Aaron's Arena OM is coming up!

I feel really fortunate to be doing something I love so much. Every time I start a new instrument I get that same feeling you get when you're at the airport heading off on a big vacation. It's fun to just put the wood out on the workbench and look forward to making something real fine out of it. For his Arena Cutaway Aaron has chosen European spruce with cocobolo back and sides. The bridge, rosette, fingerboard and headplates will also be cocobolo. The binding will be curly koa. As with other recent builds, this instrument will include many of the options I offer...the Ryan bevel, the Manzer wedge, the side soundport, and the multiscale geometry. In this case, the treble edge of the fingerboard will have a 24.9" scale length with 25.5" along the bass edge. Thanks, Aaron...more soon! :)

Don's New Baritone is Strung Up

Yesterday I strung up Don Alder's new Sitka Spruce and Sapele Baritone Guitar. I love it. Something about this baritone design is ridiculously consistent. I had a chance to compare it to this cedar/koa baritone and even with such different woods the timbre and balance are remarkably similar. I'll follow up on a few details to cover on this guitar before delivering it to Don, along with his Mustapick Grand Concert, at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival in August. I need to set up an extra nut and saddle for extra heavy gauge baritone strings, glue in the label, seat the bridge pins just so, revisit the setup, lots of little things. Though they're both sold, Don and Jack are each letting me display these two baritones at the festival.

Don's Grand Concert is Ready for Lacquer

Don Alder's Adirondack spruce/Honduran mahogany Grand Concert is ready for lacquer now. Don chose relatively long scale lengths for this guitar. The treble side is 25.75" and the bass side is 26.5". I'm really enjoying building the Ryan bevel into my guitars these days. When done really right it comes out like a beautiful piece of sculpture with clean and flowing lines.

Don's Grand Concert is Lookin' Good

Don Alder's sapele/spruce Grand Concert was lookin' real sharp last month until a loose router bit turned it into an exquisitely crafted piece of firewood. Aaaahh, I took a deep breath and half a day off. I jumped right back to it the next morning and now I've got Don's Adirondack spruce and Honduran mahogany Grand Concert soundbox lookin' purdy! As with the baritone I'm building for him, this grand concert features most of the options I offer, such as the Ryan armrest bevel, the multiscale geometry, the Manzer wedge, and the side soundport. A few builders have asked me to share some pictures of how I put the armrest bevel together so I took a few closeups of the nitty-gritty there.
Gallery 3 - jointing the top, bent sides, rosette detail (a lot of people are also curious about how my unique rosette is put together as well), and some bevel construction details.
Gallery 4 - bracing the top and the back and assembling them to the rim.
Gallery 5 - refining the purfling ledges for the armrest bevel.
Gallery 6 - installing the purfling, bloodwood binding, and bloodwood armrest bevel.
Gallery 7 - many shots of the completed soundbox.
Next I'll be working on the neck. More pictures soon! Thanks, Don! :)