Martinedwards

and the neck (walnut) under way too.

trussrod slot cut, maple veneer and rosewood fingerboard stuck on

back glued on & edges trimmed.......

rosette is leopardwood with maple purfling.....

REALLY neat work!!

Chrome acoustic isn't my style, but I LOVE that wood on the heel!!

and the back bracing

and as for it taking two years?

I'm a teacher. I get locked out of my7 workshop for two months starting in July.....

the PLAN is to have it assembled, and possibly even finished by then.....

huh, spent most of today teaching..... YUK!!!

anyway, I cut & glued in the neck & tail blocks

Ah, you spotted the cunning..... well, mistake!!

I've kept the bits I cut off so one will be glued back in there. I reckon there will be plenty of grip with the rest of the neck block and the sides, and anyway, the jion will be covered by the neck anyway.

you got good eyes!!

trim the excess from the sides. the tail wedge will be opened up after the tail block is glued in.

plane the sides to 2mm. steam the sides with a wallpaper stripper for 5 mins to loosen things up then bend on a hot pipe. Clamp into the mould to dry and harden.

OK troops time for a step by step, more for my ego than anything, but hey, if you find anything more important than my ego I want it taken outside & shot!!

Time scale is a quickie. I want this strung before the end of June. Its a "pay it forward" project. A number of people have been REAL good to me so I'm passing the goodness on. A young worship leader somewhere in Northern Ireland will be getting a new guitar before christmas. He or she doesn't know it yet, because he/she hasn't been found yet. I have a bunch of folks thinking & praying about nominations. All I know is that it won't cost them anything. (and they'll be right handed!! if a lefty comes to my attention, the next "pay it forward" axe might be a lefty)

BTW, if you haven't seen the film, "Pay it forward" is a goodie. the world would be a better place if more people saw this film and acted on it.........

So, using the same jumbo shaped mould that I used for the zouk, and the oak & granadillo guitars. I like the shape, but I'm going to make a cutaway too.

top is AA sitka spruce with a LITTLE bearclaw figure which you wont really see in the pix til it's under finish....... so a few weeks anyway!!

so, top halves joined and a bit of basic Jommetry.....

the centre of the soundhole is 145mm from where the 14th fret meets the body.

the soundhole is 100mm diameter

the cutaway in this pic is rough. the real one will be bent freehand.......

So how did you make your recording? Was it mic or PU.

You really do seem to be covering a lot of ground with different styles of instruments. Experimenting is cool.

Peace,Rich

a really cheap mic that came free with a voice to text program.....

some day I'll get a decent one!!

as for the pup, I've tried it with the Laney session 40 that I keep in the workshop, but it'll get to go with the Marshall as50r that I keep in church tomorrow.

experimenting is cool, but any scientist will tellyou that mad stabs in the dark don't often produce good answers!!!

I REALLY gotta settle down!!

ok folks answers......

Looks cool, that leopardwood sure nice. Not my favorite headstockshape, but that built in tuner must be nice to have. Are the other 17 also acoustics?

one fretless bass, one Les PAul & the rest were acoustics & mandolins

And was the soundclip : Well Alright by Blind Faith followed by Classical Gas (not sure about the first one)?

I'm not sure about the first one either... just a wee twiddly bit...... but the second is Classical Gas!

I like Leopardwood. Interesting #18. After 18 what are you mainly building for(to experiment with woods, bracing, better details, different designs, tighter construction,better finish)? I ask because I know I find I tend to work on improving certain aspects of my guitars as I progress along. It seems like you are certainly building a lot of guitars(I remember looking at your bass and a couple other boxes not too long ago).

I need to settle down and concentrate on a single aspect or two. I have the guitar shaped Mando sorted (after 5 of them) but I've never made two guitars in the same mould so there is a random aspect to it all......

the bracing is deliberately light to bring out the bass. there's just the main AX and very little else, I reckoned being a small top it wouldn't NEED much else.......

thickness is about 3mm and it'sa low grade Western Red Cedar top.

and you have great eyes, because you're right about the fret ends above the 15th.

I just HAD to get the strings on to try it y'know?

once it's had a few weeks to settle I'll pull it apart again, tidy the frets, put in a label etc.

you have too many pictures...

aw sorry theres a limit on here isn't there?

force of habvit on other fora.

just a thoiught for the mods etc, but you can code a limit rather than just post it (where I'll forget and get told off for breaking rules I'd forgotten... )sorry again.

