Moderators daddymack Posted June 26, 2023 Moderators Share Posted June 26, 2023 You are extremely fortunate to have an expert of his caliber willing to advise and help you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted June 28, 2023 Members Share Posted June 28, 2023 On 6/22/2023 at 1:28 PM, kwakatak said: This build shows that there is much room for improvement. . . . If it's any consolation it's still miles better than anything I could do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted June 28, 2023 Author Members Share Posted June 28, 2023 9 hours ago, DeepEnd said: If it's any consolation it's still miles better than anything I could do. Yeah, maybe it's better than I'm giving myself credit for but I see the clams on it every day. Certainly, the advice he gave me on how to brace the top have paid off but I'm expecting the top to implode at some point. I was also pleased with how the French polish came out but it's not a sturdy finish and already there are scratches. Still, the other night I was crashing on Tim and Mary's couch in the loft above and had access to about a dozen of his guitars, but still (after he'd sanded down the saddle and nut and tweaked the truss rod) I gave this build as much attention. Props to Zuri (kudos if you're out there man) for hooking me up with this Carpathian top back in the day. It held its own against Adirondack topped slope dreads. Probably the biggest pick-me-up this weekend when I broke out my No. 1 build (made with the same molds but has a deeper body and made with more "mellow" tonewoods of cedar over mahogany) and played it at the open mic. I pushed it hard too, playing Pinball Wizard of all things. He watched in a mixture of horror and fascination because it didn't implode. This stuck with me because about 10 years ago I asked Tim to help me finish it (yes, it's that old already!) and I'd screwed up the neck joint. I remember him being really quiet and visibly fuming because the bolts kept coming loose. Eventually he got the neck to sit right but for a time I was afraid that he'd just chuck it in the burn box and tell me to start over. PS: that guitar had a loose brace going in and it's due for a neck reset because of high action. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted July 9, 2023 Author Members Share Posted July 9, 2023 Ok, I’m calling this one done and in its evaluatory phase. The frets are mostly level, the neck angle is about right and I’ve had the Tone Rite on it to help the to open up. I’ve enjoyed playing it but haven’t had the opportunity to record it - at least not post Tone Rite. I wanted to play of song of my own composition- much like this guitar. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted July 12, 2023 Members Share Posted July 12, 2023 Looks good. Looking forward to hearing it played. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted July 13, 2023 Author Members Share Posted July 13, 2023 Here are clips of my first recording session before I put the Tone Rite on it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted July 17, 2023 Author Members Share Posted July 17, 2023 On 7/15/2023 at 8:30 PM, BeeLectro said: Beautiful looking guitar. What's your opinion of the tone? Hehe - it's my baby so I'm biased. I've been comparing it with two other guitars: - its sibling which I completed in 2013 but has a deeper body, different bracing pattern and different tonewoods. Relatively speaking, my opinion is that this new one's tone has more overtones and more sustain. - a 17 year old Larrivee OM-03R that is similar in depth but otherwise a smaller bodied guitar with a different bracing pattern and species of spruce for the soundboard. The Larrivee also has medium gauge strings; this one has lights. Both are D'Addorio PB though. Despite the lighter strings the bass response and sustain on this one are superior IMO. I am more prone to strum this one more than the OM, though I feel like I need to polish the frets and work on the nut to address the feel of the action and fretboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted January 10 Author Members Share Posted January 10 Update and confession. I’ve been tweaking the neck angle on this and need to cut the fret slots a little deeper. The action on the low E is very high: close to 1/4” and down by the nut it could also stand to come down a couple of 1/32”. It’s not solely the neck angle but the neck itself. There’s a slight twist and relief issues that only present themselves when the neck is under full tension; the angle is good when the strings are off. The other tipoff is that the intonation is off a couple of ticks. Meanwhile, the day before yesterday I was singing and playing along a bit aggressively (as I am wont to do when the moment strikes me just right) and decided to take a break. That’s when I noticed that there was a little light reflecting in the gloss finish under the bass side wing of the bridge. To confirm this I grabbed a random business card and found that it wasn’t just a visual illusion, the bridge was indeed lifting. With haste I slackened all the strings then pulled the bridge pins. To my surprise the entire bridge came free of the body! Fortunately, no fibers came up off the top. It was simply a glue failure. In fact, it looks like I may have not used enough. I guess that not 100% a bad thing. I’m waiting until spring to address it though. I’m thinking changes in weather conditions might be another culprit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted January 10 Moderators Share Posted January 10 Sorry about the setback, that sucks! IIRC, this is a bolt-in neck, not glued, so a reset is not such a major undertaking. Winter is a terrible time to do work/repairs involving glue joints....even if you live somewhere like here, where the humidity is fairly stable*. If you don't have good humidity and temperature control, then yes, I would wait...But it seems I recall you have a humidifier and a hygrometer for your workroom.... so you are the judge of suitability. *typical humidity here is about 60%, except when the Santa Anas blow, then it drops drastically, and static electricity is everywhere; plus, outdoors, the temperature can swing 25-30F over the course of a day [it was 38F this morning at 5:30 AM, it should hit ~65 this afternoon]. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted January 11 Members Share Posted January 11 Sorry to hear about your setback. Wow. The bridge coming loose would freak me out. 😟 Better luck going forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted January 13 Author Members Share Posted January 13 Thanks. DM I do have a humidifier attached to my furnace but we’ve got hard water in which calcium builds up so I think the supply line is blocked because it hasn’t been kicking on. I wired it up myself though so it’s probably shorted out too. The way the bridge came off couldn’t have happened any better. There are loose fibers off the top so it would just be a matter of sanding off the glue residue and regluing it down. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted January 15 Moderators Share Posted January 15 It does sound like you dodged a nasty bullet on the bridge separation, so yeah, a good sanding [of both contact surfaces, obviously] would be in order. If you are going to go ahead with the bridge re-glue, leave the clamps on longer than usual, just to be sure it is fully cured.. Hard water is the bane of humidifiers, AC units, shower heads, faucets....I am studying up on putting a 'whole-house filtration system' in Casa Mack this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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