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The latest guitar off my bench…
The back story on this one was that I made a neck 15 years ago with a snakewood fretboard and head veneers that all split on me,so i threw it in a corner. I removed the fretboard and veneers and put a new ebony ones on.

Also the top had a sap pocket on the edge and the back had a large dark mineral streak on the edge so that is why I did the burst...

Sitka spruce top
Birdseye maple back and sides
Curly maple neck
Celluloid nitrate Pickguard and truss rod cover
Kent Armstrong handmade pickup
25 1/4 inch scale
Nitro finish











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Great save!

Wow, I really like that one!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I like it!

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

That’s a beauty!!


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Really beautiful Brad. Nice job!

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Really look forward to you posting a finished guitar Brad, everyone's a winner!

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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.

Sexy!

Beautiful as usual Brad!

Is that a normal scale length for those type guitars?

There's been a several times where I've made comments, and they never show up. I think another post comes in before me, and it asks if I want to re-think my post. I don't notice that and move on, and it's gone.

Hah! It just happened again!

For someone like me who knows nothing, this instrument tells a lot. The same edge work/banding all around, even the fretboard.

Archtops seem to be great candidates for a bound fretboard.

Inlays on the fretboard look better than pieces of blue masking tape on the sides of the 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th frets! Yeah, I could add some dots, but I haven't yet.

Too bad about the stain. I have no problem with sap pockets, I patch them up from the back, and let them show on the front. Like battle scars. Never been a fan of burst, but when it is bright and bold, like on the back of this one, it is cool.

I just took the varnish off a violin that I just couldn't get right. Already took it off once before. It has a Birdseye back, and the flash and look of it was obscured. Now I'm going to go for a glowing gold color. Who cares if the original was red over gold. The original wasn't Birdseye either.

Nice looking instrument Brad.

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Why be normal?

Love it! Nice work.

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Andy
www.bounsallguitarworks.com

Fine looking instrument,
A nice quality finish can hide a lot of cosmetic flaws. Fantastic save!

"The back story on this one was that I made a neck 15 years ago with a snakewood fretboard and head veneers that all split on me,so i threw it in a corner."

It must be in the air- maybe it's a Covid thing. Cleaning out the dust holes of failed guitar parts. I recently started on a build with some wood I laminated over a decade ago. It was some of the fist veneers I laminated before I had a good handle on the process and it warped either because of too much moisture in the wood or being unclamped before being fully cured. It warped along the edge I intended to join. The other edge contained sapwood, which I generally avoid, and some other minor flaws that can be hidden. So I decided to join the sapwood edge and get more than just headplates out of it. I've also been eyeing a rim set I put aside several years back which got away from me on the powered sanding dish. I don't want to make a "lefty" Manzer wedge guitar, so I'm thinking about some sort of "thinline" instrument. Sometimes it takes time to find the inspiration to use things that "went South" and were a disappointment.

Nice. 16" is the perfect size for an archtop. 500K pots? What size tone cap did Kent recommend?

Your bridge hardware looks a little different from the usual StewMac style adjusters. Do they have a bushing in the base of the bridge?

Have you ever build with Steve Holst's laminate plates? I have been surprised at how good they sound acoustically.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Hi Terence,

I have always used a 500K for the volume and a 250K for the tone with a .022 microfarad capacitor with the Kent Armstrong pickups.

Good eye on the bridge posts! They do have a bushing in the lower half of the bridge-I buy them from Allparts.. They are much easier to adjust under string tension.

I have often toyed with the idea of using laminated plates, but have never pulled the trigger for various reasons.. I was looking at the Acme plates-not sure if he is still in business.

Thanks.

Archtop scale lengths generally vary from 24.6" to 25-1/2".

I like the tension (with medium gauge strings) of 25-1/4" and it's the one I use unless a customer requests a different one.

Thanks Brad. I have used Acme in the past as well but not since Dan sold it. I think the Holst plates are acoustically better. I have used them on four or five guitars. I have used both Spruce and Maple outer lams for the top and most recently a Mahogany lam on the back with Spruce on the top. That was for a well known jazz player in Minneapolis and he was impressed with the acoustic tone. So was I. Worth a shot if you are thinking laminate in the future. I think 16" is as high as he goes.

I will look for those bushings. Adjusting under string tension is always tough.

Beautiful guitar!!

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Super cool, Brad!


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That's classy! I like it.

I had a D'Angelico on my bench not long ago and the maple on yours reminds me of the back it had. Looks great and I'm sure it sounds great to match!