Hey, guitar gurus
I finally finished my first build! Wow, when I first took this project on I thought it wasn't going to tough, and with my background, I would be able to walk through it with out much trouble. I have built a few electrics. I am a second generation cabinet maker, and I have two fully equipped cabinet shops at my disposal. With all of that what could go wrong, I even have a book, plans, and all of you guys to help walk me through it all. This was most certainly the 25 year old maturity creeping out of me during this line of thinking. I can honestly say that I know for a fact I am pretty competent wood worker as well as a problem solver, but this project has humbled me to the fullest. I have been punished for all of my various faults as a wood worker through out this build and ultimately it has made me a better wood worker for it. I started this project without a plan at all. I found a board of Brazilian Rosewood for near nothing and decided heck I should make a guitar out of this. I subsequently bought all of the necessary materials and went to town. I learned the hard way, that if I would have spent some time really thinking about the process and read the book prior to building I am sure I would have completed this guitar much sooner. Jigs
I thought that I could free hand my way through everything. If I would have built some jigs and got ready for the build prior to cutting up anything I would have been much better off. I am professional, and at work I would never think I could get by with this attitude, maybe my largest error was putting a dead line on it. By me putting a dead line on this project and thinking about how long things should take caused me to do work over and over. Its funny that when I started reading on this forum, I could never understand why some of these guys would build so many guitars. I now get that it is a learning process and cannot be mastered your first go around. Building acoustic guitars is definitely not easy but is definitely possible as long as you work smart, plan, and enjoy the build process. I tip my hat to anyone who has completed one. I am only revealing my errors to others to help encourage that even someone who has experience and every tool he needs can struggle building instruments.OK now that I got that off of my chest about my guitar. It is an OM body shape with a curly maple bound 4 piece BRW back and sides. The top is Adirondack spruce and is bound with a double bwb stripe and curly maple. The rosette is myrtle burl with a snakewood outer ring. The mahogany neck is "1 piece" with a curly maple center stripe with black on each side of the maple. The fingerboard is maple bound BRW that has been scalloped. The headstock overlay is maple bound BRW with a snakewood accent on the top, and the back overlay is dyed myrtle burl also. The bridge is EIR with snakewood pins. The sound is fantastic. I am very pleased with the sound it is very harmonic, bassy, and louder than any OM I have played yet. Honestly out of all of the things I have built since I was 10 this is by far the rewarding thing to date.
Thank you for reading and checking out my work
Robbie
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