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It's been strung up since March 2nd but just now getting around to taking pics (surgery and a minor monsoon season <smile>)

Kit from John Hall. Carpathian Spruce top, East Indian Rosewood back/sides, Honduran Hahogany Neck with flammed Maple stripe from Hannali-Moon, Ebony fretboard, Ebony Pyramid bridge, ivaroid binding, herringbone purfling, zigzag backstrip, pickguard material from Mario Proulx, gold mother of pearl headstock inlay, KTM Spar Varnish finish, and Zpoxy fill.

Built similar to pre-war specs:100deg X-brace angle, 1/4" scalloped bracing, pyramid bridge, etc.

Special thanks to John Hall who answered many build questions, Mario Proulx who have me good brace tuning advice, Al Carruth who helped with mode patterns, Todd Stock who advised me on using Zpoxy, and Randy Muth who was very helpful giving me info on using KTM-SV. Of course many others here on the OLF were a big help so I'm almost embarassed to name only a few. Thanks for all your help!!!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Looks great!! good job!!

Pretty nice looking for first build. Nice job on the finish too. I'm on 6 and I still cant get my finish that nice. Jason

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Darryl: Super guitar,how to go......!
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Congratulations Darryl! Nicely done. Are you looking forward to more?

Danny

Thanks for those kind words.

#2 is a Cuban Mahogany and Lutz 00 for my middle daughter. She can play this one but it's too large for her so I'm going to try what Todd did and put a 12 fret, slotted neck on a 14 fret 00 body (a Norman Blake style 00).

A friend wants me to build him a square neck resonator so I will be building that at the same time. I had previously planned to build a bluegrass dreadnaught (my real passion) for my second build.......but my daughter is spending a lot of time trying to learn to play on this guitar (which doesn't fit her) so I've changed the plan. I couldn't turn my friend down on the resonator build as I've always wanted to build one.....so the dreadnaught build will have to wait.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Very nicely done, Darryl!

Great job!
I like the binding/end graft and the pickguard.
Also everything else about it.
I don't know, or can't remember all the Martin shapes.
Is that an OM?
I like the shape of the upper bout where it hits the neck.
Sweet!
Next...........

Alan, yes, it's a 000/OM body.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Here's hoping I can come even a little close to that on my first build
Looks really good!

wow! I love it. puts my first to shame. did you make the headstock inlay? can we see a close up of it? everything about the instrument is very very tasty looking.

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

Great looking guitar there, congratulations. How does it sound? What things will you do differently on the next guitars for tone and construction methods?
Rob

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http://shastaguitar.com/
http://www.kalimbakit.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/comfyfootgr ... ature=mhee
http://www.facebook.com/robert.renick.7

Martin, I'm a bad photographer so I was never able to get a good pic without glare and shadows........but here is a pic of the headstock that has a shodow right on the end that makes the headstock look awkwardly shaped. It's just an illusion. Also it has a lot of glare so doesn't show the wood grain well......but at least you can see the inlay some.

For the inlay, I signed my last name a bunch of times with a felt tip pen that made a wide mark and finally made one I liked. I scanned this in on my printer/scanner in very high resolution and cropped out the signature I liked best. I sent the cropped file to Andy DePaul who had a PhotoShop guy outline the signature. He sent it back for review and after a couple of tweaks back and forth it looked pretty good. Andy had someone (maybe from Vietnam???) cut out the inlay to match the drawing and they sent it to me. So I inlayed the gold mother of pearl into the headstock but I didn't cut out the pearl. Here is the pic and again, I apologize for the poor quality.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Rob, I'm surprised how good it sounds. I did everything I knew to do to increase bass response and it seems those changes also made it loud.......and it is surprisingly loud. I think about all 000 have a pretty good high end and this one is no exception but it has a pretty good low end, especially for a 000 body, with a fairly good bass "whomp" like the bluegrassers like.

What would I do differently for tone? I had the Chaldni patterns very nice.......but they all changed when I trimmed the top down closer to final size and I never got them quite as good as they were before the trim. This makes me believe I left the top just a tad too thick for a 000 body but would probably have been perfect for a dreadnaught. The top is 0.115" thick. Now I reference point to use for future tuning so maybe I'll be better on the next one. A thinner top might improve the bass response, who knows. I might thin the perimeter of the lower bout a little more on the next one as well.

What would I do differently on constuction? I will make sure I have a great fit of the bridge plate angles to the X-brace before gluing (ended up chiseling one off and making a new one). I attempted to cut the binding channels so I would scrape the top/back down to the binding but I went a bit too far. And I'll make sure I have everything sanded nice and level before I start pore filling (now that I understand level <smile>.....maybe my biggest mistake). Also, I will take more time positoning the head plate laminate so the gap for the nut is just right and angled properly when glued on (it was a pain to cut and fit later). Finally, I will angle the saddle back on the next one so it will be close to vertical after string tension is applied instead of leaning forward. After pulling/leaning forward, I don't quite have the compensation I wanted on the Low E string using medium gauge strings.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Nicely done! Congratulations on a good job!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

That's a really great looking guitar, 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.

Very nice. That's a big achievement. Looking forward to seeing more to come.

Aaron

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Aaron Craig

Very nicely done, Darryl...congratulations!!! That's a great result not only for a 1st effort...it would be acceptable for a 5th effort.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Excellent job Darryl!
I hate to disagree with JJ, but I think this would also be great results for a 6th as well!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Thanks again for the kind words!

Honestly, this turned out better than I expected. It's not perfect though. The fit of everything is good but the finish isn't where it needs to be and it shows in some of the pics. The finish on the top turned out only 0.0015" thick on the samples removed to glue the bridge so I want it a it thicker on the next one. I learned from spraying the body and did a decent job on the neck (and put more finish on the neck). One thing I'll say is that the KTM-SV makes a great finish for a neck.......looks nice, feels nice, and is very protective. Overall, I learned a lot about finishing and I think the next one will have a significantly better finish. So I hope to make a big jump in finish quality between the first and second builds.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......