Geoff's Concert Nylon Nearing Completion

Over the next few days I'll be putting the bridge and tuners on Geoff's Concert Nylon and refining the setup. The rosette and headplates on this guitar feature some incredibly tight thuya burl. The top is Carpathian spruce, which is remarkably stiff for it's light weight. The back and sides are bubinga, the binding is snakewood and the fingerboard and bridge are perfectly quartersawn African blackwood with some nice straight tight grain. Here are some pretty pictures. I'll be sure to post some notes about its tone as soon as I can. :)

I like it!

I'm irrationably exuberant about this zebrawood Concert Nylon I'm making for myself. Today I installed the curly koa binding. That top is Italian alpine spruce. I'm still trying to decide if I'll use curly koa or jet black ebony for the headplates on the front and back of the headstock. Here are some pictures of the binding being installed.

Redwood - Zebrawood - Bloodwood!

Clifton and I talked again today and we got a little closer to some final choices for his Deep Baritone. He's decided on a redwood top, zebrawood back and sides, and he's leaning toward bloodwood for all the trim (binding, rosette, headplates, endgraft, heelcap). As I've told him, I think these are really exciting and excellent choices. I took a few pictures of some wood I have in the shop to help him consider or rule out other ideas. Here they are.

A Possible Zebrawood Baritone?

Clifton called this morning to research possibly placing an order for a cutaway baritone and we were discussing different possibilities of tonewoods. He expressed an interest in the zebrawood, so I took a shot of one of the sets I have looking through the baritone form for his perusal and yours. :)

Holy Galloping Zebrawood!

Ever since Don Alder bought my Concert Nylon I've been looking forward to building another for myself. Zebrawood is from western Africa. Of the woods I've handled, I'd say it's most like myrtle, having medium density and hardness and a course grain structure. I'm pairing it with a very beautiful Italian Alpine Spruce top that I got from LMI. It's extraordinarily lightweight.

Lee's Deep Baritone is Ready for Lacquer

Here are some pictures of Lee's Deep Baritone all finish sanded and ready for lacquer. You can see where I've wiped a little naptha on half of the back. Besides giving some notion of how the wood will look under lacquer, it clears away sawdust so that I can find any hairline scratches that remain to be sanded out.

Built a neck for Lee's Deep Baritone

I've built the neck for Lee's Deep Baritone. Here are the latest two batches of photos...

Gallery 6

Gallery 7

Next I'll drill the holes for the tuners and finish-sand to get it ready for lacquer.

Installed Binding on Lee's Deep Baritone

During the last few days I've installed and flush-sanded the curly koa binding on Lee's Deep Baritone. For me this is a very rewarding part of the process. Besides closing off the endgrain of the back and the top, a meticulous binding job is one of the marks of a carefully crafted guitar, and it really adds to the visual beauty of the instrument.

Custom 8-String Guitar-Bass

I've added a new Custom Instruments page to the site to highlight the kind of custom work that I enjoy, which involves creating instruments which are designed from the start to optimally perform for player's alternate tuning and range. This can involve custom bracing, scale lengths, extra strings, or even fanning the frets.

I had so much fun building (and playing) this 8-string guitar-bass for Jim Saxa of The Analogues, and I can't wait to hear the recordings.

Closed up the soundbox on Lee's Deep Baritone

Here are more pictures from the last few days. I've braced the back and closed up the soundbox. This mahogany is very light, so I added an extra brace onto the back to achieve the desired stiffness. It feels like an eggshell!

Next I'll be setting in the curly koa binding, which I've already bent along with the sides.

Assembling Lee's Deep Baritone

Here's a photo gallery showing my progress on Lee's Deep Baritone over the last few days.
As you can see, I've assembled the rim, braced the top, and glued them together. For the deep baritone I don't use scalloped braces, but the top is quite thin, (.098" for this Adirondack spruce top) and the bridge plate is very small. With the long scale length of the baritone, there's a longer distance from the bridge to the X of the xbraces, so I reinforce that area with a thin piece of spruce.