Official Luthiers Forum!

Recycling at it's best, and a history lesson to go with it.

Thanks Lars for sharing your passion of guitarmaking with us.

These will likely end up in museums with your name now...

.... now part of the history.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Thanks folks, youre being too kind.

Billy, the finish is nitro, and NO stain. Im till amazed this is the natural color of the wood.

Dave, we have had wood experts looking at this in microscopes, and even they arent shure. But thay think the hull is in cuban and the deck is honduran. Considering he was kinda wealthy, im shure this was the highest quality he could find back then, so its probably a bit over 100 years old...

Arnt boy, yes we have to meet! You're in trondheim right? Speaking of braz... just gotta post these fabulous photos taken by a friend of mine, Jens Larson at geronimo studio here in stockholm. This is the third guitar in this batch that I started back in april.

My mother has a mahogany buffet in her living room that has the same depth of color! I wonder if there's some way to force new hog to get that color! It's gorgeous!

You got the plugs from the same scrap wood?

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Lars Buddy!

Absolutely stunning, as usual! I've has the pleasure of hanging out with Lars and playing one of his guitars, and I'm sorry Arnt, but they sound even better than they look! Let me know when you get to the States again my friend - I'll show you around Montana.

-Mark

_________________
Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

trippguitars.com
OR
Find me on Facebook

Very nice!!

Did you use original mahogony to plug the holes?

What a cool concept.

Mike

Lars,

What a great story and beautiful guitars.

Your post was brought to my attention by a friend on another forum. He remembered a post of mine along the same lines as yours.
I purchased a teak deck board from the battleship U.S.S. California which was sunk at Pearl Harbor. The ship was later raised and taken to the Puget Sound Naval Yard for repairs. My dad, a 17 year old Navy Seabee at the time, worked on the repairs. The California was able to return to duty and was retired in about 1959.
I plan on building some tenor ukuleles from the wood in the near future for my kids.

Reading about your build has fired me up. I hope I can do the wood justice.

[*]

Thanks for posting,

Lefty

Yes, the plugs were taken from the scrap, some were 10 mm and could be cut with the 'plugmaker' (wallbit is the transation i can get?) and some had to be fit by hand.

Lefty, thats going to be some cool ukes! The history of those are going to top mine.. please post some pics of the project!

I took some closeup pics.

Inlay at 7th fret


Original brass nail!


Rosette


Headstock


Bridge:


Have great day,

Lars

Lars, that's the most elaborate story I've ever seen hatched to cover up a luthier's build errors!!

....richest man in the world......famous American film stars.....indeed!?

Just kidding ya mon. The guitars look fantastic!

Thanks for sharing the story and the guitars with us. The world is indeed a richer place for your efforts!

Cheers,
Dave F.

_________________
Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

As a boat builder and a guitar maker, let me say that I love these guitars. That you left the bung holes is even better! I prefer the 00, just because the world already has enough Dreds.

_________________
Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Wow, that is really cool! Can't really say I have seen a guitar with much more character than that. It's amazing how wood like that can be "recycled" in a sense, and be crafted from something beautiful into something else thats beautiful. Keep up the good lutherie bud!

_________________
Jake Archer
~~Make a joyful noise unto the Lord~~

Hi Lars,

I was wondering if you could tell me what type of glue you used to install the plugs. And, did you have to drill the original holes a bit larger so that you would have a nice perfect hole for the plug to go into.
I am still in the planning stages of my "Battleship Ukuleles."

Thanks,

Lefty

I'd just like to echo everyone else's comments.

I wonder how many of the rest of us, seeing that original board, would have said "Nah, sorry, it's just got too many holes in it"

Hi,
I drilled the holes to fit a 10mm plug, except two that were too big. On those I fit the plugs by hand. I glued them in place with titebond, and when leveled i put thin CA to fill tiny cracks that may have occured when hammering the plugs in... On the back I have little mahogany reinforcements alternatively braces glued over for support too. The sides are laminated with a 'solid' piece of honduran as a inner veneer. Wish you best of luck with the ukes, looking forward to see the results!

Thanks Lars,

I will post it when I start working on it.

Thanks again,

Lefty

Holy cow! (Has anyone said that yet? If so, it should be said again.)
You're an amazing builder, Lars. Anyone who can bend a plug has got my vote.
Also, I like how the Taylor Pallet Guitar has been totally one-upped.
Or in this case, two-upped.

And by the way, start a new thread with that Brazilian beauty.
Here's a "Holy cow!" for that one, too.

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Creative, inspiring, .....and just beautiful!!!

_________________
Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Wow!

Lars, this is just too cool! I think being able to show someone my guitar and tell them it was made from my boat would be very cool. Quite the accomplishment. Many thanks for sharing!

Ken

_________________
http://www.casperguitar.com

I love a story like this. She's a beautiful boat and those are some lovely guitars.

I have to agree, a FBJ article would be great. I don't think I've seen a reclaimed wood
guitar that I like as much. The beauty of the wood and workmanship deserve some
real publicity. Very nice work, congrats!

Bruce

_________________
Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."