Members Freeman Keller Posted October 26, 2015 Author Members Share Posted October 26, 2015 Looking good' date=' Freeman. Would you recommend such a build for an 8 year old boy? I have a short scale paddle head neck. Also, what do you think of walnut as a choice? My friend had a local tree milled, quartered and stored several years ago and it's about ready to resaw into sets. .[/quote'] Many parlors, including these, have fairly wide necks and string spacing even tho they are shorter scale. I don't know if that would be a problem for a younger player and you could always make the neck narrower as required. Scale length can be 24.5 to 24.9 to get the bridge in the center of the lower bout. I have no experience with walnut but people do build guitars out of it. LMI says it has "a crisp dry tone and a strong fundamental". They say it works well in all respects and once dry is very stable. My limited experience with parlors is that they are pretty boxy and mid sounding to start with, I don't know if you want to add more fundamental. But it certainly is a lovely wood and is very sustainable so I would say go for it as long as you know and trust how it was dried and stored. One thing that I'm looking forward to with these two guitars is seeing if we can hear any differences between them. I do plan to post some blind clips for discussion. They are as identical as I can make them - the tops are from the same Lutz set and are the same thickness, everything else except the back and sides are the same. We will have the Braz and Mad rose to compare, but also my daughters guitar (which is the same size and bracing but is Sitka and EIR and is five or six years old so there are several differences). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Queequeg Posted November 4, 2015 Members Share Posted November 4, 2015 Wow. This is what I've been missing by being away for a while.Beautiful, Freeman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted November 5, 2015 Members Share Posted November 5, 2015 Man - I can't wait to hear the clips!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted November 5, 2015 Author Members Share Posted November 5, 2015 I've started finishing but that's about as thrilling as watching paint dry. Probably the better part of a week or more to get all the coats on, three weeks or so to cure, then buff and all the final stuff. Sometime before Christmas I hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Singsong Posted November 7, 2015 Members Share Posted November 7, 2015 Ooooooh! o-O Alright Kwak calm down boy .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tom Mc1 Posted November 9, 2015 Members Share Posted November 9, 2015 This Singsong guy needs to find a different place to be rude and disrespectable. He's probably a child. Have you chosen the hardware for these beauties? I'm assuming side tuners looking at the open headstock. What kind of nut and bridge material are you planning? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted November 9, 2015 Author Members Share Posted November 9, 2015 This Singsong guy needs to find a different place to be rude and disrespectable. He's probably a child. Have you chosen the hardware for these beauties? I'm assuming side tuners looking at the open headstock. What kind of nut and bridge material are you planning? That kind of behavior is more or less the norm at the electric side but we've mostly been spared here. If I had my way he would delete that post, but then he is new and probably just trying to impress us. (oh, edit to add, I just noticed that he has been banned) Waverly slothead tuners, bridge will be ebony (to match the f/b) pyramid. When I did my daughters I cut down a belly bridge - it looks OK but I'm really partial to pyramid bridges - I think they look "correct" on this style of guitar. Nut, saddle and pins will be plain old cow bone - that is all I use. I have personal ethical conflicts with any kind of ivory, no matter how long its been dead and I really haven't found a modern material that I like any better than bone. Eight coats on it now, starting to look like something. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow of the finishing process in case anyone wants to watch paint drying.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted November 16, 2015 Author Members Share Posted November 16, 2015 As I promised, a couple of pictures of the finishing. Here they are after 8 coats - the one on the right has been sanded in preparation for the next coat Here are the necks outside (where I shoot the lacquer) after 12 coats Back inside on the bench and the bodies after 12 coats (not a great photo, sorry) I try to put on two or three coats per day, sanding back to 320 or 400 before the first one. Unfortunately the temperature and humidity have been all over the place lately which affects what I can do, as does my schedule. Twelve coats has gone thru two quarts of lacquer - I'm thinking that somewhere around 15 for the necks and maybe 18 or so for the bodies will be about right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted November 17, 2015 Members Share Posted November 17, 2015 That is some very pretty wood. I like both for different reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vibroluxman Posted November 20, 2015 Members Share Posted November 20, 2015 Beautiful Job Freeman! What do you reckon something like this costs to build? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted November 20, 2015 Author Members Share Posted November 20, 2015 Beautiful Job Freeman! What do you reckon something like this costs to build? That is a good question, but not for these guitars. Typically the materials for an acoustic will cost me in the $3-500 range for typical spruce, mahogany and/or EI rosewood. Finish can run from $50 to 100, and I typically buy tuners for around $75. A good case for a standard size guitar is $100-150 (a custom case can run 300). So for an ordinary acoustic guitar the total cost can be somewhere from $500 to 800 or so. (The electrics that I have built have run in the $1K range for materials but then I'm a bit of a wood slut) These are special guitars. I did not buy the wood and ordinarily would not use either Madagascar or Brazilian rosewood (for a lot of reasons, including cost). My friend brought me the two sets - he bought them somewhere on the internet, probably evil-bay, and I don't know what he paid for them. I see Mad rose sets at lutherie supply houses for $600+, I'm going to guess that he paid at least twice that for the Braz. I went all out on some of the other mateirals - Lutz spruce, Waverly tuners (at $150 a set) and I might have to buy custom cases - lets just say that probably the materials for the Mad rose guitar could be $1500, the Braz $2K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cybersecretary Posted November 27, 2015 Members Share Posted November 27, 2015 WOW! