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Well, I finished my first build this morning! Starting from scratch and with almost no tools at all, three months seems like pretty good time! I'm pretty pleased with the result. It plays well, although I'll be tweaking it for a while I imagine. The sound is great too! It has a great high end and is pretty loud. Visually, there are some things that I could have taken more time with and been more careful with. I wish I'd been more careful with the redwood top, as there were a few little gaps and chips that I filled that are slightly noticeable and the finish isn't perfectly level on it. Otherwise, I think it turned out pretty great. It was a unique and pleasant feeling playing for the first time and instrument I created. Anyway, here are a few pics.

Yay!
Nice looking instrument ,
Very nice back on her.
You did good boy.
Have a beer on Duh Padma

Now...quit resting on your laurels and go make another one.
Then another and another and you get the idea.


Nice work. Now you know that feeling inside, and there ain't nobody ever gonna take that away from you.

Blesseing

Peace and carrots
Duh
Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Very nice Ellison!!!!

Congrats she looks fantastic!

Are the sides and back Cuban Mahogany?

What's next?

Congrats !!! Looks beautiful.

Completing the 1st is really special (after that the desire to complete another instrument can get a bit compulsive )

Enjoy that achievement

Well done!!! Isn't the 1st just beautiful to play? It is good to be pleasantly surprised by how all your hard work sounds.

And WAY TO GO on 3 months!!! That is incredible. I finished my 1st last year after 14 months - 3 months was my goal

I really like your back wood and your rosette - beautiful and rich. What are the back and sides made of?

You say you built it from scratch with almost no tools at all? What tools did you have? I am just wondering as someone working on my first build who always feels the need for more tools. Did you route or dremel the binding, or did you hand cut it? How about thicknessing the top?

Thanks, and by the way it looks great! These questions are just to help me out a bit.

Jonas

Looks great. Congrats. A lot better than my 1st, 3rd 4th....
How's it sound?

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Greg
http://garibaldiinstruments.com/

Very nice! Way to go.

Chris.

Great job Ellison! I would sure be proud of that build.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

A very handsome instrument - congratulations and well done!

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Very nice and amazing time-line for your first build where a lot of time is spent on building jigs etc. How about more info on materials and kind of finish.

Cheers,
Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

Congratulations!!! She looks great!

As others have asked, I'm curios what the B&S wood is. Also the bindings. It all looks fantastic. You should be proud.

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

Sweet build! Congrats.

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http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

All of the above!!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Great job!


Isn't that a great feeling? Putting strings on number one, and hearing it for the first time?!

Now on to number 2!

Looks Great , sure is nice to finish that first instrument and find out
that it sounds great- "whoa, I can do this!!". And doing it from scratch
with few tools is a real accomplishment. Of course, unless you're very
lucky, now "WAS" (wood acquisition syndrome), and "TAS" (tool acquisition
syndrome) will kick in, and life is never the same...

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

Wow, beautiful! What a great first. Hope it sounds as good as it looks!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

The whole instrument looks great however I love the back on that one . Great work !

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Ellison, really nice looking gtar!!

Chuck

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Thanks for the replies everyone! It's nice to hear some feedback from the more experienced builders out there. Anyway, the back and sides are actually monkey pod. I was a bit surprised no one guessed it!

Anyway, as for tools that I had, about the only tool that I had before I began the build was a jigsaw. I ended up buying or building lots more over the course of the build. The most useful tools that I bought were definitely a set of chisels, lots and lots of clamps, a small block plane, a scraper, lots of sandpaper, a router, and a drill press. I also made several useful tools including a fox style side bender, several cam clamps, and a binding router jig.

Great job. That back is killer!
Rick

You expect us to believe that was your first one? Come on!!!!!

Just kidding - Great job!

She's beautiful.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.