Official Luthiers Forum!

Ok, guys,
When you've finished your projects, please post your finished pictures and video and/or sound clip here. Everyone who has posted by midnight December 31st will be one of the contestants in the actual vote thread.

Please keep the number of posts in this thread down to one per person. You're build threads are for commenting and discussion, and I suggest you post your pictures and videos there too. This thread is more for organizational purposes, so I know who's actually in.

Also, please post the materials and cost run-down in the same post.

I'll talk to Lance about adding the poll to this thread, rather than starting another one.

So far, we have:

#1 Marcus

#2 PeterF

#3 micahmed

#4 jaybird840

#5 Tony_in_NYC (not that anyone cares

#6 Todd and Filippo

#7 Bryan Bear

#8 jfmckenna

#9 SteveSmith

#10 weslewis

#11 DennisK

#12 Dave Fifield

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Edit:
Materials breakdown:

Black Walnut - $0 (from my parent's farm)
Sinker Cedar SB - $25 (got 4 sets for $100 from Pwoolson)
African Mahogany neck - $10 (cut from a 3" x 3" x 36" turning blank from woodcraft for $30)
Nickle Fretwire - $5 (stew mac)
Spruce bracing - $10
W/B/W purfling - $10
Kerfed lining - $1 (I'll do my own cut from a large spanish cedar plank I paid $10 for)
Nut and Saddle - $8 (bleached from Stew Mac)
Z-poxy - $5
Truss Rod - $16 (stew mac hot rod)
Inlay - $10
Ziricote Fretboard - $2.66
Ziricote Bridge - $2.66
Ziricote Binding - $2.66 (all ziricote came from scrap piece in Rockler bargain bin for $7.99)
Finish (nitro) - $30

Total is $138

I sort of stretched the rules a bit. I put the nice Grover tuners on my build for pictures. I didn't really have time to install the StewMac open-back tuners on as I had originally planned because I was delivering the guitar the next day.

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

EDIT: NEW VIDEO



Here's my entry. Do I get bonus points for it being my first guitar?


















It sounds so much better than this - I'll upload a better one soon but it'll be after the deadline, unfortunately.

Pricing list:

Back, sides, neck - $0 - from an old piece of furniture
Bracing, lining and inlay wood - $0 - offcuts from college
Top - $26 - Touchstone tonewood
Binding - $15 - ''
Purfling, truss rod, bridge blank, fingerboard, nut and frets from Madinter for $93
Saddle - $4 - ebay
Bridge pins -$3 - ebay
Tuners - $6 - really cheap chinese things from ebay. They don't look too bad...

Total $147

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

I would like to introduce you to the "Mesquite-O." It is a 12-fret parlor guitar based loosely on a C. Bruno or Martin Size 2 from the late 19th century. It is constructed entirely of Honey Mesquite--a south Texas native wood (back, sides, neck, fretboard, rosette, neck and heel blocks, kerfed linings, bridge and bridge plate) except for the top and bracing which is bearclaw Sitka spruce, and the bindings/purflings which are mahogany+wenge/maple/wenge. Please watch the video at the bottom in full-screen for the best experience. The soundtrack in the video is me playing (badly) the Mesquite-O. This is my second guitar. Thank you for your votes!!!

I still need to make a video, but here are my pics. I will edit the post when I make a video.









And video. Very poorly recorded, even more poorly played video.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Beautiful work everyone!

Unfortunately I have done a very silly thing and am unable to post pics or vid before the deadline. After finishing about 6 weeks ago I didn't get around to posting the final pics before heading over to Australia for Christmas. I thought I would be able to access all of my images but, in the rush getting the family organized for the trip, forgot to upload them!!

Never mind. There are plenty of beautiful instruments to vote for and there is always next time.

On the plus side, I found a box of turning blanks in my parents attic here in Australia left by my late uncle. Amongst the spoils I scored pieces of blackheart sassafras and Tasmanian myrtle burl, about 7"x 7"x 7". They will keep me in rosette material for a couple of years!

Good luck to the rest of you. Should be a tight race.

Shane

Here is my humble entry, a flat-top mandolin. I entered that challenge not because I had a chance to win but for a reason to push myself to build at a pace that could meet the deadline. As soon as I submit this post, I will have succeeded in what I set out to do.

