Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone? Anyone? Beuller... Beuller...

Come one, guys. I'm dyin' over here!

The suspense is killing me!! excited to see the pictures and the process of these builds.


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Well, to get this rolling I decided to do the lottery.



1st Pick - Rogerc108
2nd Pick - BradHall
3rd Pick - Geetarman
4th Pick - Bionta

My daughter picked the names out of the hat. The lottery is documented by video if we need to go there. : )
there ya go joel.

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Woohoo! I guess staying up late last night drooling through the stewmac website paid off

Wow! I'm beyond happy, grateful, excited, and ready to begin. Thank you all for your generosity.
Congratulations Roger.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

Brad, Roger... Please be advised that Joel holds the final say as to where these sets go.
I just obliged his request asking someone to pull some names from a hat.

Ultimate decision reserved for Joel.
Im sure he will chime in soon enough.

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

All looks on the up-and-up to me. [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES] Congrats to Roger and Brad and thanks to Gregorio's daughter.


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Congrats guys!!!!!!

Thanks Grego for stepping up, you da man! Such a fantastic community we have here.

Alright for the lucky winners. Please shoot me an email. Info@michaudmade.com we can sort out the details and have you pick your sets

Don't know if I mentioned But I have a bunch of molds that I will be liquidating so if they are helpful I can include that kind of stuff aswell.

Have a great one.

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http://Michaudmade.com

I can't wait to get started! I've given Joel my wish list, and I'm excited to see what kind of package he puts together. Here's what I'll be shooting for:

OM body
Slotted headstock
Black walnut b/s
Sitka top
Pao ferro binding/fretboard/bridge
full purfling (can't decide on w/b/w or b/w/b)

My first thought was to do a 12 fret, but I know there's a contingent who believe that a 13 fret is more optimal.

So let me hear your advice on the purfling scheme and 12 vs 13 fret.

Cool.

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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."

Guess I'll chime in also. Like Roger, I chose the walnut back & sides. Tough decision with all the great woods offered. I'm going with a redwood topped OM, 14 frets, Ebony and Bloodwood throughout for binding. Purfling, rosette, headstock trim, wedge and anywhere else I think it will look right. The anticipation is great, can't wait to get started. I finished up my thickness sander and am almost done cleaning up the "shop". This should be great fun, educational, and rewarding. I'm beyond grateful. Thanks to all involved.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

Just got an email from Joel. My build package is en route. As I told him, I'm beyond excited to get started, though my wife won't share my enthusiasm for adding yet another project while she's wanting the bathrooms redone

Hey Roger, I got the same message. My first and only build ,recently completed ,arrived at a time I was doling a kitchen remodel. My usual m.o. Is to dive right in and stay way too late. I decided to limit my time to 3 hours a day and it worked out well for me. Didn't always stick to it, but mostly did. Happy wife, happy life.
I plan to post a build thread and just joined tap talk with hopes I can finally get photos to show up.
Here comes my first attempt.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

You're a legend, Joel. Such a fantastic gesture.

Remember when you were 4 or 5 yrs old, the anticipation for Xmas morning? I've be feeling like that, at 66 yrs old, for several days now. This afternoon the mail carrier brought a large box from Canada. Whoo Hoo! Joel, you are an amazing individual. The walnut and redwood are beautiful. Everything I'll need for my build is there and then some. An extra set of side wood, an extra sinker redwood top set, multiple headplates, enough Ebony blocks to make 5 or more bridges, 2 necks, one carved. Extra "bonus" wood pieces, you get the picture. With my own back plates I could almost build 2 guitars. This is over the top. Lots of prep to do and a few tools to build along the way. I'll post pics at interesting places on this journey. Thank you to all involved.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

Awesome, Brad! Mine's not arrived yet, so now I'm even more excited!

By the way, it just dawned on me that I'm going to be building an acoustic guitar. I guess I should dig up some plans from some place...

Joel is sending me a modified OM form (slightly larger with 15 3/8" lower bout). Anyone have a good place to find plans? And since my body shape isn't going to conform to standard OM dimensions, how will that affect bracing patterns? I'm assuming that if the overall length of my form is the same as the plans, then I'll just need to extend the length of the braces to cover the extra width.

