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I just strung up #9, a curly maple/? top mini dred, yesterday and thought I'd share with you all. The top I reclaimed from my brother's house while we were remodelling. I thought it was spruce, but am not sure at this point. It was a prototype design, so I thought I'd use this top. Bindings/purfling are just wenge/maple/wenge, and the neck is mahogany. Tuners are wilkinson, which I bought since it was a prototype, but I'm actually really impressed with the quality of these tuners for the price. They are 18:1 ratio. The fingerboard and bridge are Wenge as well.
Now that the specs are out of the way, up to this point my first guitar was the only one that I was really impressed with the sound. But, with this one, I can't walk by it without picking it up. I kind of wish it wasn't a prototype build and I could pinpoint what made it sound like it does, but it has too many features that are different from my other guitars that I'm worried I won't be able to replicate what happened with this one. It is really clear and balanced, and is just basically what I look for in tonal qualities. It isn't as loud as my other guitars though which I was really surprised by since this has a slightly larger body. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy.

I like it a lot. Not only because it looks fantastic but because it's made with maple. I'd love to try one someday.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Nice!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks guys. This was my first maple guitar. The maple was the easiest wood that I've worked with so far. It bent really easily, sanded easily, machined easily, and finished easily with no pore filling. I will definitely be building with maple more often now.

Nice work, Andrew! Is that a trim ring inside of the sound hole? Is it structural, artistic or both? It looks neat!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Thanks Alex. It is just a 5/16 applied binding to the soundhole. It's not structural, just artistic.

Nice!!!!
I like blondes!

Nice! I too like curly maple on guitar bodies. Nice choice of woods there!

Here's another fan of maple, and yours looks quite nice.
The end of your fretboard looks adventurous, and you pulled it off nicely!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Real nice contrast...me likes.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Thanks guys for the compliments. I guess my wife was right. The original plan was to burst this guitar, top, back, and sides. Then when I got it all sanded up my wife said, "I think it looks really nice light". So, I left it and just varnished it. Steve, the end of the fretboard absolutely killed me, but so did the binding/purfling on the headstock. They both have such small radii in them that it was ridiculous bending the wenge( or should I say breaking, and breaking, and breaking, etc.). Oh, and I don't know if I mentioned before, but this back/side set came from Menards and it only cost $8. That was the other reason I used it on this prototype. The first reason was just cause I love curly maple. And now, I'll be searching Menards for curly maple a lot more.