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I've finally gotten started on this guitar. It's going to be an L-00 since I really like that size. However, the last one I made had a 12 fret neck on the 14 fret body and I absolutely love the thing. I wish I didn't have to give it to the friend for whom I built it. So, I thought I'd duplicate it only using local woods. I live in Manchester, NH, which has lots of old mill buildings, some of which date back to the 1830's. The top for this guitar came from a white pine beam that was removed from the Pandora Mill when they renovated it about six years ago. Tom Thiel of Northwind Tonewoods eventually ended up with a few of the beams from the mill that are suitable for tonewood. Here's his web page about it. http://www.northwindtonewood.com/library-pandora-pine.html

I purchased one of the tops, which I thought would be cool to use for a local woods build. The trees I'm sure were cut up north of here in NH and then spent from about 1845 or so until 2008 as a beam in the mill. Since I've lived in the city since 1992, I thought that would definitely qualify as local to me and that it would be cool to use wood that's historical to this area.

For the back and sides, I've chosen a set of nicely figured Yellow Birch that I also purchased from Tom several years ago. It comes from Northern Maine, which is where I grew up. I thought I'd try to make the rest of the guitar out of woods that originated in Northern Maine or NH, which Tom was able to supply for me. I'll be using the Yellow Birch for the back and sides, Butternut for the blocks and linings, some Cherry for the neck and some Red Spruce for braces which all came from Maine. I'll be using Black Locust that came from NH for the bindings, back strip, bridge and headstock. I may also do a beveled cutaway using some of the Black Locust if I feel ambitious enough or think I have enough time. The fingerboard is some hophornbeam that came from Maine, too. It's a very light colored wood, so will be stained with Black Walnut hull tea stain. That means I'll be binding the fingerboard with some Black Walnut, which I know is local, too, but I'm not sure where Tom sourced that, but I think it was NH. The fingerboard binding is only to make the fingerboard easier to stain and won't really show that well once the stain is on. The rosette will be cut-offs from the back, just a simple Yellow Birch ring with some purfling lines around it. All the wood will come from NH or ME with the exception of the purfling lines. I'll be using black walnut and maple veneer for those and I have no idea where they came from before they got to Woodcraft in Portsmouth, NH. I hope that's local enough for everyone.

This guitar is also going to be used for the New England Luthiers group build. We are doing a local woods build, as well, that needs to be done about the same time as this one. It will be played on stage by Peter Mulvey and David Goodrich during the 3rd annual Meet Your Maker show at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA, in early November. I've had guitars in the first two shows and it's a very fun event. I'll be posting a few pictures shortly, too.

Matt

Okay, here goes. Last week I joined the top and back and got the sides ready to be bent. Hopefully, I'll get the rosette in and the sides bent this week. I'd like to get the box closed up in the next couple of weeks while the humidity is still below 45% without aid from my air conditioner and my dehumidifier. Hopefully, I'll be able to do that but these World Cup games are certainly a big distraction. So, here's some pictures of what I've done so far.

Matt

I love the color and the figuring.

Matt,
I love your wood choices, and can't wait to see the final product... On another note, I can't believe Club Passim is still around. I used to hang out there in the mid 90's. Martin Sexton used to tear that place up!

Looking forward to the sound clip...

Jay

I used to go to the occasional show at Club Passim in the mid 90's as well but never saw Martin Sexton. Before the first Meet Your Maker show, I hadn't been there in 15 years or so. It hasn't changed much at all. The place sure does have a lot of history. I used to drive down to Boston/Cambridge/Somerville for concerts 2-4 times a week from the mid-90's until around 2003. I miss it but I don't miss being tired all day at work 2 or 3 times a week.

Matt

I've gotten quite a bit of progress done on this guitar but haven't taken too many pictures. Due to an illness in my family, I've had to drive 6 hours up to Northern Maine quite frequently in the past few months. Anyway, when I've been working on the guitar, I wasn't thinking too much about taking pictures. I have taken a few, though, but not really any process shots. I'm not a very good photographer, though.

Matt

Matt, can't wait to see it shined up!
Looking really good!

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

I've gotten more work done on this guitar. However, not many pics to show for my work. Thanks to my Mom's battle with lung cancer (which so far appears to have been successful!), I wasn't able to consistently work on it and rarely thought to take pictures when I did. I've gotten to the point where I've put the finish on and am letting it sit for 2 weeks before I polish it up. I'll be working on making a bridge in the meantime out of a piece of black locust to match the bindings and the headstock. Here's a couple of pictures I took tonight. This is with 2 coats of Murdoch's Hard Sealer and 6 coats of Murdoch's Uralkyd 500.

Matt

Sorry to hear about your Mom's cancer, but glad that she is doing well.
Nice work on the guitar, Matt! The finish really makes the wood pop, and will look even better when you give it a buffing! I'm looking forward to seeing it strung up.

