Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm catching up posting documentation of one of two 00's I've been working on. Both are built on Ken's KMG 00 12 fret template in the mega-mold. This combo has worked great for me.

Sitka top
Red spruce bracing
Ziricote Back and sides
Ebony binding - likely with b/w/b purfling and Blue Pau bling.
Rosette - 3 ring, with Blue Pau
Slot head
Waverly brass 3 on a plate with ebony tuner
Pyramid bridge
1 3/4 nut

First, make sure the humidity is right on

Homemade bending jig, with controller taken from a glass kiln I built years earlier.

Resawing brace stock - .25" throughout. This saw was rescued from a friend - the tension block had broken, and it needed a new home. It's about time I invest in a new blade though.

More to come - just need to get photos uploaded.

I am not sure wood and plane porn are allowed on this site. I may have to report it. Looks like it will be a great looking guitar.

_________________
http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Thanks John - If I'm going to break the rules, I might as well keep going.

I prefer to hand plane the radius in my top and back braces. Moving forward I'm going to build a simple jig to make this step just a little quicker and more precise.



And gluing up the x-brace. Coming from the KMG process, I still use card stock radius cauls. They work really well, and I make up extras or different radii whenever needed.

For go-bars I'm using simple oak strips, with lightly rounded edges.

A 16" fretboard radius block works great for putting a gentle radius on my back strips. I run masking tape down both outside edges of the block, protecting the back from the abrasive. When the edges of the block touch the back I'm done.



I knew I held on to all of these old baseball cards for a reason - protecting the back reinforcing strip while shaping the back braces.

Blue Pau inlay for the rosette, purfling, headstock and the fretboard.

How do you build a guitar?

Simple. Just remove everything that isn't essential.



Lots of wood removed from the top bracing during the voicing process.

The rim is ready.



The top goes on first so I can still make final voicing adjustments before closing the box.



Getting close on the bracing, just needs the final cleanup and sanding.

Pressing frets before gluing the board on the neck. This makes fret installation really easy, but I'm rethinking this approach as I study more. (Hesh, take it easy, I'll come around)

Label applied and back cleaned up prior to closing the box.

Very nice work. Great wood selection, and pretty rosette.

Ed

Very nice, phenomenal pictures as well.

_________________
http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

I learned a few things from Robbie O'Brien's French Polishing videos...

Out in the wild...

And here is an image from the evening I finally presented, literally, the finished Ziricote 00-12 to its final owner.

This was at a design retreat we do annually. I spent some time speaking about and demonstrating tap tones of tonewoods, their characteristics and how they can be combined for different tonal effect before suggesting that its easier to understand in a completed instrument. I then presented the finished guitar and invited a number of friends from the audience to demo it for the group.

Nice guitar! I like doc-u-builds. Wish more people did them. I find it most valuable when folks share their techniques for various processes, I've learned a lot that way.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Fixed all of the broken image links - thanks all for the heads up. Things should look good again.

I like it, just get a chunk of wood and remove all the non guitar part!

Great build log and pics too, looks like a beauty!

New username, same ole Pat Macaluso!

_________________
Pat