Sapphireblue

I finally bought his present! I pretty much turned around on every decision I thought I'd made... I went with a "serviced" stewmac 000 kit, not a custom pile-of-tonewoods dreadnought kit from LMII. The more I thought about the pile-of-wood kit, the more it seemed like maybe even for a woodworker that might be a little much on guitar #1? (just wait til #2 though!) Stuff like carving the neck, I don't know. If I'm wrong, he can always go buy blanks to replace what's in the stewmac kit with handmade parts Plus all the specialty tools involved in pile-of-wood, it's probably bad form to give people presents that cost them a lot of money, although on the other hand it's like buying woodworking tools, so maybe he just needs any excuse to do so? Kinda hate that there won't be any lacewood or bloodwood or wenge involved, but he likes mahogany just fine, and of course we'll have that spruce top y'all are so keen on ;D Thanks SO much for everyone's help and advice. I'll post back here and let you all know how the reaction to the present goes... and I'll of course suggest that he'll find friendly and useful folks here for his own questions. P.S.--stained glass IS fun! if you're curious about the process, check out my stained glass weblog at http://www.sapphireblue.com/dangerousart/ ... I take pictures as I build along.

Oh, well, Maui. You're right, that's not fair. Tho honestly, beaches bore me a little. I'm more of a mountains-and-streams girl, but that has a lot to do with being a Siberian Husky owner (I'm pretty sure Husky Heaven must look a lot like the Columbia River gorge). I don't have kids but I imagine the contagious glee of taking the dogs for a romp/swim/hike is probably not so different from the happiness of watching your kid tear up Disneyland! Funny you brought up inlay... the other day, looking at rosettes got me Googling to see what exactly marquetry is. The whole concept of just stacking different veneers atop each other so when you cut through all of them everything fits like puzzle pieces? My first thought was, what I wouldn't give for glass to work that way. Re: Mattia's shop, I got no problem with wood-hoarders. My theory is, the resulting eventual "oh my god, I have way too much stuff" is part of the reason you can find big stashes of nice wood for way, way below retail on eBay. So it works out in the end for those patient enough to take advantage

Hey, thanks for the reading material. Man, I wish I'd had this brilliant idea of mine a couple months earlier. Thank god LMII has fast shipping. He's not as lucky as I am Nor apparently as lucky as you are, in light of your location which I just now noticed. We're in the Washington DC area and just fell in love with Portland/Oregon last year, and let me tell you I am ready to pack my bags and leave. Noticed the other day on some "luthier schools and instructors" page that OR has more than its fair share too, which makes total sense in some way I can't quite put my finger on...

OK, OK! I'm totally positive that when & if Husband picks up this guitar-building thing and runs with it, he'll learn about the tonal qualities of different woods, including spruce. Until then, I gotta generate enough excitement for him to actually want to build the guitar out of the box of lumber and hardware he'll be opening up on Xmas. Sizzle first. Then steak! But the strength-to-weight-ratio thing is actually a really interesting bit of technical info, so maybe if I can read up on Why Spruce Rules enough to be able to explain it to him in an intelligent way myself, I can counteract any "box of spruce... you shouldn't have" reaction. If all else fails I will blame the Internet. That means you guys I've also been meaning to read up on mahogany as a soundboard (I'm sure it's been discussed here, will check the archives), and with your note of caution I will definitely do that. Was planning to go that way b/c a) I trust LMII wouldn't sell a certain wood for a certain part of the guitar if it was totally unsuitable and Husband and mahogany play very nicely together. Thanks to everyone, really, for trying to keep me from messing up too bad. Hope I don't seem too stubborn. Wish I had something to offer in return... er, if anyone ever needs any guidance on stained glass construction, drop me a line?

