Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi. As much as I hate it (it sounds kind of creepy) I guess you could call me a lurker. I've been a member here for a while but haven't really posted anything. I finally finished my third and thought i'd post a few pics. This was also my first bridge removal-tons of fun. When gluing the the first bridge I was a bit too concerned with clean-up and forgot to tighten one of the screws on my caul that applies pressure to the wing of the bridge. I didn't notice until I had things all nice and tidy but by that time the glue's open time had passed. I could squeeze a piece of paper about 1.5mm under one corner of the bridge so, needless to say, it had to be removed. I used the heat lamp method that I'd seen posted here in the past (sorry, I can't recall by who). Apart from a couple of minor dents that steamed right out and some minor damage to my french polish that I had to fix, it went quite well. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with the way it came out and it sounds great.
As for the guitar:
Scale: 650mm
B/S: EIRW
Top: Engelmann
Purfling: maple, bloodwood, black veneer
Binding: EIRW
Rosette: 8pc bookmatched spalted maple
Finish: FP
















I hope I posted the images correctly (not sure).

-William

Very NICE! Love the rosette!

_________________
Brad Tucker

Hi William - Your guitar (and pictures) look great!!! You should be very, very proud!

AND - Welcome to the OLF too!

Wow, very impressive! I'm working on my 3rd guitar too, but it is my 6th instrument to complete. Should have it done in a few months. I really like your rosette, and it looks as good as any one's 10th or 50th guitar. Kudos!

_________________
Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

I REALLY like your purfling detail on the heel. Beautiful work.

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

Thanks for the encouraging comments.

Very nice William,
Like Mr. Boone said, beautiful work on the purfling.
Must be a thing with the nylon string crowd, Alexandru just posted a beauty of a 3rd guitar also.

Steve

William, that's really nice!
welcome to the forum also

_________________
Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Well, I think that looks more like a 30th...perhaps a 300th guitar.
Most impressive.

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

That's a great looking instrument, William. Nice work.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

as has been said, very well done. i agree that it looks way beyond #3.

phil

excellent looking guitar bro. i dig your taste in appointments. as mentioned, im especially fond of the heel cap purfling. nicely done.

_________________
sweat the small stuff.

Looks awesome, and definitely cleaner work than on my third!
What size and bracing did you use? Hauser?

_________________
Build log

William, nice work, beautiful classical guitar.

Absolutely gorgeous, William!

I'm always amazed when people post here there 1st or 3rd guitars, man I wish I was that good on my 3rd guitar, very nice looking hopefully the sound is even better then the looks

William, bravo!! What a gorgeous and clean looking guitar. I, also, love the rosette and binding details.

Well done William! That is a nice looking guitar.I like your use of spalted maple rosette, very tasteful . Thanks for posting.

It's a smallish classical. The plantilla I came up with prior to my first build. I more or less laid a D. Friederich plantilla on top of a Romanillos plantilla and split the difference. The lower bout is also cranked slightly ala Bogdonavich (I think Romanillos might do this, too but i'm not sure). The measurements are:
Lower Bout: 361 mm Upper Bout: 274 mm Length: 484 mm Depth @ heel: 86 mm Depth @ end block: 88 mm Deepest point is around the waist(maybe just south) @ about 95 mm.
The bracing pattern is also my own take on a traditional fan braced guitar. It is a symmetrical design but the treble side braces are a bit more massive. It appears fairly close to a Romanillos but I don't use an open lower harmonic bar. In fact, I use a hardwood (spanish cedar) lower harmonic similar to Greg Byers. I'm quite happy with the results.

The purfling and binding around the heel turned out nice but will not be a feature on any of my instruments in the near future, at least not on a rounded heel. I've always been fond of the bound heel but there's a reason you mostly see those on instruments whose heel comes to a point: you can miter those. Bending wood, even very thin wood, into such a tight radius doesn't work very well as I now know all-to-well. It took me about five tries to get it right and took way longer than I anticipated.