Top – Engleman spruce guitar soundboard cutoff used to protect a shipment of veneers I received $0
Bracing – spruce from an old exterior door $0
Blocks – laminated spruce cutoff from building my workbench $0
Back sides and neck – curly maple from Home Depot $10.08
All other wood parts – jatoba floor boards given to me for free $0
Tuners – Stew Mac economy tuners $20.45
Truss rod – hardware store steel rod an random chunk of steel bar and a brass Stew Mac TR nut call it all $5
Bridge pins – stainless steel nails $0.50
Other hardware bits much less than $8
Glue and finish – French polish and hide glue Let’s call it $15
Grand total $59.03, If anyone wants to take issue with my cost estimates, feel free to add $75 to any one of my parts. . .

You can bore yourself with the whole thread here: http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopi ... 68&start=0

Crappy cellphone pics:







I managed to find a mandolin player who would let me video him but hadn’t worked out all the buzzes yet when he was available. I still wish I had been able to get a video with a better microphone than the one in my phone. . .




Thanks for looking and thanks for all the commendatory and help along the way. A special big thanks to Phillip, one of these guys is going to get one heck of a prize!

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

Pretty cool. I like it a lot.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

I was very happy to see this challenge come up as I have wanted to build a local foraging guitar from an old barn in my back yard. The barn is over 90 years old and built from oak and pine planks. I have built a few electric guitars from the wood but never an acoustic until faced with this challenge.
Have a look at my build thread for full details on the construction process: viewtopic.php?f=10133&t=37566&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
The idea was to build a guitar that would have been built 90 years ago and to look old right from the start, kinda like going to the Gap and buying pre-torn and faded jeans. So I based it roughly on a turn of the century C. Bruno parlor guitar.
Here is the cost of the guitar:
Cost:

Bone nut - $4.00
Bone saddle - $3.00
Sitka Bracing - $2.00
Kerfed linings - $6.00
Frets - $4.00
Tuners - $10.00
Abalone dot - $0.50
Bridge pins - $8.00

Total = $37.50
The only wood that was purchased was the kerfed linings because I was getting lazy and worried about time and Sitka bracing for the top just because it's better.

I wish I had better pics but I am away from home till after the new year so here ya go:

Construction pics:






Finished Guitar:

Peg head

Bridge

End Graft

Heal

Top

Guitar leaning against the barn from which it came

Back


Video’s

So this first one was shot about 4-5 days after the guitar was first 'born'. It is set up with silk and steel strings. The guitar tone really matured in the first few days.

This second one is set up with D'Addario EXP strings in size 10. As I describe in the video I am trying to demonstrate the guitars sustain and overtones with a drop D tuning.

Finally this last video is of my friend Greg Albert who I think is one of the finest guitar players this side of the Mississippi. Here he pushes the guitar to the edge with some blues, jazz and a bit of rock and roll.


Thanks for looking and thanks to everyone involved especially Phillip Patton for being so kind as to make such a beautiful prize. Also big thanks to those who helped me in my build thread when it comes to blackening oak. This is something I will definitely use in the future. As with every build I always learn something and continue to learn. Happy voting.

jn

Here's my Challenge Special. This was a great opportunity to jump in with both feet and try some things I've never done before. I decided to build a bubinga/lutz 14-fret dread using a 24.9" scale, 1 7/8" nut and falcate bracing. The bubinga came from a board I had laying around the shop for at least 5 years; I found the board a Jeffrie's Hardwoods and liked the way it looked so bought it for my stash. The bubinga wan't wide enough so had to do a 4-piece back. The AA lutz top came from Shane at High Mountain and the neck was a piece of off-quarter mahogany given to me by James Condino at luthier get together earlier this year. The BRW I used for the headplate and bindings was another piece I got from Jeffrie's cause I liked the look of it.

I'm not expecting to win the chisel, although I would love to have it, that Phillip made but I feel like I won already. The opportunity to build a guitar while working as part of a group has been a first for me and a great experience.

Some of the firsts for me were:
- Falcate bracing
- Fully bolt-on butted neck joint with a bolt-on fretboard extension
- Bastogne walnut fretboard and bridge
- PolyWhey waterborne finish
- Zpoxy fill
- Large sound hole
- and more

Lot's of challenges as I went through this build but it was a blast.

