Yep, the ball's rolling on this new project... The Spirit guitar, which many of you have seen in the previous thread, is quietly curing in an out of the way corner, and will soon be ready for all the finish sanding, rubbing out, buffing, and final assembly. I'm pretty excited about that; so is Jeff, no doubt. But in the meanwhile, this new project is getting off to a great start.
Can you imagine what a thrill it is to work with these spectacular woods? How long has it been since anyone here has seen a gorgeous set of quartersawn Dalbergia Maritima (Bois de Rose)? It's about as scarce as unicorns these days! And if you've ever handled a set, you know why it's so highly regarded. This particular set we're using for this build is exceptionally fine. The QS, straight-grain figure, the deep burgundy/purple color, and the mind-blowing tap tone are just out of this world.
This set of wood was originally sourced from Gilmer Hardwoods in Portland, OR. I don't know how long ago it was first bought from there, but it has to be more than a decade back...
And then there's the ancient, glacial Sitka spruce top, from a tree that fell and became entombed in a glacier nearly 3000 years ago... WOW. Just WOW.
This Sitka top has a great tap- about what you'd expect with primo Sitka- and it's stiff and fairly hard. I think it will make a very responsive top. And that exotic blue/green/grey mineral color is like a Gothic fantasy.
I don't think anyone mentioned yet that this is going to be a multiscale guitar. The scale spread that Daniel decided on is 25.25" to 26". So it will be optimized for fingerstyle, and open tunings in the D- and C- based range. That is right in my own wheelhouse, so I'm going at this with great eagerness.
Stay tuned, and watch this one develop! It will be a somewhat unusual looking instrument when it's done, but I think it will be both impressively regal, and dangerously sexy!
Thanks for looking, and stay tuned!
-Steve the edwinson
|