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I was working in the Philadelphia area last year when John hall had his open house. This allow me to spend a lot of time hanging around his shop under the pretense of helping to get ready.
He was finishing up the oak trim around the windows (I mean he'd only been in the new building for 3 years) when I saw the leftovers. There's something about wood that's in 5" and 8" widths that grabs my attention.
With the right combination of caffeine, Dairy Queen and Glenlivet, John can be easily manipulated, so I shortly had a back and side set resawn from the unused red oak window trim.


000 12 fret, the neck started life as a Martin cherry reject that I shortened and converted to a slot head.


The top is what originally looked like an unusable set due to a serious pitch pocket. I was able to position it in the waist, but the last of it was removed, only when I routed the binding.




The binding is wild cherry from a farm my dad used to own.



I built this one lighter than my first few guitars and it really made a difference. It's very responsive and you can really feel the whole body vibrate as you pick. It may look like Grandma's dining table, but oak make a great guitar!

Jim Hall

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If you can't do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.

I beat ya to it Heshie.

Seriously though I really like it.

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"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

I must make a correction to Jim Hall's post . It was an apple dumpling at the Cracker Barrel and not the Dairy Queen.
john hall

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Jim Glenlivet is a powerful motivator......

Your guitar looks fantastic in all respects - great job!

Kirby my friend I am very glad that you beat me to it in fact I wish 100 folks would beat me to it when giving kudos to a member who just completed a guitar - great job!

Jim that is a great looking guitar! I love the oak, I've got an old ladder braced oak guitar that I resurrected, can't wait to try one myself. Is this one a 000, x-braced?

Also, how did you shorten the Martin neck? I assume it was a reject 14 fret, I've picked up some of those I haven't used yet because I have a weakness for 12 fretters.

Thanks for sharing this,
Joe

That cherry is the perfect way to compliment the guitar! Beautiful. And what a great top. This is a classy, classy looking guitar.

Beautiful guitar ! I think that is the first red oak guitar I have ever seen.

The combination of caffeine, Cracker Barrel and Glenlivet would have put a lesser man into a coma.

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53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

Great story and gorgeous guitar!

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

For those of you that know me Jim Hall is not any relation though we are accused of being identical cousins. Jim can tell you that I only drink a cup of coffee a day . I just never let it get empty. And one more thing. Jim turned my wife into a Dairy Queen Junkie.
nice Geetar Jimmie.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I like your guitar a lot!

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http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

Jim, thats really nice! The oak really looks good. Was it hard to bend? What side thicknees did you use? And what did you fill with?

Mike

That is very nice. How thick did you make the back and sides? Also, how was the oak to bend?

edit: What Mike said

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Very nice Jim, having the binding wood from you Dad's farm is a nice touch. I love the guitar and love the signature at the bottom of your post.

Thanks for the complements, yes it's a typical Martin 000 12 fret x braced body.

The neck was an SWOM 14 fret. First we milled a slot on each side of the truss rod slot, a couple inches long extending past the section to be removed so that it would align later with some wooden splines. Then we clamped the head stock flat to the rip fence on John's Unisaw with the blade fully retracted, positioned the neck (sticking out at an angle from the fence) for the cut furthest from the nut position over the blade, then cranked it up into the neck until it separated. Then we repositioned the blade as close to the back of the head stock as possible for the next cut in the same manner.

The head stock plate had to be thicker than normal to make the total thick enough for a slot head.

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If you can't do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.

Thanks.
It bent about as easy as anything else I've tried. As I recall the sides were about .085". I used West systems epoxy, and didn't so much fill it as smoothed it out. Red oak is probably the worst case scenario for filling and I guess you could get it glass smooth with enough work, but I was willing to settle for a more "textured" finish. It's smooth and glossy to the touch, but you can still feel the grain.

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If you can't do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.

Thanks.
The back and top were just under .100". I know that's pretty thin, and it may self destruct some day, but it feels like a wood balloon when you play it, just vibrates all over.

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If you can't do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.

Thanks John, I couldn't have done it without you.

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If you can't do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.

I like everything about that guitar. Nice job!

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George :-)

Looks great Jim! Oak seems to be overlooked as a tonewood, maybe because it is so common. But, when you build or hear one built from oak, you then look at oak differently. I built an oak OM last year and love it...sounds great & tends to be on the bright sounding side. I will surely build more.

Chuck

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Hey, John, I think you've built a very nice guitar, and your choice of cherry binding is a beautiful compliment to the red oak. I have always wondered why I never saw a guitar made of red oak. Seems to me it could even be used as fingerboard material, because it is VERY resistant to abrasion (that's why we see it in flooring and stair treads so commonly). Of course, many would find the lighter color unsuitable, and there may be others reasons, too. In any event, I'm glad you built this guitar, and I expect we'll see some others trying oak now.
Cheers.
Patrick