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All these woods were cut from the upper Austrian Region. So far i have Maple Backs, Spruce Tops, Pear Wood fretboard. Plan on doing a Classical, maybe with a bolt on neck though, we will see. Will update as the time goes by, and surely hope to finish by the deadline. Good luck to everyone.

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Sounds like a great plan. Bolt on neck is the way to go, I reckon, even on a classical.
You've got access to some very nice wood there!

Screwed up the first blank. Lesson learned. The blanks I have are not so wide, so I cut the head from a big maple block. Planing that to the exact same angle ... Let's just say I must Resharpen my planes now. I did however use my old wooden plane more which was nice because the blade is much more robust. Still needs to be glued and cleaned up more. Just thought I'd post in this, kind of self motivating.

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Some of my wood that will go into the build.

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Finishing the bridge this weekend, I might be late in my showing and it is just full of cosmetic errors. So I guess I am not going to make it. But I will still post it maybe a week late.

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Slow down and be late. Never rush an instrument.

Thanks, as I was doing the first one, I worked the second along side it and I can tell by just doing it once how much better the second one is coming out. Can't beat the experience. And even though the first one looks like crap I learned so much from it. After these two I'll be one the next set !

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Here is an update. I had taken these to enter in back in November but after stringing it up I found many errors and I couldn't enter it. So since then I took the finish down on the top to redo it again by French Polish. Created a new bridge with lower saddle height and better break. Started taking the thickness of the neck down a bit because it was really bulky. The list goes on. Right now it looks a little sad but I never gave up on the practice guitar #1.

Here it is calling out to me.

The new technique I am doing with French Polish is going easier and smoother. As they say practice makes perfect. Also practice carving 4 bridges by hand. Is there a significant difference if the bridge is smaller in length as far as functionality?

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Wow. I really like that. Perhaps you should cross post this to the main thread? I don't think anyone is looking over here anymore. I just happened to see this posting.

Very creative aesthetics. Love the carving on the headstock, and also the rosette that actually looks like a rose.

IMHO don't lose sight of your artistic vision. With experience technique will improve drastically, but sometimes something is lost. I see a lot of early guitars that are very creative, then as people get better technically, they end up doing the same old Martin clones.

FP skill comes mostly from practice, but also from insight. Take a look at Frank Ford's tips on the Frets.com pages. Don't obsess with the OCD instructions from MIlburn. Most common beginner mistakes IME are:

- pad is too wet. blot it on some clean paper first. There should be just enough to form a 'cloud'.
- no cloud. see above...
- no oil. for some philosophical reason apparently. Don't go overboard but use some. Olive oil is easiest. As you get better you need less.

Greg,

I appreciate the kind words. I really learned a lot making this, and now, still making it haha. When i think the FP is acceptable and i glue that new bridge on, i will take some better quality pics. I had a lot of fun and really learned how to fix a fudged area or problems. On my practice #2 i didnt have the same mistakes as #1, but new problems. Things went way smoother with it though. I believe i wont ever be able to really sell a lot of guitars even if i became proficient at it, for that very reason, creativity. If i start building one after another without anything special it wont have that "feeling". Thanks for that insight, i intend to keep my word on it!

How do you crosslink posts? No idea

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Crosslink posts just means to post the same stuff to another section. I don't think many people are looking at this section anymore since the contest is over, and they might be interested in seeing all your cool carving etc.

I certainly understand that you would choose creativity over trying to make money building guitars. That's pretty much how I see it too.