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I haven't posted pictures in a long time, here's a small (00 size) 12 fret cutaway. Built over a year ago and put together last month. Some new features for me on this one: adjustable neck, floating fingerboard, double sides, solid laminated linings, shallow peghead angle. There's a small audio sample: C G D G C D.

German spruce top
EIR back & sides
Honduran mahogany neck
Ebony FB (with CF rods running in the FB and neck)
Braz bridge, headplate and butt wedge
Cocobolo trim
Bone nut, saddle and pins
Grover Sta-Tite tuners
25.59" (650mm) scale
1 3/4" nut width
2 5/16" bridge string spacing
Oil varnish

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Thats beautiful Laurent. Will we be seeing this next one week?

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Laurent, beautiful guitar! I love the boxed end graft and back strip.

What is the angle on the neck? Is it a 90 degree?
It is hard to see the extension also, is it black wood flush to the FB or is the FB floating?
It looks like a new heel shape for you also.

I am working on a guitar now with many of these same features. I am interested in the CF in the FB. Is it tall pieces that extend from the neck into the FB or separate pieces?

I wish I could see and hear it in person, everything looks great. The varnish especially!

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Beautiful !
I to like the boxed butt & back strip.
The finish really makes the woods look lush!
The rose is work of art !

Mike

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Mike Collins

hi Laurent
a very elegant wee guitar, I like the 12 fret cutaway size and the idea of floating the fingerboard. It certainly handles the C-G in he bottom well and nice tone / sustain in the trebles, lovely work
yours Geordie

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some tunes on acoustic and guitar synth.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGeordieAdams
http://www.myspace.com/geordieadams

Always enjoy seeing your work. That is some amazing craftsmanship there. The perfect perfs tell the tale.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Mmmmmm, Mmm! Perfect! Nice sound too.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Sweet! Nice work, Laurent, as always!

dave

Beautiful Laurent - absolutely beautiful!!!!

Laurent you are one monotonous guy - every guitar you post looks dang nice!

Would you share on the lights used.

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Build log

Lovely work Laurent. I also particularly like the back stripe and butt wedge. Adjustable neck à la Rick Turner?

Lovely guitar. Gorgeous perfs and rosette!

Care to give us a tutorial on that rosette design?

Nice work, three cheers for the endgraft!

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

Wow! What a beauty! Your work always just blows me away Laurent!.
Love that cutaway and end graft.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Beautiful and restrained guitar, Laurent. You mentioned a shallow head angle. I have used 12 degrees for steel strings and am thinking of going to 10 degrees. What angle did you use?

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Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

What a huge sound from such a small box...impressive!
And, I really like your aesthetic sense, Laurent.
Beautiful work as always--thanks for posting.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Wow Laurent! Amazing!! When I heard the sound clip I couldn't believe such a huge sound was coming from a small guitar. What a gorgeous tone coming from that box! I'm curious.... what microphones, pres/interface were used? And if it was more than one mic, what configuration? Besides being a very talented luthier maybe your second vocation is as a sound engineer?
-John

As usual, beautiful work Laurent. I'm curious as to your opinion of the floating fingerboard; any noticeable difference in tone or response?

The multiple line binding on the fretboard complements the boxed trim very well. Masterfully executed and a fine instrument. My hat is off to you...... You set our standards very high...

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Peter

Laurent
That is simply astounding
Man I wish I could do that, Well Done
You da man!!!

Peter

Laurent, very nice. Nice sound also.
like others have said, I like the boxed end graft and back strip.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Beautiful work! Love the graceful cutaway.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Congratulations! She looks beautiful.

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Ken

Pulchritudinous!

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Thanks all for the very nice comments!
Responses below:


Unfortunately, no.


Neck angle is 90º to the sides, the upper bout on the top slopes gently to accommodate the elevated FB extension. The black you see are the 2 x CF rods under the FB. They're .125" x .375" CF and come from Jim at Los Alamos Composites, they're dadoed about .125" in the FB .800" apart, the rest in the neck stock, à la Rick Turner. I have to say that the truss rod has some minimal effect, the neck structure in incredibly stiff. Which is great when switching tunings constantly, as I do.


I am not sure I understand the question, you mean to take the pics?


Yes, more or less. Parallelism/scale length is done before the neck goes on with two 10/32 inserts on the upper bout. This one still has a mortise/tenon neck joint and the adjustable bolts are accessible from the neck block through the soundhole (one to set the angle, the other to lock the neck). I am working on two Stauffer-inspired guitars where the bolts are accessible on the neck heel, like what Rick does. His is, I believe, the best and most elegant method at adapting the Stauffer joint for a steel string.


Maybe one day when I find the time… It's exactly the same principle as making a wheat pattern, or herringbone, except the angle is much shallower. I think there's a good tutorial on making wheat purflings in the Bogdanovich book. I use another method.


I think 13º, I wouldn't use shallower than that on a paddle peghead.


2 x small cardioid microphones about 1" apart, one toward neck/body joint, the other toward the bridge. The guitar is between 1" and 2" in front of the mics, I orientate myself until it sounds just right, meaning it is as faithful as possible and the stereo image is balanced. That goes into an antique dual G4 via a TC Konnekt audio interface, 44.1KHz/24bit recorded into Logic Pro 8.
I was indeed a sound engineer long before going into lutherie, still am I guess. I produced/mixed/mastered a fair amount of CDs, including my own electronic music of (almost) the last millenium.


No, but it is drastically stiffened by CF rods running under the FB extension full depth.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

She's a stunner, Laurent. Exceptionally tasteful - a lovely little guitar with a glorious voice!

Max

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan