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Making my dream guitar and a test


Freeman Keller

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I've started building what I hope will be my last guitar for myself. Well, maybe....

 

I've had some stunning cocobolo tucked away in my little wood stash along with some Western red cedar and I figured it was finally time to build something out it. I have a bunch of smaller bodied guitars but they are all 12 fretters and in theory an Orchestra Model is the "right" guitar for me. I haven't built one yet, so here we go.

 

I'm also testing whether I really want to go thru the hassle of resizing photos before posting them, its a bit of a hassle and I want to see what they look like. So again, here we go

 

 

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I guess this is OK, what do you think? I'm not planning to do a build thread however if anyone shows any interest I might post a few more pictures

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I've mentioned before how much I love your build threads, so I'm not going to go all fanboi here....But I hope you DO continue to post them. And I get your disappointment with the lack of traffic here at HC. I suppose I share it to a degree.

I suppose I'm part of the problem. I used to post a lot more and, well, just show up a lot more. Lately I just pop in, check SSS and pop out most days. I used to spend the majority of my time in the guitar forums....Haven't been spending any time here at all lately.

But I always check on a thread if I see your avatar to the side of it. You're an extremely gifted artisan for my money.

 

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Your build threads are wonderful pieces. Given my situation I am happy if I can file my nuts and sand a saddle or two, so I get vicarious pleasure from your builds. Something a bit sad regarding "last build for myself"... even if it may be, I would hope you always keep that door open for any number of reasons.

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i'm always interested in your pics,even more the little story you put around them when posting

so this guitar will be a 14 fretter?

 

altough i have a 12 fretter, i think i'm not a big fan. i use it with open g tuning and do some amateurish slide with it. i use the slide one my pinky i think it is uncomfortable to play at the 12 fret with it.

putting a capo on 2nd fret and play it in A its almost impossible to reach 14th fret...

 

so why do slide players prefer 12 fretters? ok played as a lapsteel it doesn't matter, but normal?

i don't get it, can some one enlighten me?

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I'm also testing whether I really want to go thru the hassle of resizing photos before posting them, its a bit of a hassle and I want to see what they look like. So again, here we go

 

 

 

I guess this is OK, what do you think? I'm not planning to do a build thread however if anyone shows any interest I might post a few more pictures

 

I really enjoyed the Christmas dobro photo although I didn't login and comment. I don't login that much anymore after the Xth forum reformat that made us change passwords. Tired of changing passwords, I literally have about 30 that I use regularly between work, personal and hobbies so if it is aggravating, "it ain't" if ya know what I mean. I lurk almost daily though.

 

I'm always interested in builds, post the progress that you are comfortable with.

 

I post a lot of pictures, and lately videos on forums. I usually edit all pictures and video for quality and typically resize to optimize during the process. I usually save the edited version under a different name, retaining the original as taken. I just consider it part of the hassle of sharing. FWIW

 

 

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That's a stunning piece of cocobolo, Freeman. OM is my guitar of first choice, too, although I have several smaller ones.

Even if you can't do a blow-by-blow on this one, please post occasional updates with your progress.

I'm through acquiring and accumulating guitars. I like the ones I have, and I have too many, so I'm reducing and selling off these days.

My last one was a custom shop order (since I'm not capable of building one myself). So I got everything I wanted in it, and was delighted with the end result. That was two years ago.

Good luck to you with this. Especially with that cedar which I understand can be a challenge.

:thu:

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That's a stunning piece of cocobolo, Freeman.

 

Bit of a Rorschach test, eh?

 

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A couple more pictures just to show that I'm actually doing something. Mmmm, photos ended up out of sequence - oh, well, as the title says, this is just a test

 

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Thanks BP. Been doing a little binding (when I'm not working on the barncaster or the inevitable repairs). Going to be very simple - all of the accents will be coco with just a few little purfling lines . I know I can do bling, but this is my guitar so subtle is the word

 

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"IMG_4017-2.jpg","data-attachmentid":32144181}[/ATTACH]

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Looking good, Freeman. I'm getting the feeling that you've got the process sorted out and there are no surprises. This may be the prompt for me to get cracking...

 

 

 

 

...once the humidity stabilizes. The furnace is running nonstop and the air is VERY dry. Woodworking is not in the cards until April.

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it has probably been almost ten years since I've been on this site, I got an opportunity back then to meet up with you and play one of your guitars, glad to see you're still building guitars, your work back then was phenomenal, i am excited to see how this bad boy turns out!

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Very nice work Freeman. I wasn't on this forum when you did previous builds so I am watching this one. The wood is indeed very nice. Bling is nice, but some sedate wood purling would be my choice if it was mine. Looking forward to seeing what YOU choose for it. Well done so far.

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I have all this premium grade Brazilian rosewood in the garage.... and since I opened my optical store I have no time to build. Let me know If you'd like to trade sets for luthier work. It's occurring to me that all these sets I've saved all these years for my retirement building might be overkill.

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