Mattias: thanks for advocating restraint. Most reasonable of you I know wenge isn't the easiest thing to work, but isn't all wood with pronounced figuring or grain going to take some work to bend to some extent? Yeah, there's a lot of different stuff happening in the woods I listed, but I think it could work. Not to all tastes I'm sure. Still, honestly, I'd be shocked if he built a guitar using only & all the woods I buy. If I just get things I know he likes, then when he decides to buy different tonewoods, at least he'll use the stuff I bought for boxes or something ;D The cocobolo's the one thing I don't think he's ever worked with, but I thought it'd look kind of fly with wenge. If I buy a spruce top, I'm 99% sure he *would* replace that with something else. Even if I told him that the entire guitar-building internet seems to agree it's a great tonewood, he'll have to get past his anti-spruce prejudice on his own. He's not accustomed to taking woodworking advice from me But: yes on the mahogany neck, 100%. In that, at least, I am content to stick to basics Jon: that *is* pretty. Looks like it's got an awful nice finish on it too. Interesting distinction tho between building for solid-body vs. acoustic. I'm going to have to point him to this forum when the time comes. I imagine that the collective knowledge here would be a tremendous resource for someone on whom it's not half-wasted... as opposed to someone like me, whose primary woodshop talent is a careful pour of India Pale Ale. (Hey, same as my musical talent, whaddya know!)

Good input from both of you, thanks. You know, I don't even know if what he does is fingerpicking or flatpicking. Seems pretty intricate (Mark Kozelek? Jose Gonzales?) so I'd've guessed fingerpicking but if you guys are saying the Alvarez is a strumming guitar then, cripes, who knows. Am leaning away from lacewood now... can only get it from LMII in backs/sides, and I just wasn't coming up with woods that are available for the other parts that seemed to arrange nicely in contrast with the lacewood... now I'm thinking wenge back/sides, mahogany front, curly maple binding, bloodwood headplate & bridge (he likes all of these) and cocobolo fingerboard (out on a limb here). He tends to think of spruce as a pretty crap wood (from a furniture perspective). Of course I know there's a vast amount of sound consideration to these woods that I'm totally ignoring in favor of aesthetics but again I'm musically illiterate. High school mixed chorus, back in the day, never covered this stuff... Was hoping to come up with something close to what he had, just in case he DID hate smaller instruments... never expressed it to me but I've never gone guitar-shopping for him before Still, a) dreadnought kits are pricey, and I think the Alvarez is a "thin-body dreadnought" so he can't be too hung up on having the biggest guitar around. So yeah, I'm looking at OM now. Hope it's not too tiny, hubby's long & lean and would look silly playing a ukelele Eek, I ramble. I didn't realize this site was more electric-focused. I'll find OLF and see what I can find out there. Thanks so much.

Heh. See, by now, in our household, woodworking gifts are expected and par for the course. This year I was going to get him the pretty Dozuki pull saw he's been eyeing forever, but you know, he's been eyeing it, so where's the surprise in that? His wallet hand isn't broken, he can buy it himself. Anyway. Thanks for the stewmac tip. I know they're very well-regarded, but LMII's seem more customizable. I mean, even if my boy never builds this guitar, I will get *hardcore* wife points for buying a kit with lacewood parts. He's been looking for an excuse to use lacewood for ages, but it's awfully flashy for most furniture applications.

Hi all. I've decided to buy a kit for my sweetie for Christmas. He is an acoustic guitar player, and a fine-furniture woodworker, so this seems a good fit. I'm liking Luthiers Mercantile's kits because they seem to be very well suited to someone who might enjoy the process & handiwork of cutting and carving himself (as opposed to some kits I've seen which seem to be more like model airplanes, where the only tool you need is glue). And because I can pick the woods. My husband has very specific tastes in lumber Now the question: he plays an Alvarez FD-60. Is there anyone who might be familiar with that guitar and with Luthiers Mercantiles' kits who could tell me which kit type is comparable in terms of size & shape? They offer "steel-string" kits and "dreadnought" kits, but the steel-string kits come with dreadnought plans, and I'm just terribly confused. Too, the dreadnought kits are way more expensive, so if I can work off a steel-string kit I'm a happy girl. I'm going over my Christmas budget no matter what kit I buy but it seems like such a perfect gift that I can't help myself.