second acoustic which is a Hickory L00! This build includes a sapwood hickory back and laminated sides with a sitka spruce top, mohogany neck, ebony fingerboard and binding, and some more of that specially made wood for rosette and peghead adornments!

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    • Like 2
  3. Thanks for the feed back guys! I'm working late nights and even though I could probably get this thing done in a matter of hours, sleep keeps winning that battle. Here are the last few pics before final assembly!

    The sound port door with freshly sprayed finish. Still gotta wet sand and buff

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    Finalized bridge and glue up

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    I was torn between black or chrome tuners for this build and while I like the picture I took of the chrome ones better, the black ones look much better in person. I like the stealthy look that doesn't distract for the peghead inlay.

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  4. Please by all means continue with the discussion! This thread is just a spot for me to post all my pics and not clutter the forum. What ever discussions branch off from them is just an added bonus and they are more then welcome!

    The super soft interests me a lot because I do have a cutaway design I would like to use but it involves a very tight radius and I want to stay away from a florentine if possible. I think I might give it a shot! I've got some black limba back and sides that I'm itchin to use so maybe I'll jump on that once I get this build in the booth.

  5. Blood wood is a b****, plain and simple. It's absolutely gorgeous and explodes when any finish is applied but getting it to the spray booth can be a nightmare. I was forced to do a laminated back because the plates had slight cups and when trying to flatten them out to join, I heard the crack of doom. Blood wood is dense, heavy, a pain to work with, and not ideal for back and sides. I'm worried that my back will dampen some energy in the system because of its physical properties. I will definitely avoid this wood for the body on future builds.

    All that being said, I totally get the desire to push through the difficulties and get to the spray booth. I didn't have any issues with bending the sides. I used a fox style bender with nicely quartered grain cooking at about 300 degrees until I could hear the water boil rapidly and then I bent as slow as I could. I also used a double layer of spring steel to support the bend. As for the cut away I have no experience bending that tight of a radius with this wood although it sounds like it's as difficult as I would expect. I suppose my advice would be to go the non cutaway route if possible or to consider a pieced cut away such a a flourintine variation. These would change your plans a bit but might be the only way to get the blood wood to cooperate short of soaking and cooking the hell out of it and hoping for the best when you pull that tricky bend.

  6. Thanks for the kind words Scott!

    The dangus wood is a variation of resin wood turning blanks. Wood craft sells them as fijiwood. I found a dealer that was making nice stuff so I asked about buying some to use in my guitars. He saw my work and said something along the lines of trading material for a guitar, so I light heartedly said that would be a lot of material. Well he didn't like that answer and stopped responding to my emails and wouldn't let me buy anything so out of spite I made a pressure chamber and now make my own material using various wood/ resin combos and use them in my guitars as a way to stand out from traditional wood or shell adornments.

    This guitar used a peice of blood wood that was shattered under 12 tons of force and placed in the pressure chamber with black pearl resin to create a block of material to be cut up as needed.

  7. The link at the end of the last post was a video of the sound port

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    perfling

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    I made the end wedge on this and when I sanded it flush I ended up with a poor miter and a large gap so I cut it out and gave it a second go

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    I was much happier with this one

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    Next it was time to bind...in ebony!

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    Detail shot

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    That's all I have for ya at the moment but thanks for looking, I should have this finished up in a few weeks so stay tuned!

    • Like 1
  8. Hey guys! It certainly has been awhile. Im not sure how many will remember me but hopefully there are some and other new friends who I will be glad to meet. I started building and posting on hear a few years ago but took an extended break after atending the Galoup school of lutherie for their 2 month Journeyman program. With the skills I had developed through trial and alot of error as well as alot of help and advice from this forum, I was able to impress my instructors enough to have been offered a 2 year apprenticeship. I am about a year and a half through it and I love what I do. Every two months we receive a new batch of students from all over the world (England, Iceland, Australia, Canada, China, just to name a few) that I help teach how to build and repair guitars! Its very awesome and I would like to thank those of you who offered your help when I was just starting out.

    I have shifted my interests to acoustic guitars and although I was not allowed to build them for myself for quite some time, I have recently begun a build which is progressing nicely. Please let me know what you think!

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    Both the back and sides are laminated bloodwood to add strength to the otherwise unstable species. it love to crack and chip if youre not careful.

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    I have been experimenting with creating my own material for accent pieces to stand out a bit. It is lovingly call dangus wood at the shop :rolleyes:

    Here it is utilized in my rosette!

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    As well as the headstock overlay. If the parts are not perfect I wont put them on the guitar, third time was the charm with this one.

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    Close up of the miters

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  9. Hey guys! Its been awhile but I am finally back from The Galloup school of Lutherie! I would like to do a full write up about it for those who may have thought about going do the same path or for any one who is a bit curious as to what you actually do during the program. I would like to ask where would be the best place to put it though? Should I include it in this thread or is there a more appropriate section for this sort of thing?

    -Tyler

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