Official Luthiers Forum!

I strung up number 4 today in class at Alan Carruth's. It's Alan's version of an SJ. It's made of all North American woods. It sounds awesome already. It still needs a pickguard and maybe some adjustment of the action, but I'm very happy with it.

Top: Bearclaw Sitka (RC Tonewoods)
Back & Sides: Oregon Myrtle (Oregon Wild Wood)
Neck: Black Walnut with Oregon Myrtle in the middle (complete with worm holes)
Fingerboard: Persimmon stained with Alan's Black Walnut hull tea
Binding: Black Walnut
Bridge: Black Walnut
Headplate: Black Walnut (left over from the neck)
Rosette: Oregon Myrtle (left over from the back)
Purfling lines: Maple and Black Walnut veneer
Finish: Behlen's Rockhard Tabletop Varnish brushed on

I used Spruce for all the braces (whatever Alan had in the shop), Butternut for the blocks and Willow for the kerfed lining. Here's some not so great photos.

I almost forgot the close up of the end graft. It's not a great picture but I'm really proud of how well it came out.

Nice wood combinations! Great looking guitar. Wish I could play it. Maybe I can sometime... we're both in the northeast.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Wow! - Nice

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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.

Love that Myrtle....! Congrats.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Very nice, Matt!
How did you enjoy working with Persimmon?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Thanks, guys.

Steve - the Persimmon was very easy to work with. This guitar has a Persimmon bridge plate, too, since that's what Alan uses for them. It planed very easily. Cutting the fret slots was easy enough, too. I have very limited experience with wood working, though, so I don't really know what to compare it too!

Todd - my brother is moving back to the Ithaca area at the end of the month. I'm not sure which town they are moving too, but he went to Cornell and loves the area. I will most likely be visiting them sometime this fall since I'm almost done a guitar for him. Maybe when I'm in the area? I'd love to see some of your guitars. They are very beautiful and sound great in the Youtube clips I've seen.

Matt

I like that a lot

i like it! must be nice to work along side alan! 19 frets, huh? that sound hole looks pretty far north. good work!

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sweat the small stuff.

looks great!

I love the wood combo.

How deep is the body at the neck and tail?

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rono

very nice!
i like the varnish finish.
looks nice and yellow.
i want to use that, because i think it looks better than any water based, or nitro finish!

Great wood selection (all N.American) and beautiful looking!!!!! Gotta find me some persimmon!

Thanks, Matt. I hope you will get in touch with me when you're coming to Ithaca. I'd love to meet both you and your brother, and have a little guitar show-and-tell with you. You'd be welcome to visit my shop, come over for dinner... whatever. Feel free to give your brother my contact info, too (see my "contact me" page on my web site). Maybe there's some way my family and I could be of help to him (and his family? ...you said "they") as they resettle in the Ithaca area. I'll be away a few times this fall, so keep me posted on your plans.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Very Nice! The fretboard looks real nice, i like the shade of it. Great choise of woods too. I also like the walnut/ maple perf you went with. Way to go, keeping it all Native with the wood.

Thanks, everybody!



It is nice working in Alan's class. You learn a lot. The biggest thing I've learned is that you can fix just about any mistake! It has 19 frets because of some alignment issues I had with the top that we didn't realize until we had closed up the box. Alan was worried we wouldn't get the 19th fret on there but we just barely did. So, the sound hole is a bit higher than originally planned, but it doesn't seem to have hurt the tone at all.



It's 4 1/4" at the tail and about 3 7/16" at the neck.

Matt

Definitely. I'd like to visit your shop. My work schedule doesn't allow me to get to as many of the NEL and the NH Luthiers meetings that I would like to, so having a chance to visit someone's shop would be really cool. My brother and his wife and their 8 month old daughter will be moving at the end of the month. They found a place to rent back in June when my brother was back on the East coast for business. I'll give them your contact info. He still has quite a few friends in the area, which is one of the reasons they are moving back. I will let you know when I'm heading out there and hopefully it'll work out that you'll be around.

Matt

That is just gorgeous. I love the myrtle, which seems much darker than the one I just finished assembling this weekend. In the white it's like maple.

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

Thanks! When I first brought the set to Alan's shop, everyone thought it was Walnut. Oregon Wild Woods had quite a few darker sets when I bought it. It's amazing the variation in color of the stuff.

Matt

Matt great looking instrument and with Al Carruth helping it's guaranteed to have the sound to match. Any chance of a sound clip?

Regards

Craig.

Beautiful guitar Matt - very well done!

I always like the look of Oregon Myrtle but to tell the truth I don't think that I have seen it under finish until now.... What kept me away is the yellow colors but I can see with yours that under finish it looks a lot like highly flamed Aussie Blackwood - a favorite of mine. May have to get me some and learn proper English at some point too...

Great job - very cool guitar!

Thanks, guys!



If I can get up to my friend's recording studio and he's got a guitar player hanging around who can play better than me (which is just about every guitar player!), I might be able to get one up in the next couple of months. Otherwise, it'll be me and my rudimentary skills you'll hear!



The varnish definitely gives it more of a golden tint. Before the finish went on, this set had a lot more grey and brown than yellow. When I bought it, Oregon Wild Woods had a lot of sets that weren't very yellow and had a lot of figure. I've got a uke set that looks completely different, almost totally yellow. It's a nice wood that is very easy to work with. Great for someone with limited experience like myself!

Matt

I look forward to it Matt. I am trying to organize something similar for my #4.
By the way I think you are very fortunate to have Al Carruth close at hand to help and I'm sure to inspire you with your building. He is so generous with both his time and knowledge on this forum and others it boggles my mind.

Regards

Craig.