My final cost tally:
Bubinga back/side $18
BRW bindings/headplate/tail wedge/heel cap $5.33
Lutz top $22
Bastogne walnut bridge/fretboard $6
Fretboard dots -$3
EVO fretwire $6.50
Bone nut/saddle-ebay $4.96
Bone bridge pins-ebay $4.99
Purfling - $5
Finish - Zpoxy, Shellac, and PolyWhey $15
Tuners - Grover open back 18:1-ebay $29.99
truss rod, Allied - $18
CF neck reinforcement - $9
Mahogany neck $free
CF Tow (maybe) $ 0.34
Everything else was made in the shop.
_________________
Total $148.11

And the final product:








And the video:

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

didn't realize till tonight that I had no finished photo's
not the best pics

_________________
MK5acoustics.com

I pm'd Lance last week about the poll, and haven't heard back yet. So I'm gonna let people keep working until I hear from him. I'll post a new thread announcing the official closing of the "work" portion of the contest.

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Finished the building with about 10 hours to spare, and now the video with only one and a half left

Small classical based on this old Torres http://www.vintageguitar.com/3434/antonio-de-torres-1863/
Soundboard: Engelmann spruce
Back/sides: Spalted maple
Neck is Port Orford cedar
Headstock/fingerboard/bridge: Honduran rosewood
Bindings: Eucalyptus, with curly maple and walnut burl veneer purfling
Inlays: White black and gold MOP, paua and pink abalone, curly koa, and African blackwood for the pupils of the eyes.

Had to do the photoshoot in the snow

Only just saw this thread for posting final pictures and video.....you guys changing the rules on the fly to try and keep me out?!

Back and sides - Claro Walnut
Soundboard - triple Lutz spruce
Neck - Honduran Mahogany
Fretboard and Bridge - Streaky Ebony
Rosette/Headplate/Backplate - Redwood Burl
Binding - Maple
Purfling - Homemade Blue/Red/Blue

Materials = $136.60 (details in the first post of my build thread)

Here are some shots of my finished instrument - click on any photo to see the hi-res version:



















Here's the YouTube video of my pal Jorge playing it:



Here's a (now working properly) full bandwidth streaming flash video of some more of Jorge playing my ESJ2:

NEW!! HD video (Flash) - more of the ESJ2 being played by Jorge

Cheers,
Dave F.

_________________
Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Edit:
Materials breakdown:

Black Walnut - $0 (as pictured from my parent's farm)
Sinker Cedar SB - $25 (got 4 sets for $100 from Pwoolson)
African Mahogany neck - $10 (cut from a 3" x 3" x 36" turning blank from woodcraft for $30)
Nickle Fretwire - $5 (stew mac)
Spruce bracing - $10
W/B/W purfling - $10
Kerfed lining - $1 (I'll do my own cut from a large spanish cedar plank I paid $10 for)
Nut and Saddle - $8 (bleached from Stew Mac)
Z-poxy - $5
Truss Rod - $16 (stew mac hot rod)
Inlay - $10
Ziricote Fretboard - $0
Ziricote Bridge - $0
Ziricote Binding - $0
Finish (nitro) - $30

Total is $130.

I sort of stretched the rules a bit. I put the nice Grover tuners on my build for pictures. I didn't really have time to install the StewMac open-back tuners on as I had originally planned because I was delivering the guitar the next day.[/quote]



Most beautiful acoustic I've ever seen. You have a gift man. It only took you $130 to build.... you should be selling these for$1200 at least.

calm like a bomb

Bump.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

12 completed entries, awesome! I need to go count the number of entries that were actually started. I bet we are somewhere just under 50%.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

Tough call on this vote. I have three or four I really ant to vote for, and it's hard making a decision.

_________________
"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."

Wow! Awesome work by everyone. I've purposely stayed away from the challenge threads, so I would be surprised by what I found today. These are all such wonderful instruments that it's hard to choose a "winner," but one does stand out as a little bit special to me. I'm off to vote now!

This is so inspiring. I hope I'll be able to participate next time!

_________________
George :-)

What a bunch of stunners! WOW!
Well done, fellers!

I should probably sell my tools and just whittle backscratchers.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I haven't been following the build thread very closely so has been great to see the final results. Great job by everyone.

_________________
Brad
Avon, OH

I can not see it using Tapatalk, but if I open the forum in Safari on my iPhone, I can see it.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

In the first post, I asked you all to keep down the chit chat in this thread. That was only while organizing things. Now that the poll is in place, please, chit chat away.

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

seems to me there is already enough " chit" in this chat !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
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