Official Luthiers Forum!

Want to throw my name in before it gets to late.
Not quite certain of the details but:

- I'm a beginner so most EVERYTHING is new.
- I have a good chunk of old/local woods I believe I can use.
- Inexpensive is right up my alley = )

The one detail I'm certain of is that I will be following the plan that DennisK generously detailed here in Challenge thread.

So I'm in! See you next time with some decisions on design and materials....oh yeah pictures too!

Gregor

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Welcome aboard!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

Glad you're in, the more the merrier.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Great. Come on in.

Plans wise - LMI has a very good plan of a Martin size 1. It's basically identical (except for bracing) to the Regal/Washburn/Oscar Schmidt/Galiano guitar of the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Thanks

Thanks guys.
Hopefully sometime this week I can sit down, gather my initial thoughts, and put down to paper/post.
No lack of ideas at this point anyways. : )

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Alright, I havent got all my ducks in a row but I need to check in.
May as well try to establish which criteria I will adhere to for this build.

Something Old
I have a lot of cherry, some walnut that are both pushing 20 years old. Given to me by a friend

Something New
As I mentioned everything is pretty much new to me as a beginner.
A slotted peghead, laminated neck, and arm bevel what I will be shooting for.

Something Local
The cherry and walnut were cut down very close to me, so thats about as local as it can get.

Pick Two
1)Parlor Build - I will be doing my best to make DennisK proud and build a slightly modified version of his cool plan.
2)Under Price Cap - This shouldnt be hard as the better part of the material was given to me free of charge.

Hoping to get out tomorrow and have my plans printed.
Would like to decide on some of the other materials as well.

My desire to join this challenge wasnt to win but to motivate me to build.
There is no lack of interest or enthusiasm here, but putting metal to wood always seems hard to get done.
My biggest problem is confidence. Lets see if I can tackle this problem through this build.

Ill try and get some pictures up in the next post.

gregor

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

One of the great things about these chaps he's is that it gets people over the hump to get started or do something different. Win or lose you'll be glad you joined in!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

Practice on scrap. If a task intimidates you, try it on scrap first. It's always easier the second time, and even when something goes wrong, what you learn will keep you from making that mistake again. I've got a pile of pine 1x4 with binding and purfling with mitered corners. I used to have a couple of laminated pine neck blanks, my lamination design requires perfect fit, I had to do two before I was convinced I could do it every time.

The objective is not to win or lose, but to FINISH.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Cleaned up and sorted around the garage to find some materials today.

Fair bit of cherry. Two stacks that are good and dry. Some need more cleanup than others.
most of these are approx 1" thick and really long.



I salvaged these pieces of dimensioned maple that were used as slats on a bench that was being removed/discarded.
They are approx 40" long. Decently cut and quite a bit of them have curl / quilt.



My plan is to use a combination of the maple and cherry for a laminated neck (discussed in another thread).

I also have these chunks of walnut. I have some other larger pieces too but those are intended for some resawing.
The longer piece i will clean up and dimension.....then we will see what it wants to be.
The larger piece I want to try turn into a 1 piece body blank....but thats off topic...


A trip to one of the Office Depots was a bit disappointing. I wanted to have my plan printed out but they didnt have the means.
Will have to travel to the next one. Hopefully tomorrow i can get it done.
I have the week off, but only because my son is in a week long hockey camp. Hoping to putter around all week with this.
Speaking of hockey..... the boy and PaPa made this over the weekend....good shared project for the kid who loves hockey!


More to come.
gregor

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

So, success at the Office Store today. Got my plans printed out. Come to think of it I didnt check to see if they measured up correctly...do that after.
I also took a stab at trying to clean up the chunk o' walnut. Talk about turning a log into a toothpick. Its not perfect but at least it resembles a piece of stock and not a big ugly cut off.

Not sure what or if I will even use this for the build. Possible neck candidate.
The picture doesnt do the piece much justice. It has some really nice figured dark purply colour in it.

No plan of attack yet for tomorrow, but i have all night to think about it. : )
gregor

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Figured I may as well keep at it trying to clean up these pieces of walnut.
Not having the right tools hurts.

The 15" Stanley FatMax does not make a good rip saw... especially when its dull as can be!

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

You need a chain saw

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

hah, i tried to start it after 20 minutes of this......plug is fouled and too lazy to go out and grab another. : )

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Splitting it would work, as well.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I think you know this but I'll mention it just in case. You know that you only need to make ONE guitar for this challenge right? From the pics you have posted, it almost looks like you are building a guitar parlor rather than a parlor guitar

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

Hah!
I know I know, but when your on something of a "roll"....

I was thinking splitting, but I find hardwood likes to break rather than split.
This piece is really close to the size it needs to be, so just wanted to be careful.

.....what to do for a mould...hmmmm

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

For a mold you can get away with anything from completely free form to taking the time to make a really nice mold. A lot depends on if you think you will ever make this size again. I took the time to make a pretty decent mold because I probably will make more of these way down the line. For the last challenge I made a pretty crappy MDF mold and have already used it twice. I wish I had made a more durable one. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

I have made an OM mould, but that was symmetrical. This plan that I am following is asymmetrical.
Was thinking about purchasing one of those "morphing moulds", not specifically for this build but to reduce the amount of moulds I might need to build in the future.

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

In the first acoustic challange I entered, the first thing the pros that were entering did was build a mold for the instrument they were building. I built more "freeform", with blocks at key locations, like the waist, head, and heel. The fact that the pros did it for a "one off" build really emphisized the importance of a good mold,
Since then, I've built a mold for each new shape I build. I've got one more to build, I've never built an 000 or OM, it's the only shape left that I'd like too build. Six sets of molds and bending forms isn't too bad, from parlor to jumbo sizes.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Just to second Rodger, I keep remaking the same mold over and over. I keep finding things I wish had been done better. Fighting with a bad mold can really sour a build.


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I'd say go ahead and make a solid mould for it. The asymmetry shouldn't be an issue. Just means you'll need two bending forms instead of reusing the same one twice. Or make that three, due to the pointy cutaway.

The peg-based variable moulds always seem sort of pointless to me. What advantage does it offer over complete freeform building? Can you really clamp the sides in it tight enough to sand in a dish and glue the top using a method other than dentellones? Those would be the main two selling points of solid moulds for me. And you'll still need a bending form, which can hopefully be made from the inside offcuts of a solid mould.

I'm another one who likes to build with a solid mold although most of mine came from Blue's Creek. For a custom shape like yours I'd build one.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks guys.
Dennis, the body of this guitar you designed really appeals to me. As long as I keep building I'm certain I will build another like this.
Rlrhett- at first when I read your post I was like really, that's a lot of work. On the other hand after building my first mould, I had the same frame of mind "hmm, I could make this better by.."

So point clearly taken, I will build a solid mould. What do most of you favour, a top and bottom with riser blocks to make up the height or solid laminations? My first was solid.

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

I've made mine using solid laminations. Using risers would make the whole thing a bit lighter though. In my case, I make one layer for one side of the mold and then use it as a template to rout all the other five pieces, so it's simpler for me to just stack all the pieces instead of trying to make risers.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Using a riser was one of the dissatisfaction of my early molds. No good clamping surfaces if I wanted to clamp sides to the mold. I use laminated with ever more creative ways if keeping it strong but (relatively) light.


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