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My latest. This one fought me all the way. Neck had a backbow, had to fix. Messed up the first bridge. Anyhow, Small Jumbo, Indian Laurel b/s, WR Cedar top, Indian ebony binding. 5 piece laminated neck from BobC and son. My goal was a smaller body guitar set-up for light gauge strings. I've built several of these SJ's but this time did some experimentation. Carbon fiber laminated x braces, narrower body (4.25 inches at end block). Built as light as possible. This is my first with Cedar top, but won't be my last. LMI sent me this top, it was very stiff and rang like a bell when thumped. I take my hat off to you guys that can bend venetian cutaways! This is my 7th attempt and all but 2 have ended up pointy. I keep breaking the side, so they get pointy cutaways. I'm extremely pleased with the sound. This is the first guitar I've built that met my goals sound wize.

Glen

Very nice!!

That's a classy looking guitar. Do you have any photos of the 5-piece neck and a close up of the rosette?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Nice clean work!

Beautiful and very cool!

Here you go. The rosette is just the basic 3 ring with select green abalam.

Nice lines! Is that an original shape?

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Pat

It's a shape for a basic SJ with the cutaway location improvised by where the side cracked when trying to be born. I would not plan to make a cutaway that dips that low into the lower bout, but that's how it worked out. I either had to give it a try as-it-landed or scrap the side. Since I don' t sell these things, I don't have much to lose other than my time.

Glen, That is nicely dome. Very tasteful. Isn't it interesting that some builds fight you... Venetians are nice, but I do like Florentines... What is your purfling?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

It's beautiful, Glen!


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Lovely!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

great work!
How's it sound?

Mike

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Mike Collins

Beautiful!

When you say "built as light as possible", any details you could share on that?

I'm slowly moving away from just using "what the plan calls for" with each build. I'm waiting for something to just fold in half when I string it up.

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Steve, I use a lot of PFL11 (IIRC) from LMI. It's the real long black/white, usually 20/20 around the binding, 10/10 on the soundhole.



Mike, I've built 21 before this one, and though I get a lot of compliments on the 'sound' of these I build, and I think personally they all (except one) sound 'good'. But none have ever really hit the tone I was looking for. None, IMO, were exceptional or unique. I had decided that I was going to hang up building for a decade or so if this numero 22 didn't hit it. I was getting frustrated.
At least to my ears, Nbr 22 is very close to hitting what I was after. I wanted loud, bright, and balanced, and it has these.




Brad, I just don't buy a lot of the 'build light' rule stuff I've read, namely because I've played 'holy grail' caliber instruments that were anything but light. So, lightly built has never been my goal. But, this being a smaller body guitar, I felt it had to be light to get good volume from light gauge strings and narrower body (i didn't have any other way to think... it seemed intuitive). So, I went with bracing below the UTB with .25 width, scalloped deeper than normal. Lighter (by weight) and smaller footprint bridge. And cedar top. And no cocobolo. I use a lot of coco and it makes a heavy instrument (weight wise). I laminated the X with carbon fiber for strength.

Wow that is beautiful, and I really like the cutaway as it turned out. Great stuff for me to strive for.
Chuck

Glen

Great that this one finally meets your standards for sound quality. Big question - did you learn something that will allow you to produce that quality in the next one?

Ed, I think that's the million dollar question! It sure makes me want to build another one and makes me tend to lean toward the same design. I guess that way, I could maybe draw some conclusions.

Very nice!