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and..

Guitar is a Selmer Oval-Hole Reproduction (circa 1940-ish) 670mm scale (that's 26-3/8") built to exact dimensions but with solid Madagascar RW back and sides, solid linings, a Western Red Cedar Top (with steam bent crease behind the bridge and tall top-arching (highly arched braces) like the originals and a curly Bastogne Walnut neck.. All trim in Ebony. Handmade laminated BRW/Maple rosette, Tinted Nitro finish by Addam Stark, Silver/Steel 10-46 strings, blah, blah, blah...

This is the customer playing it.. I'm glad he's playing it.. I suck.

Gives you an idea of what a 14 fret Selmer design sounds like played in different ways..

Thanks for watching, Peter Z

That sounds great.

I built a Selmer very similiar to that a while back and would love to get it in the hands of some one who knows how to play it. I really don't know if it sounds the way it's 'supposed' to but I cannot make it sound Gypsy that is for sure. This one seems to be more sonorous then mine, mine is more like a percussion instrument but I guess it is all in how you play it. I also used WRC for the top and steam bent it. I used laminated back and sides, walnut neck and solid bindings as well. It was a really fun guitar to build and I definitely want to build more. I'm curious to know what plans you used or is this a type guitar that you have built many of? I used the Charles plans but not to the tee and also the aid of Michael Collins book. I actually lightened up the bracing a bit as it seemed to stiff to me.

Very impressive instrument...it sure got into the right hands! Beautiful work. How about some glamour shots of the guitar?

jfmckenna: The dimensions I used, I took off actual Selmers.. The plans/books out there are a starting point (albeit at the overbuilt end of the range), but the guitars changed over the years and there was a lot of variability with them. Some sounded great. Others sounded like crap. I have done a lot of experimenting with arching patterns, brace height, top thickness and everything else you can imagine.. I have a box of tops in my garage. There was a time where I was just making new tops, gluing them on a test-bed guitar, throwing on a fingerboard, playing it for a while, then ripping off the fingerboard then the top and trying something different.. I learned a lot.. I owned an original for a couple years that helped somewhat..

Get the architecture wrong and these things sound sort of lifeless, thin and unremarkable. Get it right and they crackle and pop with volume and color..

Regards, Peter Z

Here's some pics.. Sorry they are so huge - and the guitar's a bit dusty in the pics..

I did the same thing with a walnut bodied steel string guitar when I first started building. I've had something like 5 tops on that guitar. I just recently gave it to my nephew actually. I did sense that the plans were a bit over built and built a little lighter but maybe not light enough. I may have to have a model set up like that again. It's a fun guitar to build.

Really nice to see something different. Well executed to say the least and well played too!

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Thank You and Best To All

It's a pleasure to hear a very fine instrument played really well.

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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.

Impressive!

They look and sound great!

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Kyle