The Acoustic Guitar Forum - Build Thread: #3

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Build Thread: #3 - Eurospruce/Carpathian OM

This is build #3 for me. Here are my first two:

#1 - Carpathian Spruce / Honduran Mahogany OM
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps96e9a8ff.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps92141377.jpg

#2 - Port Orford Cedar / Indian Rosewood Dread
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps73dff4ed.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2949f49c.jpg

I am in no way a professional, just doing this as a hobby and I intend on it staying that way. I am fortunate to use my luthier friend's shop free of charge, if it wasn't for him I wouldn't be able to allow these dreams to come true... so thanks Erik.
On with the build.. customer wanted something for strumming, comfortable and tone between Mahogany and Rosewood. He played both of my builds and liked them both, he wanted something with more power and bass than my OM and less bass and more mids than my dread... I came up with the idea of a Eurospruce/Sapele OM with a bit deeper body than the traditional OM, with a body depth of 4.25". Sapele falls tonally to me in between mahogany and rosewood, and the Euro will give it punch and power. He wants the neck, back and sides stained a very dark brown.. so that's what I'll give him. I tried to persuade him to like the natural color of Sapele as I dislike coloring wood, but he was persistant in having a dark back/sides with a light top.. so that's what he'll get. I've already started staining the neck.. it's going to be dark!
I started the build November '13. I am now finished pore filling and will begin staining the back and sides next. Here are some specs of the build and pics will follow:

- European Spruce top
- Sapele back and sides
- Ebony fingerboard, bridge, headplate and bridge pins
- Ivoroid binding on body - also around headplate
- 1 3/4" nut , 2 3/8" string spacing
- Waverly tuners with Ivoroid butterbean knobs
- MOP rosette with simple rings
- Rope pattern purfling and backstrip
- Nitro headplate, oil varnish finish neck and body
- JJB330 pickup

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...psf4124b7a.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...psde2564b5.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps157a834e.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5a5ee5d1.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps121934c3.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...psf542eda3.jpg

Very beautiful work! It is extremely generous of your friend to allow you to use their shop.

Yes it is extremely generous of him to allow me to do this. He's also building his own guitars now and is starting his 4th now. We usually work alongside each other and share ideas back and forth. Really great guy who know's his craft. Excellent repairman and has customers ship him their guitars from all over the country.. then again Norway isnt so huge so there's not tons of luthiers here.

Here are close ups of my bracing pattern. I've generally stuck with this on all three builds and am extremely happy with it. I like really punchy, woody, balanced clear tone great for strumming. I've always thought Martins were a bit too bassy and Taylors a bit too crispy and bright... so with what I'm achieving with my bracing pattern is a balance of the two. I basically do a taper bracing, lighter in weight yet strong. On the bass side,the finger brace peaks are farther away from the X, on the treble side the finger brace peaks are closer to the X. I feel I gain a bit more bass on the bass side and more treble on the other side by doing it this way... is it for sure?.. that I don't know, but mentally I feel good about it. By tapering the tone bars all the way gives me punchy mids and still enough lightness that the top vibrates well. I've always liked a good straight braced D18 for the balance and punch. I've also like the openness of HD28s with scalloped bracing... so I'm trying to combine the two with the tapering I'm using. I usually leave the treble side X more straight braced, and the bass side X more tapered to allow more bass response especially for OMs given the smaller shape.

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1f85b5a1.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps841c7c45.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4607b352.jpg

I like the tapers. Some Martins from 45-46 had pretty severely tapered and then from 46-47 more like yours. Also I've seen some Gibsons particularly a century of progress that had tapered bracing.

lovely work, sound clips ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by geordie (Post 3782667)

lovely work, sound clips ?

the only sound clip i have is of my first build, and i recorded it maybe two months after it was built. the guitar is now one year old and has opened up tremendously since it was recorded.
the sound clip is not hi-fi, as i used the built-in mic on my macbook. but it will at least give an idea of the tone.
ps... i tried to keep my ugly mug out of the video. :)

http://s1016.photobucket.com/user/ja...ml?sort=3&o=11

Mr. Booth ...that is a seriously nice sounding OM ... well done, and keep up the fine work. The results speak for themselves.

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing.

pickguard now added. guitar is finished and in the hands of a very happy customer.

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...psf3e110bf.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ps01dfffa1.jpg