Official Luthiers Forum!

Finished off this one today and it's heading back from whence it grew.

I'm delivering this one in person next weekend with ulterior motive of spending a week in Tasmania perusing sawmills and timber merchants along the North West Coast and in Hobart. (and maybe a few Boags Premiums if I have time)

The lowdown and dirty on this one is

Tasmanian Myrtle back and sides, Blackwood bindings with an Engelmann Spruce top.

The neck is Myrtle, Maple, Jarrah with a Myrtle head plate.

The fingerboard is Mulga from Tim Spittle. Amazing wood with a hardness of somewhere between 13 and 18 (Ebony comes in at 9.5)and polishes beautifully.

The Myrtle is also wonderful wood to work with and changes colour from a pink to a rusty red depending what lighting you are in. Doesn't need pore filling either !! Beauty.

Dave's a bit dirty because he wanted to keep this one for himself after hearing it. It is very responsive with a nice resonant bottom end. The top was very stiff so we ended up making it quite thin.

Here's some pics and thanks for having a squiz.



















Cheers

_________________

------------------------------------------------------
Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

a real beauty Bob!

i see you just did something ive been thinking about doing - B/W/W/wood/B/W/B purfling scheme.
can you show the wood part of it a little better and perhaps elaborate on this a bit?

Udi.

It's just fantastic Bob . Your best so far IMO.

The Myrtle comes up very rich , and your purfling/binding is outstanding,,,,,not forgeting those nice tight mitres. Then there's the neck ! wow , and the rosette is perfect.

I take it ,you finished with the U-Beaut hard shellac ?
Great job .

I think you can tell I like it Bob

After seeing this one I'm hoping that offer of picking me up a set of Myrtle from Tas. next week is still open , I'll take it !

Superb mate . Have a good holiday down South and regards to Dave ,,,and LF

Cheers Craig

_________________
CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
_____________________________________________

Sah-WEEEET!

I like the way you used the Tas Blackwood for the bindings. That neck is wild!

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Bob, that is a very breathtaking guitar, with a striking Englemann top. I bought a few AAA tops from the chap you recommended a while back- thanks for the recommendation!!

The TAssie Myrtle certainly has a depth of sheen that would be fascinating to look at- I can just imagine holding the guitar to the light and moving it around- probably playing it eventually!!

One of the best I've seen on here for a while!

Yep, I have to agree...that one is spectacular. Just gorgeous. Great work!!!

_________________
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Bob, that is really stunning!  Beautiful in every way.      

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Can't get much better than that! I agree with everyone that
it is an extremely fine guitar! I really like that type of rosette.Great work Bob.
I would love to hear it.

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Another beauty Bob and Dave - they get better and better. Keep them coming

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Lovely!

That's it, if this is the "2 couts of hard shellac finish" again, I'm making the switch!

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

awesome guitar. that neck is killer

Bob,

It's a fantastic piece of Artcraft! I really like the neck and bridge design.

I wish I could hear it too. It must sound beautiful!

_________________
Andy

Italian spruce if you look for the best!!

Thanks everyone for the thumbs up.

Udi

The wood purflings were bindings sliced in half with a Stanley knife.

Here's a closer pic



Martin, Hesh and Arnt, it is Ubeaut Hard Shellac and it is the our standard 2 coat treatment. We are going to test a 50/50 dilution with 4 coats on the next instruments to get better flow out. ie reduce sanding time.

Hesh - the next step is to do the end of the fingerboards with the same curve as the bridge and the headstock to tie those elements together.

I'll get a sound clip up later in the week.

I've produced a powerpoint presentation for the owner of the this guitar which details the construction as well as finished pics if anyone would like a look. Just beware it is a 10mb download. A big thanks to Hesh for some constructive comments while I was developing this.

If anyone is interested I'll make an editable version available that you can modify for your own use.

It's here.

Cheers

_________________

------------------------------------------------------
Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

so its basically just 0.090" +- thick? just a binding strip that is half as tall as it "should" be, bent the regular way, and what we're seeing is its narrow plane?
i'm asking coz ive been planning on building a 00-45 style guitar but use wood instead of abalone for purfling on the top, sides,back,end grfat and heel.
and now that i've seen what you did, i think i might just go for it when time permits.

thanks!
Udi.

That's right Udi. I think I took them down to .080 but in future I think .060 will give it a better look.

I didn't bend either the bindings or the purfling before I installed them on this one. (although I probably should have)

I just worked the bindings and purfs into the waist very slowly until it became pliable.

Cheers

_________________

------------------------------------------------------
Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia