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Here's the second of two but with an oval hole rather than F holes and an attempt at a moonburst. Haan's beautiful bursts were my inspiration but for some reason, this one looks nothing like his, ha! I'm gonna need to spray a few more to get anywhere near. It's for my wife and she likes the burst, so a good place to learn <g>.

Bigleaf Maple back and sides, engleman spruce top, maple and walnut 7 piece neck and walnut binding.

Macassar fretboard and African Blackwood fittings. My wife wanted a D'Aquisto style bridge similar to one I've done on another archtop.

There's a K & K Pure Western Bass pick-up in it. Sounds great to me both acoustically and through my P.A.

I've still got to get at the Meguiars compound left in the pores on the walnut binding using a toothbrush and lighter fluid. If anyone has a better method, I'm all ears as it is tedious.

My wife works at an Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine college and is learning Mandarin, so she wanted the inlays to be Chinese symbols. The headstock one means "Beauty" and the twelfth fret one means "sound".

Thanks for looking.

Oh my! That is a strikingly beautiful guitar! Nice job.

Absolutely sweet ! Great work !

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Really nice Darrel!
Cool bridge,
beautiful piece of work there.

How do you build the tailpiece? I am starting on a double bass soon and the tailpiece is a part that I would rather build than buy on the first try. I may end up with exotic fire wood.

Bob

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Bob, a double bass is quite different as it uses a tailgut. For this one, I bent and inlaid/epoxied a 1/16" thick piece of brass into the blackwood tailpiece. The rear is drilled and then screwed into the tailblock.

Thank's knock-oy, nice one!

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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 lookin' bass Darrel! I know what you mean about Haans' moonburst (...it's on my list! <g>)
I too particularly like the bridge. Have you done any side-by-side comparisons vs a thumbwheel version?? I'd be interested in impressions having done both.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Thanks Colin.

Dave, I've tried a thumbwheel one on my other archtop with the wedge style one and wasn't able to discern any difference in sound. Could be those years with the 24 watt Craig Powerplay 8 track in the confines of my 260Z that did me in though They are a little easier to build than the thumbwheel ones and look pretty cool I think. As far as the moonburst, I may have to try the airbrush and/or keep practicing with the mini-jet to develop my chops.