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Hello,

It’s been a while since I posted a build, so here is an EIR dred that I recently completed. This one will be a sort of one of a kind design. The fretboard end was cut backwards by mistake so the paddle is opposite the headstock shape. I didn’t want to waste it so I carried that through to the bridge. Normally the ends of the paddle / bridge wings are the same.

I’m actually not sure on the top. In my notes for tap testing I wrote down Adi but in the inventory sheet it’s listed as Engelmann. I’m pretty sure it’s not Sitka. Anyone care to guess?

Sound clips at the bottom. I used an SM57 attached to an iRig Duo to record to my phone. It seems to work ok to record a simple clip. Apologies for my playing.

- Indian Rosewood back and sides (RC Tonewood)
- Engelmann (??) top
- Ebony bridge and fretboard
- Mahogany neck (Birkonium shaped)
- UV cured finish (Simtec)

















Sound clips:





Thanks for looking!

Brad


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Brad, Great looking and sounding guitar. I love your headstock and bridge shape. The UV finish looks good. I like the sapwood book match

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I like that a lot. Great work. Agree the EIR with sapwood is cool.

Glenn.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'paddle is opposite the headstock shape' but if you made some sort of mistake you pulled of the fix well. I think sapwood is great looking like that. I don't know why some people don't like it.

The top doesn't look like any of the Engleman I have but it's hard to say. It looks a lot like Sitka to me, possibly Lutz. But there is so much variation that you will probably never know. In that case you just call it a "spruce" top guitar

Words fail me sometimes. The fretboard end is supposed to be shaped so that the "long" end is on the treble side. This one is opposite. So I did the same thing with the bridge wings and flipped the one end so it was opposite. The way I "normally" do this is the ends are the same. The headstock and FB end are both shaped so the long end is to the right / treble side.

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Looks and sounds great Brad. I understand the frustration with the FB end, presumably access to another fret on the high treble end would be better, but, hey, nice one.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Great looking guitar, Brad! I probably have a browser incompatibility problem, because I can't see any links to any audio files.

Could you tell us more about the UV cure finish? Gear needed, safety steps, cost, etc.

Very nice guitar! Great looking woods and I like how the width of the sapwood looks like it matches the width of the heel cap.

I'm not seeing links to the sound clips either.

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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

Youtube confuses me on this site.

Can you see these?

https://youtu.be/4KH0YXaofdM

https://youtu.be/Ngeu8Cne-jc

Brad


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Yes, those came through. Sounds great! A lot of acoustics are hard to record unless you have really nice recording gear and the mic is positioned just right, but yours translates very well with a basic setup. That's a good thing!

The guitar has a well balanced sound. Good looking instrument.
I am working on a guitar right now that has a similar looking top. It was sold as Engelmann, but looks like a cross with Sitka (roche?). It was nice and stiff and I don't mind the looks. Engelmann seems to have a lot of variability so I just try to take it for what it is. I bought a bunch of tops, so I pick one based on what I think will be best for what I'm building.

It sounds really good, thanks for posting those. And, there's no reason for you to apologize for your playing from what I heard. Nice finger style playing.

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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 can definitely see the englemann.

Before reading the entire post or the ensuing discussion, my first thought was, finish looks fantastic!”


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Hey Don, sure I will write up a separate post about the setup and schedule, which is the same as Brian Howard shows on his site. I’ll send some details of my spray booth as well, which I’ve been reluctant to do. I don’t want to hear all the “you’re going to blow yourself up and kill everyone you love!” from the French polishing is the only real finish crowd. But I’ll take the lumps I guess.

Brad



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Thanks, Jay. I am more comfortable with fingerstyle than anything else I’ve tried. I dont play with a pick very often. I equate it to when you put those rubber boots on your puppy to send them out in the snow and they suddenly forget how to walk. Playing with a pick feels so very unnatural to me.


https://youtu.be/1xhuFykAWPo


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Brad—

I hear you on avoiding judgment! Maybe skip the spray booth and the generic spraying description. We see lots of posts about those things. I’m more interested in your UV light, your UV-specific PPE, the pore filling process, the curing process, etc. Everything specific to UV finishing. I got interested at one point, then got disinterested pretty fast, due to setup costs and the need to spray the material. Maybe I should reconsider. Or maybe not!

I missed this one earlier in the week, Brad. Nice work! I'm partial to using sapwood to join back plates as I think it can look amazing and the tone you achieved here is fine as well.

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George :-)