Roger, I ordered a OM plan set from forum member >lancekragenbrink.com< . Haven't arrived yet so I can't help you. You may want to contact him.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

Roger, I've built from the OM plans available for free on Christoph Grellier's site.
They are most excellent. In .DXF and .PDF Have fun.
Of course ordering from Lance helps support the OLF.
http://www.grellier.fr/plans.php?lang=en
Ken

Holy cow! Joel really outdid himself with this kit.



I've got 3 tops, a couple of side sets, neck blanks, 2 finished bridges, bridge blanks, kerfed linings, purfling, and a whole bunch of other stuff! I can't wait to get started!

Thanks again, Joel! This was an awesome thing to do!

And thank you to Hesh as well! He's sending me some fret wire and some bone nut and saddle blanks as part of the drawing. You guys are top notch!!

It's been a while and I've made some progress. I decided to upgrade the walnut back and side wood. Paid a visit to Bruce Sexauer and received a great lesson on guitar wood and what to look for to insure a quality instrument. I ended up with a few sets of his master grade walnut. Guess I know what my next builds will be built around. I found a Bailey 22" plane on CL. For $35. It was in poor condition and took a couple days to make it usable. I glued up the back plates with an ebony/bloodwood ebony backstrip.I ran it through my homemade thickness sander today. First real use of it and it works great. I checked it frequently with a micrometer and it was uniform throughout. Redwood top plates will get glued up in the morning. I found a clever rosette design device on another builders site, Eric Schaefer. I picked up some cheap bin plexiglass pieces and printed up a segmented circle sheet to cut the radial segments to size. I have a dermal and Stewmac base, so I splurged on a SM circle cutter attachment. I practiced cutting a couple rosette channels on some scrap redwood and I'm impressed with the ease and precision of the set up.
My OLF OM plans arrived and I got lucky and found a melamine desk top about the right size to work off of behind a building the same day. I feel like I'm moving ahead and enjoying every minute of it.
Except! I still can't seem to be able to upload photos. I put them in Dropbox, use resizing tool, add file, and get file to large message every time. Is there an easier way to do this?

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

If you have Tapatalk on your phone, iPad, etc, you can easily post your pictures. I'm glad things are getting exciting for you!

Alex

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

[quote="BradHall"]It's been a while and I've made some progress. I decided to upgrade the walnut back and side wood. Paid a visit to Bruce Sexauer and received a great lesson on guitar wood and what to look for to insure a quality instrument. I ended up with a few sets of his master grade walnut. Guess I know what my next builds will be built around. I found a Bailey 22" plane on CL. For $35. It was in poor condition and took a couple days to make it usable. I glued up the back plates with an ebony/bloodwood ebony backstrip.I ran it through my homemade thickness sander today. First real use of it and it works great. I checked it frequently with a micrometer and it was uniform throughout. Redwood top plates will get glued up in the morning. I found a clever rosette design device on another builders site, Eric Schaefer. I picked up some cheap bin plexiglass pieces and printed up a segmented circle sheet to cut the radial segments to size. I have a dermal and Stewmac base, so I splurged on a SM circle cutter attachment. I practiced cutting a couple rosette channels on some scrap redwood and I'm impressed with the ease and precision of the set up.
My OLF OM plans arrived and I got lucky and found a melamine desk top about the right size to work off of behind a building the same day. I feel like I'm moving ahead and enjoying every minute of it.





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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

My build is moving right along. I made a segmented rosette from 2 of the peg head veneers I received in the wood assortment from Joel. I think the bloodwood looks great next to the redwood top.
I'm still debating whether to put an ebony trim inside the soundhole. I got the braces cut and profiled and installed on the back. Today I tackled the part that I've been the most anxious about. I've never bent sides before, much less figured walnut. I picked up the aluminum bending iron from LMI, coupled with a propane tank, and am very happy with how well it went. Someone talked about using a shop paper towel lightly dampened. I did this and went slow, never getting completely dry. No scorches or breaks. Surprisingly satisfying process. Top braces up next.


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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

Nice work. The rosette is looking good.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"