OK folks, here's no 18 virtually done

back & sides leopardwood.

top cedar

neck mahogany/cherry/walnut/cherry/mahogany

fingerboard rosewood

binding rosewood

purfling maple

bridge an offcut of the neck

rosette leopardwood

bone nut & saddle

rosewood pins

Gotoh Tuners

eT-5 preamp/tuner with an under saddle piezo

and a wee soundclick here.........

OK, good bits?

well it looks good, sounds good and feels great to play. from a distance of 3 feet or more it's BEAUTIFUL!!!

bad bits?

well there are two bubbles in the scratchguard, but hopefullty I'll get those rubbed out.

there is a score on the headstock.

there was a wee bit of tear out on the upper bout cutting the binding.

the heel body join isn't the tidyest.......

but I LOVE IT!!

I use the furniture bolts that Cumpiano reccomends on his website. easy to make, easy to dismantle later.

Go into a music store that sells some new American made acoustic guitars,

or any other nationality.

boy you collonials are Xenophobic!!!!

nice stuff man, nice stuff

just curious

did you shape the bracing?

yup, but I didn't get a pic before I stuck it all together.

looking at it nom the soundhole looks a little small. OK, it accentuates the large body, but I may open it up into the rostette before I permenantly fit the neck.

or not!!

it'll always be amped anywat so not a problem as far as volume is concerned.

neck is a lam of mahogany maple walnut maple mahogany

fretboard glued on

neck carved.......

and set in place but not glued yet...

I precut my neck blocks before glueing on guitars, but for some strange reason I chisel them out on mandos after the binding is on......

go figure!!

All he says is good, but I'd freehand with the router. It'll all be covered when you put on the cap anyway......

watch out for the belly curve on the back of the strat body.

obviously this will hit the inside routing unless you plan ahead!!

if yopu're using a LR Baggs X-Bridge you don't need to worry too much about hollow bodied resonance. I have one aon a solid strat and it's great!!

as for thickness, I took the back of my last "carved from a block" hollowbody to 3mm on a vertical mill

back bracing.......

back on

top on..

and here's the three little pigs I'm working on.....

a maple mando, a leoparewood 00 and the bass.

sadly (who am I kidding???!!) as I'm a teacher I'm off on two weeks holiday for Easter so no more progress til then.......

Ok here we go on the build then.

I decided to go slightly bigger than a dread so I'm using the same mould I used for a doubleneck last year.

linings glued in.......(one edge anyway)

and a start made on the rosette

the ring is cherry and it'll be purfled with soem BRW veneer that I found in a cupboard!!

Quick rule of thumb on saddle (and bridge) weight.

A heavy saddle doesn't move as much or as quickly. therefore the BASS will be reduced (and it will SOUND brighter (but quieter) than with a lighter saddle

I built a cedar rosewood jumbo that was REALLY Bassy.

bras bridge pins quietened it but brightened it too.

Aluminium is light, so it shouldn't affect the tone from bone........... (I guess!!!)

If you bounce an email they send you (mailbox full etc) you'll get dropped from the membership roster.

well THAT explains it!!!

like the idea of guitar-like acoustic bass. Surfing around for info/ideas, I came across a critique by William Cumpiano, luthier and acoustic guitar construction author. He might be overly cranky, because he's earned the right and likes to exercise it.

Cumpiano isn't cranky, you wanna cross Rick Turner!!!!!

think Simon Cowell from American Idol/X Factor....... you KNOW he's right, but BOY he rubs people up the wrong way to make his point!!!

I'd already read the Cumpiano article and I agree whole heartedly with all he says.

it's true. to get a BIG acoustic bass sound you need a HUGE box and preferable a way of constantly exciting the string........

that'll be a bow then.........

Hmmmmm have I just designed a double bass?

Like I said right up at the top of the thread, it'll always be amped so I'm making a dread body. I have the sides 1/2 bent, so when I get them done and in the mould I'll start posting pics.........

well different strokes for different folks I guess.

the resource that they have is superb, it's just a LOAD of work to get there!!

the OLF is a great spot too......

Oh I know, but I'm on my 4th log in user name over there as the passwords don't work (and no I haven't just forgotten them!!!)

Don't get me started on them as I DO respect what they's doing, but it's as cumbersome as a supertanker in a swimming pool.