Hey folks - hope you're all doing all and having a good holiday season. It's been a long, long time since I've posted, but I have some pictures to share of last and current projects. I'm a hobbyist in the mid-teens of builds I think (have lost count) over ~16 years.
The building bug comes and goes, with everything else happening in life, but feels like it's bit hard again. Have been buying materials, now that LMI has been closing, and my StewMAX is running out soon, which I had barely used this year. Probably buying too much, but all disclosed to my supportive wife, lol. So, I'm answering all those questions for myself about, who's truss rods should I use now? (Have bought a couple different ones to see, SM and Allied.) Do I need to move from a 3 degree bridge pin taper (sold by LMI) to 5 degrees (sold by SM), cause I need a new reamer? (I have enough pin sets already to put this off.. plus can just buy elsewhere for sure but it seems so arbitrary..) Is "zipflex" going to be as good as loose shell? (I bought some to see, but also ordered some shell from one of the OLF sponsors to check out...) Where am I gonna get my un-radiused 25.5" fretboards now? (Am I going to have to cut my own slots? Darn it..) And so on. Actually a pretty useful exercise. I liked that LMI was a local-ish business (little over 2 hours drive from me), but things change. All that said - realized I missed being on here talking about projects.
Here's a walnut build I did for a friend, this became an early pandemic project. Happily, found this was the project where I finally felt satisfied with what I was doing. (Another thread was asking about sealing the inside with shellac, I did it on this one because it was going to Malaysia and I imagined it might help in a high-humidity environment, to slow moisture transfer going in and out of air conditioning. I have no evidence that this was actually the case.)
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Then another pandemic project that I finally completed in February of this year; did 4 at a time (which I won't do again, it took a long, long time, but was a good skill-builder). I was pleased with all of them, but that redwood top was a winner sound-wise (which a friend promptly asked to buy). The other tops are lutz and red spruce.
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Next, a band-mate mused one day, "I'd like a flamed maple guitar", and I then surprised him by saying, "Oh let me show you a set you'll like..." He picked out that bearclaw top from the pics on LMI. I got started in Feb but then put it all down until late autumn of this year. He would see the materials laying out, and the lack of progress, at practice every week and graciously said nothing. So, back to it now...
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Putting together next projects in my head now; have enough materials for a handful, but excited now to do redwood with walnut B&S, as these are materials for which I really liked the outcome in the prior projects. have a walnut neck blank to put with it. We'll see though, my "next project" seems to change quite a bit until it's time to start it. Largely because the "current project" always seems to take longer than I anticipate.
I'm kind of building copies of Taylor Grand Auditoriums currently, but kind of not. Started changing up the bracing (feathering it instead of tucking for example) and other design elements. Sooner or later may come up with something of my own. Musician friends keep telling me to put electronics in. Shrug.
Anyway, hello again! Happy to be talking about guitars with y'all.
