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I just finished this guitar today. I want to wait a day before I string the guitar up, but not wait to show it off. I am waiting for the bridge glue to cure before I string it up. But other than that that I am ready to go. I build this guitar for a niece of mine.

The headstock veneer and and rosette are cut from an amboya burl I found at Rocklers.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Very nice guitar. Need a few more particulars....Koa? Cedar top?

Whoops,

This is Koa I bought at the GAL auction, with a cedar top. The guitar has ebony bindings and purflex purflings. I finished with Colortone Waterbased lacquer, which I think is close to in not EM6000.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Wow, that is beautiful!

Matt

Pretty instrument...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

If that's not the definition of exquisite, I don't what is.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

A well put together combo. I love parlours.
How did you find the finish to use?

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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.

Thanks guy for looking and your positive comments.

It was hard to go back to 1906 to make it; actually I started from the Ridgewood Designs 1906 Parlor Guitar plans form from Allied Lutherie. Although I changed the headstock on this one.



I really like working with the Colortone Water base and I like how it looks when I am is finished. This is my forth guitar using it. I spray the finish undiluted. I found that it easy to spray an even coat that levels nicely. On another guitar I have done repairs over it and I can sand out and buff the repairs with no witness lines between the old and the new finish. In a day I would spray 4 coats with about 90 minutes in between. I would do a light sand the next morning. I have 8 coats on the top and the neck and 16 coats on the back and sides.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Nice guitar. I like that you do this around the workshop. Woohhoo! And....congratulations

All you need is a Delorean, and go up to 88mph.

That said, lovely guitar!
Is the soundhole diameter the same as on the original 1906? It looks big.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I should of said modified 1906 (mainly I kept the brace pattern, and the shape) I did make the sound hole bigger. Rightly or wrongly I liked the look, also I have very big hands. Honestly I am not sure what it does to the sound.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Very sweet!

Very nice . I built two 0-sized guitars a couple of years ago. I think they sound
amazing for small guitars. Enjoy this one!

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

You can't decide the soundhole dimension based on the look (well, you can, but it's maybe not the better idea) It really affects the sound. Theorically, you'll loose some bass by enlarging the soundhole. You raise up the main air resonance, in fact. That's not what you are looking for on a parlor guitar, I think. That said, I'm sure it does sound really nicely anyways.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

On working on a size 1 model, wich is a bit smaller than a 0, and the soundhole will be 3.25''.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

The plans I have called out a 3.7" sound hole, mine is 3.9"

The guitar sounds good and the bass sounds balanced with the treble strings but maybe not as good as it can sound. On my first parlor the sound hole was 3.75" but it also had a sound port. I really like how it sounded. This guitar does not have a sound port. The sound port on my other guitar had an area of about 2 sq inches. I added a about 1sq inches to the sound hole. My theory, flawed as it maybe, is that adding a sound port lowers the overall air resistance more than the change I made to the sound hole. I know that with sound there are other factors but this was the theory that I had that allowed me to give it a try. Now I am also able to get my hand in if I need to do repairs.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

What plans? What bracing? How did you pore fill the koa? And obviously you can't answer (yet) but how does it sound?

I was not blaming you at all, and I hope it didn't look this I was. All I was saying is that everyone should think or investigate on the effects of a possible change.



In fact= The larger the soundhole, the higher the air frequency. Adding a soundport, like you said, is pretty like enlarging the soundhole.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I took your comments in a very positive way; actually I appreciated your time to comment on my work and I also thought about the size of the sound hole throughout the time I have been construction the guitar. This is only my eighth guitar; still learning but time to start experimenting.

To all thanks for the feedback on my work.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

That is funny. I've built only 3 acoustic guitars yet, but since I was in a 3years guitarmaking program, we did so much more research, experimenting, analyses and theorization than real lutherie work. It's time to start real work for me

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I will agree with everyone that this is a beautiful guitar. Where did you find the peghead inlay? I have been wanting something similar.

Greg

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Greg Hatcher
North Carolina

Thanks,

The peghead inlay is my logo. I saw a photo in the newspaper after one harvest moon of a hawk in front of the full moon. So I based my logo on that photo.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

wow, so many beautiful guitar showing up all fo sudden, Great job John, thanks for sharing.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I used the plans from Allied Lutherie for the 1906 Parlor. I followed the plans bracing pattern. It is a short scale neck. I changed from slot head to peg head.

I pore fill with Zpoxy, I sprayed the Colortone WB (EM6000) right on the zpoxy.

I have strings on the guitar now. It plays really well, I got the geometry correct so I was able to set it up properly. It is the best sounding of the three parlor guitars I have made. I really like the sound. I had a couple of good players play it for me so that I could hear it. The guitar is very responsive and the harmonics really ring clean. Overall I am really happy with this guitar.

Thanks all for the comments.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com