Official Luthiers Forum!

This is the first photo I've posted on this forum. I'll have to learn to trim them down, I guess. This is a shot of a prototype roundneck tricone. I'm building it because a prospective customer is very interested in an OM sized tricone--but built with wood harvested from his ranch. These are the specs: Solid EIR top, back & sides. Flamed maple binding with ebony point. Flamed maple woven lattice grilles. Macassar fretboard. I'm using National cones. The instrument is in the wet sand and polish stage. I hope to have it in driving condition within the month. Also, thanks to Freeman Keller for some invaluable tips.

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michael propsom
www.propsomguitars.com

I like it. Post more photos when you get the chance.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

It's beautiful, Michael! I like the maple lattice. Please post more pics.

Beautiful! Look forward to more.

Totally cool, Michael, I love leading people astray! I'm going to be in your area on Sept 1, if you still have it I would love to take a look.

Wow!
Thats a fantastic looking instrument from what I can see - please post more pics when you can Id love to see the rest of it..
Cheers
charliewood

Awesome!
I'm curious - what lumber came from his ranch?
I'd love to see more pictures!

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

That is far, far, too cool. Makes me want to drop my little projects and build one of those!

Do post more pictures when you get the chance! I'd love to see what else you did with it!

Lincoln

Thanks for all the great responses. I will post more photos when the opportunity presents. I'm back in Wisconsin due to a family emergency--which is improving. However, only have dialup at my parents', which is just a little slower than snail mail. When I get to the local library, (which has free wifi) I'll try to post some earlier shots of the building process.

Freeman: I should be back in Vanc/WA by 9/1. Be fun to get together.

Filippo: That ebony point on the cutaway, was one of those wild-hair afterthoughts. I made both the tail wedge and the binding strip at the heel of the cutaway ebony, then thought, "Hey, why not the cutaway tip?" Between you & me, it is odd. Might never do it again, as one person observed, "It looks like you screwed up the miter and put the ebony in to hide it." That put it in a whole new light. Probably won't do it again, but I do kind of like it.

Dan Z: The wood that my prospective client cut on his ranch is black locust. It's reputedly to be one very tough to work with wood. Generally, used as fence post stock as its rot resistance is equal to that of granite. I plan on doing double side construction, however, like I generally do with ziricote and the ebonies, so bending shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks again for the positive comments. I'll post more when I can.

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michael propsom
www.propsomguitars.com

Nice

Very cool! How about a few more pix?

Here are just a couple of early shots of the tricone project. I usually just dive into prototypes and work out the 'challenges' as they come up. But, considering this was my first roundneck tricone, and the old ones (like my '30 style 1 National) are notorious for having lousy intonation, I decided to actually plan this project. You'll notice that I made my tone ring a little larger than normal (a suggestion from Freeman) to give me a little room for extra compensation.

Side assembly with the baltic birch tone ring installed

Here's a shot of the top, side and tone ring assy.

inside view of the cherry cross grain patch (to support the 'soundholes') and the mahogany fretboard support

Gluing a support strut on the underside of the tone ring. Since this guitar will have a bolt-on neck, I added the strut to take the place of the neck strut/support that's employed in the traditional Nationals--thus stiffening up the 1/8" p/w floor of the tone ring.

That's pprobably enough photos for one sitting. If you want to see a more comprehensive (but disorganized) record of this project and a couple other ones including a macassar ebony/chocolate red cedar OM cutaway, you're welcome to check out my Photobucket page. My handle there is Highdrawlicks. Thanks for looking.

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michael propsom
www.propsomguitars.com

Love it! It's beautiful.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

So, here's the nearly finished product. Just have to get some chrome tuners, make the finished nut, fab a truss rod cover plate, then give it a final cleanup. The guitar is amazing. Great volume, very well balanced and each string is very defined--I credit the tricone system for that. And finally, unlike my old '30 style 1 National, the intonation is great. I believe this one's going to be staying in Casa de Propsom, only to leave the house when it accompanies me on gigs. Anyway, thanks for looking.






Definitely going to abandon the ebony cutaway tip in the future. A real aesthetic mistake. Live n' lern!

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michael propsom
www.propsomguitars.com

That is beautiful! I love it!

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Sweet! Love the woven maple grills. I've done that with metal before and you probably burned your fingers a lot less.

Show off

Absolutely gorgeous.

Steve

Thanks, gents for the positive comments. By the way, Mike D., this guitar has one added benefit. Our friend in common, Loren S and I have been gigging together for a couple of years now. Now I finally have a guitar that's as eye-catching as the flamed Honduras Wessenborn D replica he built a few years back. Don't know if it'll help impress the ladies, but I might get an order or two out of it.

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michael propsom
www.propsomguitars.com