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It's about time I got these photos shot and published. I've had model June complete for a few months now.

This guitar is Bamboo, Purple Heart, and Bubinga...incorporating this three layered effect in several places on the instrument. The pickups are Dimarzio's answer to noisy P-90's....a noise cancelling humbucker wound to emulate the growl of the classic P-90.

June is a true small semi-hollow body. The inside of this guitar is quite empty. The tone is warm and smooth as is expected of a semi-hollow body guitar. I expect a small bit of that warmth is attributable to the Bamboo. I made four prototype models of June out of varying woods to test that theory.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Pretty snazzy sir! I like it. I like it a lot.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Stuart,
This instrument is truly a work of art.
The precise construction is uncanny.
Great work!
Dan

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

What John Lewis said - I like that a lot too.

Very nice!

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Tres sharp, Stuart. I like it very much.

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

Love the design! Beautiful!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Very unique layering effects. I like it.

i've been eyeing bamboo cutting boards for the past few years, scheming and dreaming about making a body with it. very nice work.
how did it mill? any surprises? bamboo is a grass after all, and not wood...

Beautiful and very clean looking Stuart -and it looks like it wants to be played.

You can tell it wants to be stringy...but it didn't pull out so it really wasn't any particular challenge. Port Orford Cedar was substantially harder to machine.

Thanks for the nice comments gentlemen.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

For what it's worth...those photos were not Photoshopped except for subtle contrast and brightness alterations. I took the photos against a neutral gray background...some mat board bought at a local art supply store. I've never had such an easy time getting a good color balance.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

color aside, i have realized that for getting a good exposure (especially if the exposure settings are not manual), it helps to photograph a dark subject against a dark background, a light subject against a light background, a medium darkness subject on a medium darkness background, and so on....

Did you mill the bridge and string stop on the back yourself?
GS

At a local lumber store Chris. They caught my eye and I became enamored with the notion of using them.

Amazingly stable material...there isn't the slightest movement with massive changes in moisture content.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Yes, George.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Ooooh...the Neopolitian Plyboo would look VERY nice as a guitar!

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Beautiful! The contrasts in materials are a bit much for me personally but an incredible looking instrument non tyre less. One question, I see no screws on the access covers for truss or electrics so what holds them on?

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I use small, low profile magnets there, Brian. They measure 1/8" in diameter and are .06 thick. I buy them through McMaster Carr but they don't actually list them in the online catalog.

These N42's are likely the very thing I'm getting through MM.

http://www.kjmagnetics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=D21

Honestly, I doubt any other wood is as stable as Bamboo with regard to moisture ingress and egress. Couple that with very stiff and light mechanical properties and it's hard to imagine a better neck wood, at least it ought to be in theory. I wouldn't presume to say this as a matter of fact. The guitar sounds wonderful...having a very mellow tone. I attribute some of that to the near hollow geometry of the body...and some of it to the Bamboo....and, of course, the pickups play into it. I'm not certain how much any one factor is affecting the tone of this guitar.

I built four of these guitars...the one shown, one of Walnut over Maple (Maple neck), one of Myrtlewood over Peruvian Walnut (Walnut neck), and one of Maple over Sapele (Sapele neck). I have the same pickups going into each one. I'll get a chance to really hear the difference in side by side comparisons once they are all finished and setup. After that I'll put some Seymour Duncan P-Rails in a few of them to better make the comparisons between the geometry differences of this guitar to the chambered "Elise" model.

For now, I'm working on the neck through model.

The pic is a shot of the inside of this guitar. June is as empty as AC DC's horn section.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Congrats Stuart. That's some good stuff there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ken

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Ken

Yo, Zlurgh,

June be nice piece of eye candy to me..makes me feels happy lookin at her.

Tell us, how do you think bamboo would perform in an acoustic...top and or back?


thanks
Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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to be fair, bamboo (in these dimensions) is an engineered/laminated product. it grows in hollow tubes with a maximum diameter of say 6", with a wall thickness of maybe 1 inch- they aren't cutting out billets in a saw mill to produce slabs of it; it is glued together

I wouldn't presume to say without any acoustic building experience other than what I've gleaned from true luthiers.

Harry Houdini used to be one of my childhood heroes, not necessarily because of his escapes, but because he liked to debunk mystics and mediums. A man after my own heart. I spend a lot of time building stuff to challenge widely held assumptions. The Bamboo appealed to me not simply because of the way it looks (I think it looks very cool) but because it struck me as an unlikely tone wood...a novelty. As I worked it I became more encouraged that it would produce a fairly lively instrument. The warm tone of the guitar IS lively...which is to say that when I say "warm" I don't mean "dead". Even so...I wouldn't try to extrapolate any observation I've made to an acoustic instrument.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Exactly...but it's pretty remarkable to observe the glue lines under a microscope. Yes...it's an engineered wood...but it's engineered pretty well, I'd say.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Gee Zlurgh,

The to be expected typical INFJ response. Non the less, thank you.

Me had no idea that there were false luthiers out there...Please define "true luthiers" for us.

Oh and me sure do like them oval fretboard markers. Them is real sweet.


as always
Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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