Official Luthiers Forum!

Dave and I finally got a clip of the Stahl. As I mentioned, we picked a tune that was rather delicate as the action on the instrument is very, very low so that I can play it. The recording that Dave made was married to the video, replacing the "in camera" audio recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjklL7ziVJ4

wow, great sounding guitar, I have played one of the old ones and it sounds very similar as far as i can remember, do you own an original? Be nice to hear them side by side! I'm also interested in ladder bracing, only built NLS/l-00 style so far but fancy a kalamazoo style ladder braced, maybe mahogany top too, any tip appreciated,

Mike

Thank you Mike!
Wish I did own an original, but prices on those are through the roof. I did play a Maurer concert size about a year ago at Dave's house, and yes, it did sound very similar, very clean sounding.
Interesting that folks in the UK are more interested in ladder bracing than here in the US. Guess here they are all stuck on Martin...
You can find a very good tutorial on ladder bracing on this site by John How. Stick to his pattern and specs and you will end up with a fine instrument. I would also stick to red spruce for now and leave the mahogany top for later...
Good luck to you and if you have any questions, I'll try to answer them...

The prices they're fetching is through the roof indeed. I passed on one at local auction a few months back that ended up going in the 6-8k range, which wouldn't have been bad had it not needed another 4-6k of work in order to restore it to any level of function. I don't know that the final bidders had a realistic appraisal of just how much restoration work it really needed.

Very nice work by the way. A beautiful piece indeed.

_________________
Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Thanks David!
Yes, the Maurer I tried at Dave's was headed to the UK and the price was over 10K. Headed for a collector.
Once an instrument gets "collector popular", the prices go through the roof. Before that, they are "picker popular", and before that, obscure...so it seems.

Just spent ten minutes wondering why the name John how rang a bell, I played one of his guitars in a very upmarket shop in the UK, maple - spruce and ladder braced. Only one in the shop I really liked, I've wanted to get in touch with him since.

This forum is great but really tricky to find the old information. If anyone can link the John how info I'd appreciate it.

I do have some red spruce but it's difficult to get hold of in this country, I imagine European spruce would also work well?

Drop me an email...
Euro spruce will work well too as long as it is not mushy. It's gonna give you a richer, more complex tone though. Consider that when choosing backs too. Real German and BRW for example, would be pretty complex sounding...stiff Italian might be a little better. You can get some nice red cheap on American ebay, but I don't know if they will ship it with all the complexities of US to Europe shipping.