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 Post subject: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:32 am 
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Mahogany
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First name: Damon
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I wanted to post these here as a thank you to all of you for the invaluable knowledge I have learned from all of you in the last couple of years. Especially Todd Stock, who's every word I read as from on high! :) His recommendation of spray guns for sunbursts gave the result you see here, my first attempt at one. It has one coat of shellac over the stain, and 7 coats of lacquer, one of the thinnest I have done so far.

It's a resonator, my second, maple body and neck, ebony trim and fingerboard. My wife designed the dragon soundholes. It's a full open body, no soundwell or even sound posts, very modern sound. Mine is patterned after Tim Scheerhorn's guitars, he is the best in the business, and mine has one of his spun cones, and I use a similar interior baffle in mine. I'm very pleased with the sound.

thank you all once again for generously sharing your knowledge.

Damon


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Last edited by Lindamon on Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:35 am 
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That's very cool! Beautiful work! [clap] [clap] [clap]

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:48 am 
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Very Beautifull work ! [:Y:] [clap]

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:51 am 
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Me likey!

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:04 pm 
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Oh yeah! That's a keeper.

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:15 pm 
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Really fine!

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:17 pm 
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Wow!!! The dragons breath fire. [:Y:]


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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:31 pm 
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Sweet! Love the Dragon holes. What did you use for reso hardware?

Cheers,
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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 1:06 pm 
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wow7-eyes love the sunburst /maple. very nice


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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 1:49 pm 
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She's a beauty!

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 1:56 pm 
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Very nice! Love the Dragons!

Did you use 3/4" ply under the maple top or could you get away with a thinner ply? FYI, I'm starting something similar built out of Claro Walnut.

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 2:36 pm 
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great job, keep it goin.


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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:29 pm 
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Outstamding!!!!

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:32 pm 
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Thank you all! I am happy with it, both visually and aurally! Can't wait to start on the next, either rosewood or some really sonic teak I have.

Danny => I used Gotoh tuners, a spun cone from Tim Scheerhorn, a number 14 spider from Beard, and brass gold plated coverplate/tailpiece from from Beard that I had stripped (the gold had worn badly) and powdercoated locally. There are cheaper available, but they are not for me. The bridge inserts were made by me, they are maple capped with a material Tim Scheerhorn likes to call "Ebonex", which is a paper/resin material of some type, used in industrial electrical fabrication of some sort, I believe.

Darryl=> I used 1/2 inch plywood cut in about a 1" wide ring around the soundhole, with extensions and fingers let into the kerfing, neck and tail blocks for support, instead of using a soundwell or sound posts. Here is a picture of it being glued in before I glued the top on and routed out the hole for the cone. You can see a line drawn in the approximate position of where the center is going to be cut out.

Attachment:
IMG_1451.jpg


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 Post subject: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 1:04 am 
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That....is stunning!

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 6:52 am 
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Todd Stock wrote:
I'd like to see more constructions pics - that is one nice looking guitar.


Thanks Todd, unfortunately I don't have a lot from the beginning of the project, I started it over a year ago, and then built a 2 or 3 dreadnaughts before getting back to it last month or so. Here are a few.

Here is the neck, dragon stencils, cone and spider just placed in to see how everything looks. Note the width of the gap between the edge of the cone and the lip of the maple, I'll talk about that in a moment!

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IMG_1462.jpg


This is a detail of the stencil template after routing it out. I used the smallest bit (3/32?) from Stew Mac in the Dremel, then small files and sandpaper strips to smooth it and better define areas. I also ended up epoxying some carbon fiber behind the stencil to strengthen this area some. That worked nicely.

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IMG_1471.jpg


The dragons are done, this also shows the ledge for the cone. I discovered the router bit I used was too large, the edge of the maple around the hole is now actually wider than the radius of the screw holes going around the cover plate by about 1/32". When positioning the cone and coverplate in the right spot for correct intonation, several of the top screws miss the maple and go into the plywood, with a gap on the screw shank between the bottom of the coverplate and the plywood, if you see what I mean. The screws are actually long enough that they are in the plywood fairly deeply and I don''t believe they will come out easily, but it's sloppy and I'm not happy about it and will look for a slightly smaller bit, or perhaps re-drill the router jig I made to make the hole slightly smaller. It's my guitar, so no worries until the next! Always learning something new!

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IMG_1491.jpg


here it is sitting on the back before cutting out the insets for the back braces

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IMG_1499.jpg


the nice thing about a resonator is you can put it all together, string it up, tune it up and play it before putting any finish on it. Of course if you don't like the sound, that might take some of the motivation, but fortunately that did not happen!

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:41 am 
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Looks great!!!!

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:51 am 
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Gorgeous, great job!

[clap]


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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:46 am 
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I didn't think I was a fan of sunbursts. Apparently I am. Beautiful work.

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:46 am 
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I didn't think I was a fan of sunbursts. Apparently I am. Beautiful work.

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:46 am 
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I didn't think I was a fan of sunbursts. Apparently I am. Beautiful work.

Wow triple post. Wonder what I did...

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Last edited by Mike Lindstrom on Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:00 pm 
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Koa
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It looks like you have a square profiled neck, so it must be just for slide playing, like a dobro? Nice work.

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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:31 pm 
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Koa
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Love it! The combo of the 'burst and the black hardware is stunning, as are the woods!


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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 4:18 pm 
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Very Nice Damon! That burst looks great. [clap]


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 Post subject: Re: The Dragon is born!
PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 5:34 am 
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Mahogany
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Thanks again for all the nice comments, they are very much appreciated.

Nick, it is indeed pretty much the same as a dobro, though we who build them really can't call them that, as Gibson owns the name "dobro". idunno

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