Official Luthiers Forum!

Here is my latest guitar. I got some great feeback from you folks a few months ago so I will ask again. I know I can continue to improve my aesthetic design skills so please tell me what looks good and what doesn't - I'm interested in your opinions.

The woods are Madagascar Rosewood/Sitka, with a redwood rosette and mahogany neck and bindings. The lower bout is 14.5" and the length is 19.25". It is the first guitar I have done with laminate sides. I'm very pleased with the sound.

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

I like it!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

That's a beauty, Dave. Nice work.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

That is one great looking guitar. I don't know why you are asking for help on the aesthetics...It looks like you got it more than just right.

Congratulations!

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

Love the shape in particular. Rosette, headstock, everything I could see looks tasteful and sweet.

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Gabriel Regalbuto
Carlsbad, California
Freedom 35!

nice work dave. i like it. there's something that is gibson L'ish about it, with out it being a direct copy. something old, something new. very nice.
phil

I don't think that there's anything that doesn't look good on this guitar. I've seen quite a few guitars where right away, I was like, "I don't like this, this, this, and that. Oh, and that too." But that said, here's what I think, to my eye, could be... different.



First, the fretboard/neck. It looks pretty massive; it almost looks as if it were for a 7-string. Keep in mind tho, I haven't seen lots of small bodied guitars. But I feel you should either enlarge the body, or narrow your fretboard. Not by a lot, but still.

Second, the heel. Then again, simply a matter of personnal taste... I'm not a fan of squared off heels, I prefer the round or pointy ones. But heels like this one are not that common, or at least I can't recall seeing one, so for that I take my hat off to you for doing something different!

Last think, the headstock. I think it is to close to the same width as the fretboard. I like headstock that expands a bit more on each side.


But other than that, it is a pretty sweet guitar, and I feel it must be nice to play some fingerpicking on it!

One question, is your rosette one solid piece of wood in which you routed channels to put the purflings in (to define 9 pieces)? If so, did you consider trying to make the white purfling lines connect to the white in the purfling AROUND the rosette? (if that makes sense...?!) Because this would surely look stunning!

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Olivier Gauthier
Montreal, QC

I like it and am certainly no one to critique design work but, of course, I do have an opinion. I really like the rosette. The only thing that caught my attention was the tuners. They seem to stick out too far from the headstock. I suppose I might consider making the headstock just a bit wider to keep it all in proportion. As a guy with big fingers I wouldn't want to narrow the fretboard as that would make it less playable, for me anyway.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I like it in all aspects, but if I had to point to something, I would think about making the head a little larger/longer to balance out the instrument somewhat. It is a lovely shape though, I would keep that shape.

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

Nice work! I really like the soft waist.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Dave whats not to like

Overall, very nice design Dave. My eye is immediately drawn to a few things that are unique on your guitar: The finger board end termination, the cross grain on the peg head and the squarish heel cap. The first two are unique and I have never seen these done before and I like them. I "personally" like rounded or more traditional heel designs as opposed to a square one but that is strictly my tastes. It does tie in with the square top line on the peg head and FB end termination so you get points there too The back is rather plain except for the flat sawn grain but it may have benefited from a center B/W/B inlay strip to tie in with the rosette and top purfling schemes??? Nice job. How does she sound?

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Looks pretty nice to me too Dave .. well done. I bet is sounds as good as it looks ...

One thing looks out of place to me though - in talking with a student just last night about designing a headstock, I agree with some as to the tuner/headstock combo - 510 tuners with full size buttons are too massive looking for a martin-esque style peghead. A better choice may have been to go to the mini 510s, or at least full 510s with the smaller buttons (I actually just ordered a bunch that way, as no one sells them). As well, 510s are large enough that they benefit looks wise from a setback of 9/16s from the peghead edge for the tuner hole. You could even go a touch more.

Another option is the vintage style waverlies or gotohs

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

overall I like the guitar. If I'm forced to be critical I would make the headstock a little longer so the tuners are not so close to the top. Also the bridge pins are vastly different heights. I'd try to make them all even. Other than that I really dig it. Very nice body shape. Cool rosette. I'm not a huge fan of the bridge shape, but that's just personal thing. Overall I give it a big thumbs up.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

I think that you are at a point where comments will be about smaller and smaller details. Asking this sort of question to such a wide range of people will get you an equally wide range of answers.

I think that you did a pretty good job. Anything that I offer is a matter of personal taste. In that vein, I feel that the heel is too chunky and that the comments on the tuning machines are on target.

A simple attitude to keep in mind when working out your aesthetics is this:will you ever feel the need to apologize for your decisions? Work towards confidence.

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

I love the body shape and overall aesthetics
Personally I would add about 1/4" to the length of the headstock and round off the heelcap to complement the rounded upper bout area at the neck joint.
Lovely instrument
Jeff

Rounding the heelcap and a Heshie-ish stealth bridge for me.

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"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

This is great feedback, thanks a bunch.

The rosette was constructed as a single piece, slotted with a handsaw for the "radial" purfling, then cut out and inlaid into the soundboard with the outer purfling. I agree proper mitres on this type of design is a nicer look, but I wasn't confident that I would be able to pull off that many tight mitres.

As to the sound, it is my best to date. A fine guitar for strummed accompaniment or fingerstyle arrangements.

Before seeing your comments I recognised the headstock design as one area to improve. Also I am not a fan of flatsawn wood, it's a long story but I got this for a song and decided to use it.

After seeing your comments I think you are bang on about the tuners, both size and lay out. Also, although I like "squarish" heels I agree this one is still a little clunky. I have to admit it was a bit sloppy taking the photos without seating the pins properly, thanks for calling me on that.

Thanks for all the comments.

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

What tuners are those? I see LMI has some Gotohs dubbed "mini" although they look very similar to yours already.
A possible change to the design would be to make it a 12 fret joint, with slot head.
Looks very nice as is, BTW.

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Build log

They are Gotoh 510s.

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

I like it a lot. It has an understated elegance and appeal. I have no problem with the headpiece. It is very clean. The grain is interesting and I like something a little different. If your thread title was No Critique Please-It is Perfect I would have been cool with that!!!!!

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