Official Luthiers Forum!

I've had this set of Sapele on the shelf for about 8 years waiting for a special project to warrant using it. Don't mind saying I was pretty nervouse bending those sides.

Body - Sapele
Soundboard - Western Red Cedar
Peg Head Veneers - Sapele
Fret Board - Macasar Ebony with 12" - 16" compound radius
Rosette - Spalted Maple
Bindings - Indian Rosewood
Tuners - Waverly with Snake Wood buttons
Finish - High gloss lacquer

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
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Cairns, Australia

ERMAGAWD! Like chewy candy....

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

Nize!

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Pat

Stunning!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Gorgeous!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

very nice!

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Wow...I've never seen sapele like that before. Looks gorgeous with that satin finish

Beautifully conceived and executed

Ed

Beautiful! Very clean.

There are so many details about this instrument to like and they all work together. The oval sound hole really fits the elongated body shape, IMO. Sorry if you have covered this in another thread before, but could you describe how the two-piece pinless bridge works? Is the lighter colored piece behind the main bridge glued to the top? Are the strings threaded through the back end of the light colored piece?

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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'm drooling....

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
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&
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The bridge is one piece with a veneer attached to the string platform. I choose a veneer to compliment each instruments timbers.

On this one they are string through the sound board with a bead attached to the string and pull up against the bridge patch. Done this way because there is no room for bridge pins on the double courses. On my 4 string instruments I also use a bead and use un-slotted pins as you would with a steel string guitar.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Thanks for the photo and description of your bridges. It's a very cool design and I like how it echoes the headstock shape.

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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

Beautiful uke. Looks like the sapele we had years ago. Never seen anything quite like it again.

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(716) 874-1498

So you put the string in through the top and grab it through the soundhole, then attach the bead? What type of bead? I'm interested because I'm thinking of making a 6 string tenor for my next uke. Also, do you put any CF rods in the neck to account for the extra stress of a 6 string?

Thanks!
Brad

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Yes, you push the string through and grab it. Sometimes a bit of bent wire helps to fish it out of the sound hole. I use a 4mm glass or metal bead. If you use a pinned bridge, then they will still fit down the hole as it's around 5mm after the taper. You can get them from the hobby shop for a few bucks for a couple hundred.

I don't use CF anymore. I increased the thickness of my fret boards to 5mm with a compound radius on them. I cut stopped fret slots in all of them with my CNC. You'd be surprised at how much stiffer the fret board is when built like that.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

I see, so putting a regular bead onto the string and then a knot behind it and pull it up against the bridge plate. Makes sense. I had in my head something that crimps on and I was thinking that would maybe be prone to failure.

I have some guitar fretboards from Andy Birko that he calls "faux bound" and they are indeed much more stiff than a typical slotted board. I wonder what the comparison to a bound fretboard would be? In any case, thanks for the info!

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I use a figure 8 knot to tie the bead on. Depending on the brand / type of string you probably need to capture the bead in the knot on the finer strings like the high G and A or you risk pulling the knot right through the bead.

A bound fret board is stiffer than an unbound one by a fair bit, but in my experience still not as stiff as the "faux bound" ones. When you add a purfling and glue lines with the bound ones, there does seem to be a bit more "give" to the board.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia