Alan's Baritone Off to a Quick Start

Today was a long and productive one, giving me a very good start on Alan's beaclaw German spruce and cocobolo baritone. I have three galleries of pictures from today's work: Gallery Three, Gallery Four, and Gallery Five. Thanks to LMI's fantastic woods they sent me for this guitar, this one's going to be plenty purdy!

Nearly ready for lacquer

Mike's fan-fretted semi-baritone is nearly ready for lacquer. I'm really looking forward to seeing how ropey grain pattern on this mahogany will pop out under the finish. All that's left to do now before lacquer is to drill the holes for the tuners, and to look it over intently to be sure I haven't left any hairline scratches in the wood.

Fan Fretted Neck Coming Along

In photo galleries thiteen and fourteen you can follow the various steps of preparing the fan-fretted neck for Mike's semi-baritone. So far I've assembled the various components. Next I'll be shaping the heal and neck profile. I'm really having fun shaping a skewed version of my customary headstock shape to blend in with the angled frets and nut. I'll post some close up pictures once I refine the shape and get a little finer grit sandpaper on it. More soon!

Binding's Done

I've installed and flush-sanded the curly koa binding on Mike's semi-baritone. Here are a few shots of the "completed" soundbox. Next I'll be moving on to the long-scale fan-fretted neck. When that's done, the body and the neck will go through a a final session of very picky finish sanding and detailing.

Closed up Mike's Soundbox

I've braced the back of Mike's semi-baritone and prepared the rim for the back and closed up the soundbox. Next I'll be routing for the curly koa endgraft and binding and installing those. The bindings have already been bent along with the sides. I really enjoy installing the bindings and then sanding them flush. That's when you can really get a sense of how nice all the woods look next to eachother.

Assembled the Rim to Mike's Top

I've assembled the rim of Mike's semi-baritone and glued it to the top. Mike put in a custom request for that a port hole be built into the side of his guitar. The port hole sends out a tone that is very rich in the bass. I believe this is because the standing waves aligned in the direction of this port are much longer (lower frequency) bouncing across the entire girth of the guitar, from this side all the way to the lower bout on the other side. The port will preferentially pass these low frequency standing waves from the area immediately surrounding it. Next I'll be bracing the back.

Mike's Top is Braced Up

Today I finished bracing the top of Mike's fan fretted semi-baritone. The x-braces are layed out slightly off center so that each brace properly catches the corner of the slanted bridge. On custom guitars like this one I really enjoy incrementally laying out the bracing scheme. It all starts with drawing the precise location of the saddle on the bottom of the soundboard. Then I draw the bridge around that. Then I'm ready to draw in where the x-braces go and fill in the outline of the bridge plate. From there everything else falls into place. Next I'll be assembling the rim and getting it ready to be glued onto the top.

More Progress on Mike Oliver's Fan Fretter

Well I've done as much fussing as there is to be done with my own brand new Zebrawood Concert Nylon, and so I'm back on the job with Mike's African Mahogany semi-baritone fan fretter. Here are some pictures of the latest progress...Gallery 4, Gallery 5, Gallery 6. Over the last few days I've cut a port-hole in one side, bent the sides, jointed the back, thicknessed the back and top plates, and cut them out to (oversized) shape. Tomorrow I'll start bracing the top. By the way, three cheers for Bob at RC Tonewood for providing this beautiful mahogany with this distinctive ropey figure. Thank you, Bob!

Beautiful Tracks from Ben Bording

Ben Bording just sent me two amazing tracks that he recorded on his Mustapick Grand Concert. Ben is an astonishing tour de force technically, and the depth of his musical inspiration is obvious from note one. Without further introduction, please listen to "Cherry Blossoms" and "Track of Whack". Thanks Ben!

A New Concert Nylon for Me!

Ever since I sold my own Concert Nylon to Don Alder several months ago I've been without one. Well last night I strung up my brand new Concert Nylon, and I'm really delighted with the tone coming from the Italian alpine spruce top and zebrawood back and sides.

Hey Alan, Holy Cocobolo!

I was absolutely thrilled when I opened the latest box to arrive at my door from Luthier's Mercantile, and you're about to see why (Thanks, Andrew!). Have a peek at this stunningly beautiful cocobolo back that I'll be using soon for Alan's upcoming baritone. I'm a huge fan of LMI. They, along with so many others like them, are doing so much to enable our world of individual lutherie. I should of course mention some of my other favorite places to shop, Allied Lutherie, RC Tonewoods, and Big Island Acoustic Koa. Now be very careful when visiting these sites! You might ending up "needing" another guitar. :)

A New Rosette on a Custom Guitar

This month I'm building a very interesting custom guitar for APM Forum regular Mike Oliver. Mike has commissioned something very interesting. He asked me to design a guitar especially for drop tunings, taking CGCFGC (DADGAD down a whole step) as the essential focal point. We talked about some possibilities and decided on a fan-fretted design, with high string having a 28.25" scale length, and the low string having a 29" scale length. This long-scale design will preserve normal string tension for these tunings using light gauge strings. With a capo on the 2nd fret, it's a normal guitar. I'll also be making Mike an extra nut and saddle that he can swap out for heavier gauge strings in case he'd like to tune down further into baritone territory, so it'll be a very versatile instrument. Mike asked me to do something more conventional than my "Signature Rosette", so I've layed in a classy one piece cocobolo ring, which will be matched by cocobolo on the bridge, headplate, and fan-fretted fingerboard. Thanks, Mike! :)