Official Luthiers Forum!

So this one's been in the works a while. It's based on an OM, with a few small changes to the shape and bracing.
Here are the credits:

Lutz top from Highmountain
East Indian Rosewood back and sides from Acoustic woods (a former OLF sponsor)
Koa binding from Highmountain
Faux bound fretboard from St. Lutherie
Cherry and maho neck are local
Pickup is a DTar wavelength
Polyester is by Michael Collins

I was excited enough about the way the guitar looks to have a friend shot a few nice pictures. The difference that a nice finish and nice pics make to the presentation cannot be overstated. As someone who is most concerned about the guitars function - sound and playability - it's almost spooky how much attention is grabbed by the glossy finish.

Soundwise, I replaced the two short finger braces on either side of the 'x' with one longer brace that runs almost parallel to the 'x', ala Lowden. The 'x' braces are tapered. The two tone bars could be called 'parabollic' even though they're not parabollic (we've had enough of that discussion for now). These small changes make for a sound that emphasizes the fundamental as opposed to adding extra overtones.

The soundport is nice for the player, as is what I call the Laskin inspired "semi-bevel."

Thanks for looking,

Phil Campbell-Enns

That is a beaut for sure!!!
Good Job....
Cheers
Charlie

Oh my that is one very classy looking guitar Phil! Wow!!!

Very classy, indeed. Love the bevel, but the whole package is very nicely executed and integrated, especially with the Koa binding.

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

Killer guitar. Beautiful work. I want to know how to do those lip type arm rests. They are so cool.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Great looking guitar Phil. I particular like the choices of wood and your finish. The Lutz is one of my favourite woods for the top. It's great to work with and produces a fine silky finish with great tonal values.

Regards,

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Michael Lloyd

“I was born to ignorance, yes, and lesser poverties ...
I was born to privilege that I did not see ... I didn’t know it, but my way was paved” – John Gorka

That is very nice!

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

Beautiful, Phil. I just love that headstock. Really, I love everything about that one!

I'm curious how much Michael charges for finish work. If I'm not mistaken, I think I live in the same town as him (Keswick, Ontario). If you'd prefer not to post this a PM would be great.

Again, that one looks just stellar!

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-Clint Beacock

Agreed, that is beautiful. And I too like the understated armrest bevel. Very classy.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Ditto on the armrest. Great looking guitar!

She's a beauty allright! Another thumbs up on the armrest.

Chuck

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Really nice guitar! Like to know some detail on the armrest also....

Phil, She looks great.

I really like the bindings and armrest!

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

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

Nice, Phil. Love the armrest! How do you like the Wavelength?

Which Michael Collins did the finish?

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Classy guitar…I love the bevel.

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Rich S

"The inconvenience of poor quality will linger long after the thrill of a bargain has been forgotten"

I couldn't see the pictures at work. Wow - that is classy. I too really like the armrest. It looks like it belongs there.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Beautiful Job! I'm jealous!

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Very elegant!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

thanks for all the kind words.
the finish is done by michael collins just north of toronto, ontario. great for us canadians to finally have someone on our side of the border doing custom finishing. being a hobby builder i don't think i'll be able to afford it on every guitar, but great to know that it's an option.
about the armrest, i'll look through my photo's tomorrow to see if i have a few of the process.
phil

Phil, is this "armrest" the same as the one you posted a while back about an alternative bevel process, or is it a lipped armrest? If it's a bevel, here is the previous post: viewtopic.php?t=16965

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

waddy, yes, it's the same thing exactly. i changed one little part of the process to make it even easier. i'll explain that once i have tutorial pics ready to go.
phil

hi Phil
sure is a classy lookin guitar
regards
Geordie

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some tunes on acoustic and guitar synth.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGeordieAdams
http://www.myspace.com/geordieadams

Very nice Phil!

Bob Hames

only having completed 9 guitars, i'm not going to presume to call this a tutorial. but i dug up a few pictures of how i make the laskin inspired 'semi-bevel.' hope it helps those of you who want to imitate it.

one note: necessity is the mother of invention. i wanted something softer under the right arm, but knew that i didn't have the building chops to pull off a full blown laskin bevel with all it's mitered purfling. so that's what led me to dream this up. it's way simpler, and turns out to add a lot of comfort with a lot less work than a typical armrest.

two things are important for my method - full height purfling (in my case it's black/white/black) and 1.5mm baltic birch plywood.

as you'll see in the first pic i cover the side of the lower bout with tape to keep from getting glue on everything. then i use the actual guitar side for the glue up to give the three pieces of 1.5mm birch it's initial shape. after the glue has set up, i try to neaten up that piece before gluing it into place, where it takes the place of the lower bout's lining.

once that's set up it gets hit by the sanding dish so that it has the same top profile as the rest of the side.

then after the box is glued together i use the router (i've got a binding jig that mark kett used to sell) to cut out a channel that is deep enough to hold two layers of 'inner' binding, then my purfling, followed by my outer binding. does that make sense? because i don't have a wack of wood around and because i couldn't see bending wood that was 4mm thick to go inside the purfling, i decided to fill up most of the channel with binding wood. i take a regular length of binding, cut it in half, and put both of those pieces in the lower bout portion of my fox bender to get them into general shape. if you look at the photo of the finished product, you can see that you need to look very closely to spot the fact that i've used two pieces.

each of those short pieces get cut and sanded to fit into the channel (sorry i don't have pics of this). i shellac the channel so that using CA to glue those pieces in place doesn't lead to bleeding into the top. those two pieces get glued in one at a time, taking care not to make the fingers a permenant part of the bevel.

once those first two layers are glued in the channel, i set my binding jig for the true depth of my purfling and the binding that will surround the whole guitar. if i've done this right, just a hair will come off the first two pieces of 'inner binding' i glued in. at this point the whole purf and binding routine is as per usuall.

the key for me is to use the full height purfs. that way, once all the glue is dried and you start to round over the bevel, you don't have any worries about running to the bottom of the purfling. i do the round over with a rasp and sand paper. i'm sure some of you would prefer a router for this.

i don't know if i've explained this very well, but the process really is quite simple.

let me know if you have more questions.

phil

Hi Phil,

I know I've told you this before, but I just wanted to say again how elegant I think your bevel is, both in looks and method - and, though I haven't held and played one of your guitars, I have no doubt it feels very good on the arm.

One of these days, I'm going to try a variation of your method on one of my guitars. I appreciate you sharing it with us here.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/