Build Thread: Joel Michaud, OO-R
 

Hello AGF,

I have been an avid follower of the Custom Shop forum over the years. Great resource for reviewing guitar design and evaluating various luthier's work; looks like this thread will finally get me above the 50 post mark. Since I have enjoyed all the builds taking place here I have decided to post my own thread to add to the collective consciousness that is the AGF Custom Shop forum.

I'm mostly a flat picker/strummer with a bit of finger style thrown in. With this build I have asked Joel to focus on ensuring I have a good balance between the bass, midrange and trebles. Yet, still want to be able to dig in and not overdrive the top. When played softly, I'd like to get a sweet/intimate sound. Likely not the most scientific description of the tone I'm looking for, really just looking for a nice well rounded guitar that's easy and comfortable to play.

In going into this new commission my original thinking was of a more traditional look/build, straight grained B/S set or maybe a figured mahogany. What has followed since the start of this process, has been a shift to what I feel is a more modern build. Where I have always looked at Dread's and OM shapes/sizes, I have decided to go smaller with Joel's OO-R for this build.

It's a leap of faith to commission a guitar. After talking with Joel, he seemed like a person that I could work with. His construction details and visual designs are more modern (or contemporary), yet throughout our conversations he's also shown a traditional side to his woodworking philosophy. He has been well received here on the AGF for the quality of his workmanship and character. To date, he has been exemplary in all facets of the process.

Up next, the wood selection.

Good luck and have fun doing this, Ian.

Nice Ian! You will have a blast.

Hi Ian! Congrats on scoring a build slot with Joel. I hope you enjoy the build process thoroughly. I shall enjoy following this thread closely :D looking forward to see what unravels!

B/S set selection
 

As anyone here who follows the Custom Forum will know, there are a lot of nice pieces of wood to make guitars with. Choosing the one that speaks to you for your specific build is not always easy. For the top Joel recommended using a stiffer Spruce for my sonic goals. For the B/S set, the choice for me is as much visual as tonal because as a strummer, I find the speicies does not seem to matter as much because of my playing style. In general, I was looking at materials that stressed the fundamental more so then the overtones.

Though I thought I had an idea of what I wanted, in the initial discussions of B/S sets with Joel, nothing really jumped out at me; at this time my search expanded somewhat to other alternative ideas. In early 2016, I found something of interest and we started planning some preliminary details. We came up with some interesting design possibilities but it was not to be. I got sidetracked in a different direction by a particular set of wood, which was quite a bit different from my original vision.

Life is sometimes a series of mysterious happenstance and you just need to go with the flow. Joel was very understanding and patient as I went through the process of changing directions. Luckily, some of the previous concepts that we were working on have possibilities with this new B/S material. As pictures are the currency of the AGF, here are a few pics of the B/S set that got me sidetracked -


Spalted Manchinga

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...OO-RMSet1b.jpg


Preliminary OO-R Layout

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...O-R/OO-R2b.jpg


This was not my first choice, as previously mentioned. I had even looked at Manchinga in my earlier searches and passed on it. Not because I did not like it, but I was originally looking at darker toned woods. I'm not sure really what changed my perception of what I wanted for this new guitar, just happy to have found this unique set of wood that appeals to me.

There have been a couple Manchinga build threads on the AGF but not many that I could find. Jason Kostal's latest MDW was the most recent yet I can't remember seeing any detailed "in-progress" build pics of this guitar. This build thread therefore should be something new for everyone. This particular set is certainly different from the other Manchinga guitars I could find on the internet, though I must say, all the builds I could find have yielded visually interesting guitars.

Top wood choices will be up next.

Congrats on your commission. That's really an awesome back and side set, Ian.

I'll be following this closely as your tonal goals and playing style very much align with mine.

I enjoyed playing Joel's guitars at SBAIC 2016--I have no doubt that you will be delighted with the end result!

Thanks for taking us along...

Top Wood Choices
 

As previously noted, Joel felt that Spruce would fill the bill for me and we narrowed it down to three choices.


Top set (Red Spruce)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...R/OO-RAdib.jpg


Top set (Sitka Spruce)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...OO-RSitkab.jpg


Top set (Lutz Spruce)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...O-RLutz1ab.jpg


Each had its merits, the main difference for me was slightly different colour palettes as each had similar physical attributes. What I finally decided on was this Red Spruce top.

Red Spruce

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...OO-RAdi1ab.jpg


Red Spruce detail

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...OO-RAdi1bb.jpg


The whiter, higher contrast of this set stood out from the others. It has a nice amount of silking and little visible runout. This set also still has some streaking in it, though fairly faint. My current visual preference is with tops that have a lot of variation and not a strictly homogeneous coloration across the surface. In the case of this Manchinga B/S set, I thought that going slightly cleaner with the Top set would be a nice contrast with the busy nature of the spalting pattern of the Manchinga. I'm happy that Joel had something that fit the bill and fell within his physical requirements for this build.

As I'm a fan of Red Spruce in general, this wasn't a hard decision to make. This set also has some history, Joel says it is from the Adirondack region and was cut about 50 years ago; time will tell as to how this will turn out in the end. Since the luthier is usually the determining factor on the build, I'm expecting good results.

Here are the spec's I have decided so far -

OO-R size (14.5" lower bout, 4.25" depth at heal)
Adirondack top
Spalted Manchinga B/S set
Black Rocklite binding, fretboard, bridge
1 23/32" nut width (? ?/?" String width at the saddle)
25" scale
14 frets to the body
Mazner wedge (+/- 1/4")
Clear pick guard

Pretty straightforward spec's, where this started to go differently in the original conceptual phase was in the build details of the Headplate, Back Stripe, Purfling, Rosette, and finish options. Since going to this new B/S set, some of these ideas have needed to change, hopefully we will still be able to incorporate some of them now. As we have not worked out everything yet I will be interested myself, to find out how this all turns out.

Though much of the info posted here by me is visually oriented, the ultimate goal is the tonal aspects and playability. Joel will have the heavy lifting duties in bringing these ideas to life in a complete package. Thanks for viewing, as I get the build pics from Joel, I'll post them here.

Tone wood
 

Excellent choice.

This will be a very beautiful instrument.

d

Looking forward to this. I love the look of spalted wood.

That manchinga is spectacular.

Congratulations!

Joel's OO-R is an amazing design and I've loved every one that I've played. I'm really looking forward to watching this one progress!

I love my 00-R and your choices in materials should make this one a strikingly beautiful example.

I am curious about the selection of a Manzer style wedge given that this is a pretty compact sized model to begin with.

Looking forward to watching your build come together!

As most of my guitars are large, my thoughts of going smaller was to have a guitar that was more intimate and more comfortable to play. To try and maximize the comfort level for the future I discussed with Joel about adding bevels or a wedge. As you have noted, his response was that his OO-R was already a comfortable guitar to play. Of the two options he noted that the wedge would have the least visual impact on the build as he uses a fairly subtle cut. As his response also noted that this would not impact the sound, this seemed a fairly safe way to improve on one of the goals I was trying to achieve in commissioning this guitar.

What great choices thus far, and I'm sure it will be a hoot with Joel at the helm.

Congratulations!

Congrats on your new build! Great selections so far. I will be lurking with great interest. :)