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted November 27, 2015 Members Share Posted November 27, 2015 Just saw that reply with the ample lower bout. I wouldn't know what to do with something like that and if I did my wife would take exception with it. However, I'm sure I'd be quite happy with either one of Freeman's beauties on my lap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted November 27, 2015 Members Share Posted November 27, 2015 I have so much AAA Brazilian and other exotic woods that I hoarded up back in the early 1990's. The idea was to have all this wood for my retirement but I'm starting to realize that I'm probably not going to go through it all in my lifetime. I have about 60 BRW sets and probably another 60 of koa, Indian, mahogany, African blackwood etc.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted December 7, 2015 Author Members Share Posted December 7, 2015 The guitars have been hanging in the shop for the past 3 weeks - time to buff 'em out and finish things up. I was pretty happy with the lacquer - each time I finish a guitar it seems to be a little better. I think I ended up with 19 coats - kind of lost track there. Went thru 3 quarts of lacquer for the two guitars and I measured a little chip that I took off one of the hangers at 8 or 9 mils. The whole idea here is to put on enough to be able to buff it back without going thru the finish, but not too thick so it looks like plastic. Didn't take many pictures of the buffing process. The last coat I sprayed really thin and it flowed very nicely - those were the pictures in my last posting. Its kind of a shame to have to sand that back since it is pretty smooth and shiny, but its got to be done. Starting with 1200 grit and going up to 2000 it looks like the guitar on the right. The one on the left hasn't been sanded yet Here they are again, the one in the background has been sanded to 2000. The one in the foreground has been buffed with white compound on a pedestal wheel, I'll go over it a couple more times with fine compound, then finally swirl remover. That's all the pictures of the buffing - sorry. Next I put the necks on and started laying out the bridge location - side to side and scale length with a little compensation After all the work to get the lacquer perfectly shiny now its time to scrape some off. I use a paint stripper to soften it, it pretty much comes right off with a chisel (you can get some idea how thick it is). Oh, the blue tape is the size of the bridge, the green tape gives me about an 1/8 inch of finish remaining under it. That way I don't run the risk of having the bare wood appear at the edge Clamped the bridge on and drilled two pin holes, these will be used with the infamous KBK Bridge Caul to locate the bridge while clamping Bridge in place and nice squeeze out And cleaned up. I broke down and bought two more of those Ibex deep clamps - they are expensive but really work well. I had a couple of cheapies that frustrated me every time I used them. I seem to be doing a fair number of bridge reglues so they will pay for themselves. Last thing, while the lacquer was curing I ordered two nice little TKL cases. Its always a relief when the guitar fits perfectly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 These really look sweet now that they're getting close to being finished up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted December 9, 2015 Author Members Share Posted December 9, 2015 Time for the neck to go on. Clean the lacquer off the top under the fretboard extension and put a relatively small amount of glue under the extension. I want to be able to get if off if and when the neck needs resetting Bolt it on and clamp down the extension Before we go any farther its time to put labels in them. Serial number 15 and 16 - they say it takes about 30 guitars before you can call yourself a "luthier". I'm half way there. The dates are from when I started them - been working on this for a while LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted December 9, 2015 Members Share Posted December 9, 2015 Fancy labels there, Freeman. If you're not a luthier then I must be a complete hack! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted December 10, 2015 Author Members Share Posted December 10, 2015 Microsoft Word, some fancy paper from Office Depot and bingo, fancy labels. I made a template a long time ago and have used basically the same one for every guitar What I have learned with each build is how to correct a new problem. I think when you've seen them all they give you the title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted December 20, 2015 Author Members Share Posted December 20, 2015 When we last met we had just glued the necks and bridges on. I actually pulled one of the necks back off - it was a hair under set and while I could probably live with it in reality I couldn't. Neck came off, did a little flossing and put it back on Happy with that I reamed the pin holes I'm using unslotted bone pins so I need to slot the bridge Make a nut - you've seen all of this before My wife hates the smell of burning bone. This is also a good way to trim your nails.... the usual steps Made a couple of saddles The actions are set just a hair high - its easier to lower it than raise it back up. Take them in the house, open a nice tall adult beverage and welcome the new babies to the collection. I'll call my friend and tell him to come pick up his, but I want a couple of days with it first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted December 20, 2015 Author Members Share Posted December 20, 2015 How about some guitar porn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted December 20, 2015 Members Share Posted December 20, 2015 Wow!!!!!!!!! They look stunning! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vibroluxman Posted December 23, 2015 Members Share Posted December 23, 2015 Beautiful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Carmenrago30 Posted January 5, 2016 Members Share Posted January 5, 2016 Wow. I just read through this entire thread. Freeman, they are beautiful. I can't wait to hear the sound clips you had mentioned when you post them. Do you have pics of the other guitars you've built? Are they anywhere on the site if so? That is truly a thing of beauty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted February 8, 2016 Author Members Share Posted February 8, 2016 Thank you. I have posted pictures before here and at other sites - here are a couple of my favorites. Warning - some of them are pretty long http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10104&t=29796 http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10123&t=46491 http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/forum/guitar/acapella-41/1104633- http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/forum/guitar/acapella-41/31217963-lets-build-something-that-looks-like-an-es-175 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.