Alex

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

Looking Good! Keep us posted.

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

Hey, Matt,
That is really looking good. I don't believe I've ever seen white pine with silking. That's a showy piece of birch, too. I'm eager to see it assembled and strung up. Very nice work, man!
Patrick

Thanks guys. It's coming along pretty well. I'm hoping I make the deadline for both this build and the NEL build.

Matt

Looking great Matt.... can't wait to hear her.

Just strung it up. It still needs a bit more set up work but it sounds really nice. I hope to have some recordings up in the not so distant future and possibly some better pictures.

L-00 12 fret (on a 14 fret body).

All wood except bridge plate and veneers for purfling was sourced from Tom Thiel at Northwind Tonewoods and all came from New Hampshire and Maine.

Top: White Pine salvaged from a beam removed during renovations of the Pandora Mill in Manchester, NH
Back & Sides: Yellow Birch from Northern Maine
Neck: Cherry
Fingerboard: Hop Hornbeam stained with a tea made from Black Walnut Hulls
Headplate: Black Locust
Bindings: Black Locust
Bridge: Black Locust
All Braces: Adirondack Spruce
Bridge Plate: Maple
Neck & Tail Blocks: Butternut
Linings: Butternut
Purfling: Walnut and Maple veneer

Beautiful Guitar, Mat.

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.

Thanks!

Wow, that yellow birch really pops. I like the pine top too, It's pretty cool to have such a history in the wood. Great looking guitar.

Thanks! A friend of mine just called it psychedelic. I don't know if it's quite psychedelic but it's been a very long time since I partook in anything to enhance something of that nature. Anyway, here's a couple of stories on the Pandora Mill that I found today.

http://www.themusiczoo.com/blog/2011/old-wood-160-year-pandora-mill-white-pine/

http://www.hippopress.com/read-article/return-to-pandora

The first one seems to just have what Tom has on his website while the second is more of a history of the mill.

Matt

Looks great Matt! Good luck with the concert tomorrow!!

Thanks, Rob! You should get in on next year's build!

The concert at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA, was last night. Peter Mulvey and David Goodrich got to play 10 of our guitars. Only 7 new local wood guitars were completed so to have a few more on stage, I was able to also bring my White Oak/Lutz Spruce 12 string from last year's show. Alan Carruth was able to bring a baritone and a harp guitar that he made a few years ago for Ken Bonfield, along with the Apple/Adirondack Spruce guitar he made for the concert. It was a little bit different than what we'd done in the past. When our guitars were played, we each went up to the right of the stage and told the crowd about the materials we used. Here's a shot of all the guitars on stage before the crowd got there. The two surrounding Alan's harp guitar are a 2013 Collings given to Goody by Chris Smither and a 1937 all Mahogany Martin Mulvey recently purchased.



Here's a shot of Mulvey playing the Birch/Pine guitar while Goody played Alan's Apple/Adirondack guitar.



Here's a shot of Mulvey playing my 12 string.



Here's a shot of Goody playing the 12 string in the second set.



A shot of Mulvey playing my Birch/Pine guitar. Goody played it on the song immediately prior to this one but I didn't get a shot of that.



And the last song of the night was an old blues song with Goody again on my 12 string.



It was a fun night and it was nice that both of my guitars were played 3 times each. Mulvey played the guitar for this build twice. and Goody played it once. All the guitars sounded fantastic and they were quite appreciative of them all, as they have been all three years we've done this. Mulvey struggled with the harp guitar and didn't really seem to know what to do with the sub-bass strings. Goody seemed to pick it up easier and played it as backing music while Mulvey read a short story to us. Last year Mulvey called my 12 string the "elephant in the room" so it was nice that someone else brought the guitar that threw them a bit. After the show, Goody was full of praise for my 12 string and asked me to bring it again next year. He really enjoyed playing it both years I've brought it. I don't think we are going to do a local woods build again next year, so maybe I'll make something a little more exotic.

Matt

Looks like a great time... but who WON?

Seriously, it's been great to watch a couple of those come together. I'm continually amazed at the effort that goes into each guitar and at the level of creativity that just seems to flow out of the various builders.

Great work.

Well, thanks to the snow storm this past Wednesday that knocked out power all over New Hampshire, it's looking like I'm not going to get a sound clip up. I was going to head up to a friend's recording studio Friday but he is still without power. It's hard to run the board and the PC without any power. I have no means of getting a recording otherwise.

Matt

Matt,
Don't sweat it... We will wait. The end of this challenge has become a bit less formal. I'd rather have good clips and pics from the three that finished so we can make an educated decision.

--Jay

Very well done Matt!!!! She's a looker and I love L-OO's!!!