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The Dragon is born!
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=34049		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Lindamon [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:32 am ]
Post subject:  The Dragon is born!
I wanted to post these here as a thank you to all of you for the invaluable knowledge I have learned from all of you in the last couple of years. Especially Todd Stock, who's every word I read as from on high! :) His recommendation of spray guns for sunbursts gave the result you see here, my first attempt at one. It has one coat of shellac over the stain, and 7 coats of lacquer, one of the thinnest I have done so far.

It's a resonator, my second, maple body and neck, ebony trim and fingerboard. My wife designed the dragon soundholes. It's a full open body, no soundwell or even sound posts, very modern sound. Mine is patterned after Tim Scheerhorn's guitars, he is the best in the business, and mine has one of his spun cones, and I use a similar interior baffle in mine. I'm very pleased with the sound.

thank you all once again for generously sharing your knowledge.

Damon


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Author:  WaddyThomson [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
That's very cool! Beautiful work! [clap] [clap] [clap]
Author:  WudWerkr [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Very Beautifull work ! [:Y:] [clap]
Author:  Chris Pile [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:51 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Me likey!
Author:  banjopicks [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Oh yeah! That's a keeper.
Author:  Colin North [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Really fine!
Author:  jfmckenna [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Wow!!! The dragons breath fire. [:Y:]
Author:  DannyV [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Sweet! Love the Dragon holes. What did you use for reso hardware?

Cheers,
Danny
Author:  mnemotorsports [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 1:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
wow7-eyes love the sunburst /maple. very nice
Author:  Don Williams [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 1:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
She's a beauty!
Author:  Darryl Young [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 1:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Very nice! Love the Dragons!

Did you use 3/4" ply under the maple top or could you get away with a thinner ply? FYI, I'm starting something similar built out of Claro Walnut.
Author:  ernie [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 2:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
great job, keep it goin.
Author:  Michael Smith [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Outstamding!!!!
Author:  Lindamon [ Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Thank you all! I am happy with it, both visually and aurally! Can't wait to start on the next, either rosewood or some really sonic teak I have.

Danny => I used Gotoh tuners, a spun cone from Tim Scheerhorn, a number 14 spider from Beard, and brass gold plated coverplate/tailpiece from from Beard that I had stripped (the gold had worn badly) and powdercoated locally. There are cheaper available, but they are not for me. The bridge inserts were made by me, they are maple capped with a material Tim Scheerhorn likes to call "Ebonex", which is a paper/resin material of some type, used in industrial electrical fabrication of some sort, I believe.

Darryl=> I used 1/2 inch plywood cut in about a 1" wide ring around the soundhole, with extensions and fingers let into the kerfing, neck and tail blocks for support, instead of using a soundwell or sound posts. Here is a picture of it being glued in before I glued the top on and routed out the hole for the cone. You can see a line drawn in the approximate position of where the center is going to be cut out.

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Author:  Nicholaspaul [ Sat Oct 29, 2011 1:04 am ]
Post subject:  The Dragon is born!
That....is stunning!
Author:  Lindamon [ Sat Oct 29, 2011 6:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Todd Stock wrote:
I'd like to see more constructions pics - that is one nice looking guitar.


Thanks Todd, unfortunately I don't have a lot from the beginning of the project, I started it over a year ago, and then built a 2 or 3 dreadnaughts before getting back to it last month or so. Here are a few.

Here is the neck, dragon stencils, cone and spider just placed in to see how everything looks. Note the width of the gap between the edge of the cone and the lip of the maple, I'll talk about that in a moment!

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This is a detail of the stencil template after routing it out. I used the smallest bit (3/32?) from Stew Mac in the Dremel, then small files and sandpaper strips to smooth it and better define areas. I also ended up epoxying some carbon fiber behind the stencil to strengthen this area some. That worked nicely.

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The dragons are done, this also shows the ledge for the cone. I discovered the router bit I used was too large, the edge of the maple around the hole is now actually wider than the radius of the screw holes going around the cover plate by about 1/32". When positioning the cone and coverplate in the right spot for correct intonation, several of the top screws miss the maple and go into the plywood, with a gap on the screw shank between the bottom of the coverplate and the plywood, if you see what I mean. The screws are actually long enough that they are in the plywood fairly deeply and I don''t believe they will come out easily, but it's sloppy and I'm not happy about it and will look for a slightly smaller bit, or perhaps re-drill the router jig I made to make the hole slightly smaller. It's my guitar, so no worries until the next! Always learning something new!

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here it is sitting on the back before cutting out the insets for the back braces

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the nice thing about a resonator is you can put it all together, string it up, tune it up and play it before putting any finish on it. Of course if you don't like the sound, that might take some of the motivation, but fortunately that did not happen!

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Author:  woody b [ Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Looks great!!!!
Author:  jsimpson [ Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:51 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Gorgeous, great job!

[clap]
Author:  Mike Lindstrom [ Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
I didn't think I was a fan of sunbursts. Apparently I am. Beautiful work.
Author:  Mike Lindstrom [ Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
I didn't think I was a fan of sunbursts. Apparently I am. Beautiful work.
Author:  Mike Lindstrom [ Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
I didn't think I was a fan of sunbursts. Apparently I am. Beautiful work.

Wow triple post. Wonder what I did...
Author:  nickton [ Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
It looks like you have a square profiled neck, so it must be just for slide playing, like a dobro? Nice work.
Author:  Mike Dotson [ Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Love it! The combo of the 'burst and the black hardware is stunning, as are the woods!
Author:  Mark Groza [ Sat Oct 29, 2011 4:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Very Nice Damon! That burst looks great. [clap]
Author:  Lindamon [ Sun Oct 30, 2011 5:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Dragon is born!
Thanks again for all the nice comments, they are very much appreciated.

Nick, it is indeed pretty much the same as a dobro, though we who build them really can't call them that, as Gibson owns the name "dobro". idunno
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