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I was out in the shop last summer minding my own business when a friend walked in with an arm load of wood. "You can have the Madagascar", he said, "I want you to build something out of the Brazilian for me. How about a parlor"

Two guitars as nearly identical as I can make them, Lutz spruce tops, Madagascar and Brazilian rosewood backs and sides. From the Scott Antes plans (I had already built one for my daughter out of EIR)





Brazilian on the left, Madagascar on the right



The blue darner dragonfly is my daughters spirit animal, my friend wanted it on his guitar so...

Very nice! My eye is drawn to the BRW but both are quite nice indeed.

sweet looking guitars.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Nice looking parlors

What is the difference in tone between the two?

Awesome! wonderful work. I really need a parlor!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

A beautiful duo! It's always a treat to see your work. Nicely done!

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George :-)

Very Nice!

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

A couple of real beauties there Freeman, very nicely done!

tasteful inlay ; fine looking guitars

Thank you everyone for the very kind words



Tim, right now I can't tell much difference if any. I have been playing the Mad rose for a couple of weeks, the Braz was debuted last night. I did not play them side by side (but I will and intend to record them when I do).

They have a very different sound from my usual 000's - the bass is there but just doesn't boom out. Mids are what I would call "boxy" (but I don't know how to describe that), trebles really defined. Very nicely balanced for fingerstyle - usually I dampen the bass strings a bit but that isn't necessary with the parlor. These things are amazingly loud for such a small box. I was playing Christmas carols last night - seems perfectly suited for that (I also put it in open D and it passed the slide test).

The short scale and small body will take a little getting used to - very intimate feeling little guitars. Kind of girly with all the bling - seems appropriate tho (the first one was patterned after Joan Baez's 0-42).

Highly recommended.

btw - the opinion is that the Antes plans are over braced - I lighted the braces a lot on these and it seems to have worked

Those look great Freeman!

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Very nice work.

What size bracing did you use for the X?

Sound clip?

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

The plans call for 0.31 by 0.50. I made mine 0.25 and shaped them a little. Tapped on the tops - seemed to sound OK, that's about all I know.





After we get thru the holidays and the guitars have a little time on them I plan to record both of them back to back. Probably the only way I'm going to be able to tell if there is any difference. I'll also try to get my daughter's - basically the same guitar but hers is Sitka over EIR and about four years old. I'll post the clips for discussion

Beautiful guitars, Freeman

Nicely done, and beautiful details. What is the scale length?
Ed

The plans call for 24.5, I used preslotted 24.9 fretboards. Moves the bridge very slightly into the body.

Congratulations! A couple beauties...

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Ken

Downright gorgeous, Freeman!

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michael propsom
www.propsomguitars.com

Nice work!!

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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.