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Finally, the finish curing time was up and I was able to get the finish sanded and polished. Now it's on to attaching the neck and the home stretch.

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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

Wow. That is really pretty. I like the look of the blood wood bindings on the cedar and walnut. Those ammonite fossils are pretty darned cool.

Thanks

You've got an lot of really nice stuff going on with that guitar, Jay! Looking forward to completion!

Alex

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

Attached the neck last night and got the frets in, leveled, crowned, and polished today. On to the bridge tomorrow.

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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

Looks great, almost done!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Yesterday, I got to make two bridges because I ruined the first one, which was about 3/4 done, after a brain fart involving the thickness sander. The second one got made without incident and I fitted it to the top. Today, I located the bridge on the top, removed the finish, and glued the bridge on. I hope to have the nut and saddle made tomorrow and actually get a set of strings on it!

Here's my bridge slotting jig I made from scraps of maple plywood.


Locating the bridge on the top. I use a SM Saddlematic.


The mask for removing the finish.


I use Jasco finish remover to remove the finish (except for a 1/8" margin all the way around). I learned this method from Rick Davis. It's fast and thorough. You just have to be sure to keep it off the rest of the top. I remove the remaining 1/8" margin using a square-end x-acto blade as a scraper. Leaving that 1/8" margin with no Jasco on it is important. If you apply it right up to the tape mask, there can be a little bit of seepage under the edge of the tape in spots that will be outside the footprint of the bridge. Not good.


Ready for the bridge.


Gluing the bridge on.

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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

Wow! You're almost done!

It looks great, I can't wait to hear it. You'll even have it all broken in by the deadline.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

That looks good, bet you'll have it strung up in a few days!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Wow. That's great progress.

Christmas Eve day was spent making the nut and the saddle, putting the tuners on, doing set up, and final tidying up just in time for it to be a gift to my daughter on Christmas morning. She's quite pleased with it. Overall, I'm happy with how it came out. I was surprised by how much volume it has and I like how it sounds. My next guitar will be another of this design. The 24.75" scale works great for my daughter's hands but feels a bit cramped for me for some reason even though I have a couple Les Pauls I like a lot. Go figure. The one concern I have is the amount of bridge rotation under string tension. I've posted another thread asking for input on that in the main guitar building forum.


To summarize how this guitar fits the rules of the challenge,

1. Something old - Some part (could be a small part or more if you like the challenge) of the instrument must be made from scrap or scrounged material.

The rosette and end graft are made from Douglas fir bark collected by my daughter from a big old log in the woods on the grounds of the YMCA summer camp in south Puget Sound that she started going to every summer when she was six years old. She's in college now and worked as a councilor at the camp the last three summers so having a part of the Camp in her guitar is special for her.
The ammonite fret markers are at least 64 million years old so I guess that counts as something old.

2. Something new - You must include something you have never tried before.

This is my first parlor size guitar. First time using redwood for the top, and using bark to make a rosette and end graft. Also the first time using reverse kerf lining. First time using ammonites as fretboard inlays. First time using maple for a neck.

3. Something local - You have to include some material that is sourced locally.

Locally in this case means the west coast of the U.S. The redwood in the top is from northern California, the claro walnut back and sides are from southern Oregon, and the big leaf maple in the neck and Doug fir bark in the rosette and end graft are from Washington.

I'll post some more photos later in the week and figure out what to do about a sound recording.

Thanks for looking and I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of the guitars as they are completed.

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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

Here's another photo to prove it is a parlor guitar size.

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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

Jay

Your daughter will have it forever. Very nice looking inlays. When you removed the finish for the bridge, the bare wood was very light - did you stain the redwood at all?

Ed

That's the color of the redwood after applying just clear finish on it. No stain. It surprised me just how red it turned out and how dark.

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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

Great job, it looks great and I really like the inlays.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

That's a really nice looking guitar.

What's your opinion of the sound compared to your "usual" guitars?

very nice!

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Blog on Making Stuff: http://www.McGlynnOnMaking.com

That turned out beautifully, Jay! The rosette really complements the redwood top!

Alex

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

I think the biggest difference is in the volume of the bass end of things. The low notes are definitely there and have a good clear tone, just not as prominent in the mix as on the larger body guitars. I think the mids and highs are well balanced. It doesn't sound bright/tinny. Overall, I like it and it's a good sounding guitar. I think it 's best suited as a solo finger picking guitar. Flat picking makes the highs stand out more and makes the relatively low bass volume more obvious so it doesn't work as well for me as a flat picking guitar.

I originally put a set of 12-53 strings on it, but switched to a set of 10-47s that I had around because of my concern over the amount of bridge rotation. There wasn't a very noticeable loss in volume, but I liked the tone a bit better with the heavier strings. I'm gong to put a set of 11-52 strings on and see if that works as a good compromise. One thing for sure, I don't like the feel of the extra light strings especially the high E. Too little resistance for me. It requires some major adjustment in the right hand to avoid picking the high strings too hard.

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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

Yea, that was a real stroke of luck that those colors go so well together. The red in the rosette is also a good match for the bloodwood binding so I'm very happy with how the overall color scheme came out.

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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

I had some half way decent indirect sunlight here today and yesterday so here are some final photos of the guitar.

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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

and

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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

Photos are great Jay!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

As a final note, I took the suggestion made by Alan Carruth and seconded by DennisK in a separate thread to try reducing the height of the saddle to reduce the torque on the bridge. I was able to reduce the height by almost 1/32" and still have it play clean fingerstyle which is how my daughter plays exclusively. That reduced the bridge rotation angle from 2.28 degrees with the original set of 12-53 strings to 1.79 degrees with the 11-52 set that's on it now. That greatly reduced the deformation of the top that I had been concerned about and it sounds noticeably better than with the extra-light 10-47 set I had put on it as a precaution. Good thing too, because I really did not like those thin strings both for tone or for playability.

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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

J

Well done

Ed

She's a beauty! I'm totally jealous of those fingerboard inlays. Such a cool idea

Can't wait to hear sound clips.