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I delivered guitar number 2 last light, but I managed to snap some pictures beforehand. I built it for my good friend, and his wife happens to be a professional photographer. She agreed to take some better pictures for me, but these will do for now.

The guitar is loosely based on a J-45.
-Black Walnut neck, sides, back, and rosette (with zipflex purfling)
-Adirondack/Red Spruce top
-High flame Koa from the Zootman for the bindings, heelcap, and tailwedge
-Rosewood fingerboard and bridge
-Truoil, open-pore (except for headplate) neck
-Body was pore-filled with Zpoxy and shot with Colortone/EM6000

The guitar represents numerous first attempts for me. I processed the back and sides (a first) from boards my friend's grandfather had cut from a tree off his farm about 20 years ago. I chose the best of what hadn't been severely damaged by water from the leaking roof of the old barn it had been stored in. The back is far from well quartered, but the wood seems very stable, looks very interesting, and is very special to my friend. I also used hot hide glue almost exclusively for this one (another first). I really like hide glue. Additionally, I always admired the mitered purflings I've seen on many of your guitars, and gave it a go on this one. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I had imagined, and I love the look of the tail wedge. What else . . . first time binding the fretboard, spraying lacquer and buffing lacquer, using a backstrap on the headstock . . . I'm sure there are more, but I'm tired and you're probably just ready to see pictures. So here ya go.

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Aaron Craig

Forgot to take a good picture of it, but the soundport on the side of the guitar is in the shape of a large whitetail buck track (like those on the fingerboard). My friend is an avid hunter, and he and I grew up chasing whitetail deer around the timber. So I thought it was appropriate.

Also, the guitar has been strung for about two weeks now, and is developing a very nice sound IMO. The bracing is ultra light, and the guitar responds well to a light touch.

If you look closely in this picture you can kind of see the soundport, but I know it's not great. Hopefully, I will have some pro shots soon.

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Aaron Craig

Looking good Aaron!

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Nice!!! I love the look of the koa bindings on the walnut.

How did you like the walnut for the neck material? It looks great.

Thanks very much John. I have to credit you with the greatly helping me voice this guitar. Your advanced voicing DVD is golden, and I can't praise it highly enough.

I could easily write a short treatise on all the mistakes I made during the build. And I could easily point out about 20 imperfections presently on the guitar . . . but I won't

Thanks again.

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Aaron Craig

The walnut worked very well for the neck. I was really worried that it would be much more difficult, but I enjoyed the process and like the result. It was a bit more difficult to carve than the mahogany neck I did on number 1, but not bad at all. I would, and most certainly will, use it again in the future.

Aaron

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Aaron Craig

That's one beautiful looking guitar! I have been very much drawn to walnut lately and am thinking of building my next out of it...Inspiring work!

Great work. That Black Walnut is awesome.

Marc

Excellent work
As said in that other thread, I love the binding/purfling scheme. I think I know what I'll be doing when I get to building up my black walnut set

Love the inlay theme. Certainly do see a lot of those when hiking around here Probably could use more hunters to keep them from overpopulating so much, although personally I like to just romp around barefoot and try not to scare them.

Nice choice on the neck wood, and finish too. Mahogany is getting quite tiresome to see. I haven't tried tru-oil, but I love the open pored feel. Light French polish is my favorite. Pretty much just a wipe of shellac, and then one pass of polishing to burnish it smooth. Softer than factory satin finishes, and less sticky/grunge-collecting than glossy lacquer.

Very nice job and the finish looks great. I built an almost identical walnut and spruce dread with a deer track side port back in November. Wish I would have used the tracks as fret markers like you did. They look great. Amy reason you put a marker at the 16th rather than the 15th fret? I used buffalo antler for the nut and saddle to keep with the animal theme. Deer antlers are too soft or I would have used them. Nice work. I am sure your friend is elated.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Great looking guitar. Congratulations!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I knew someone would call me out on the 16th fret track. Well, my original intent was put one more track at the 14th. Knowing that my friend almost never ventures that far down the fingerboard(I taught him everything I know about playing guitar, which explains his total inability to play lead), so the decision to forego traditional and logical marker spacing past the 12th fret in favor of what I thought might be a bit more asteticly pleasing didn't really bug me. The later decision to skip the 14th fret marker was less well planned and is not as easily defended. I told my friend I would build the guitar for the cost of materials. I charged nothing for my labor on this guitar and honestly lost money on materials. This being my 2nd, you can imagine the time it took me to cut the deer track markers that are on the finger board. By the time I got to the 12th fret inlay, I had 2 remaining jewelers' blades left and thought I should do the smaller track first because I wanted a smaller track coming in from the left side of the fingerboard to give the impression the deer wandered onto the guitar. So I cut the 16th fret marker, placed it in it's present location, and thought it looked pretty good and I had spent enough time on the process already. Good or bad, that's why there is a marker at the 16th fret.

Thanks for the comments. Anything else anyone finds strange or deficient, be sure and let me know.

Aaron

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Aaron Craig

Good enough for me! Shell cutting does get tiresome. I've been working on this batch of flower petals and leaves for the rosette I'll be demoing at the St. Louis gathering. And I wet cut everything to contain the dust, so it's even more annoying having my fingers all pruny (although it does result in less broken blades I think... only 2 died on this whole bunch). Usually have to take a break every hour or so to let them dry back out and recover a bit from all the pressure holding down such tiny pieces. Worth it though, for the pretty shiny pictures

Looks good! As a fellow hunter, I also appreciate your inspiration for this one!

Best,
Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Aaron,
I wasn't being critical, just wondering why you put the footprint where you did. I know a guy who intentionally put a tuner out of place because the guitar was for a woman named Peg, who, according to him, was a little off. Thus the tuning peg was a little off. It's personal touches like that, that make the instruments we create so personal and special. Again, you did a great job and I don't see any flaws from where I am standing.

Tony

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Tony, didn't think you were being critical. It's a very valid question and as my response makes clear, there really wasn't a great reason for my decision. There are most certainly flaws. I'm sure when the pro pictures arive with some close-ups, there will be more opportunities for welcome constructive criticism. There is still much to learn and many techniques that must be refined.

Aaron

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Aaron Craig

Looks really good.
And congrats are in order for the nice tight miters around the butt wedge.
2nd guitar, eh?
Impressive.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I have always wanted to mail one of my guitars to a pro for a pull no punches, see if you can make me cry type of evaluation. So far, I cant stop playing them long enough to have them go away for a couple of weeks, but I have some evaluators at the ready should I change my mind. Criticism can only make your next guitar better. Or, the tears might raise the grain and cause the finish to be poor. LOL

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Yeah definitely impressive looking second build. My second build looks awful but still sounds good

I love using walnut too!

That looks really nice!

Matt