Ensor Guitars- The "All American Wood" Guitar- FINAL PICS & VIDEO

[Mark Lew]

That looks great, Chris! Nice bearclaw top, love the heel cap! Very impressive. That osage orange is nice.

[Stevien]

The quality of woods on this one is second to none! That sitka is stunning; not so much bearclaw to be distracting, and just enough to keep it interesting! I'm anxious to see how the desert ironwood looks on a finished body.
Steve

[j. Kinnaird]

Very pretty Chris. Makes me want to build one. Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery you know.

Can you give more details on the poly finish? Is it polyurethane? Have you already answered that question earlier? I would like to know your schedule and what you do about adherence between coats. Etc.

[CaE]

Originally Posted by Mark Lew

That looks great, Chris! Nice bearclaw top, love the heel cap! Very impressive. That osage orange is nice.

Thanks Mark!

Originally Posted by Stevien

The quality of woods on this one is second to none! That sitka is stunning; not so much bearclaw to be distracting, and just enough to keep it interesting! I'm anxious to see how the desert ironwood looks on a finished body.
Steve

Thanks Steve! I try to let each piece of wood play its part in the overall design without one thing being too loud compare to the others.

[CaE]

Originally Posted by j. Kinnaird

Very pretty Chris. Makes me want to build one. Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery you know.

Can you give more details on the poly finish? Is it polyurethane? Have you already answered that question earlier? I would like to know your schedule and what you do about adherence between coats. Etc.

John,
I would be honored to have you "imitate" my work.

I've already done some changing to my schedule with the poly. Originally it was a polyurethane sealer followed by a polyester filler and topcoat. I have now switched to using a polyurethane topcoat instead as it's way easier to apply. I'm contemplating switching back to an epoxy filler as well. But I need to do some tests before I try that on a guitar. What I found is that polyester is simply a pain to work with. I don't like how it sprays- think about trying to spray karo syrup. But the polyurethane is great. My supplier says the two are equally hard. The only real difference- other than working properties- is that the urethane requires 30 hours to cure will the ester requires 24. I can wait.

If you want more details, feel free to email or call me.

[CaE]

Now's the fun part- final details. The bridge is on and the frets are in. I ended up using gold evo frets. The color complements the golds that are used through out this guitar wonderfully. So let's see what the bridge and fingerboard are going to look like with some oil on them shall we:





For some reason, the frets look chrome in the picture, but I assure you they aren't.

Funny side note- There was a recent article in one of the woodworking magazines I get (I think it was "WOOD") that encouraged people to stop hoarding wood. They claimed that keeping all those little scraps was bad for your psyche and shop cleanliness. They were showing pictures of boards that were large enough to make binding, fingerboard, and bridges. I had to laugh.

Well, I didn't listen. I kept the cutoffs from the bridge of this guitar. And you know what, I made some tuner buttons out of them. I got 7 blanks out of my tiny leftovers. I call that a win.



These tuner buttons are the final touch for this guitar. I think it'll tie the whole thing together well. They'll be mounted on gold Gotoh 510 tuners.

Stay tuned. Final photos coming soon.

[j. Kinnaird]

Im hoping you show the button making process.

[CaE]

Originally Posted by j. Kinnaird

Im hoping you show the button making process.

John,
I didn't document the entire process this time. But I did on another build. I've changed my process a little, but it's pretty close and the process I used in that build will work just fine.

Here's what I do now:

-Cut the oversized blanks .9 x .7 x .320
-Drill the screw hole and mill the post slot
-Shape the outside with a template
-Radius the outside of the button
-Polish, polish, and polish some more
-Counter sink for the screw
-Oil

Once the screw hole is drilled, every other jig uses a post to reference this hole so that everything stays centered from that location.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by Chris Ensor

Funny side note- There was a recent article in one of the woodworking magazines I get (I think it was "WOOD") that encouraged people to stop hoarding wood. They claimed that keeping all those little scraps was bad for your psyche and shop cleanliness. They were showing pictures of boards that were large enough to make binding, fingerboard, and bridges. I had to laugh.

I need to find one of them hoarders and help them out of their affliction.

[CaE]

I think everyone could use some beauty shots for the upcoming weekend:





Enjoy!

[nacluth]

Looks spectacular! How does it sound?

[SJ VanSandt]

Oooo that makes me weak in the knees! Some lucky soul is going to very happy with this one.

[Stevien]

Wow! Just wow! That desert ironwood came out better (& darker) than I thought it would! Well done!
Steve

[Mark Lew]

Wow...I'm gonna need a bigger bucket for my bucket list! What a beautiful guitar. Another great job, Chris.

[Itzkinguitars]

Wow that's absolutely stunning! The color of the osage with the walnut wedge reminds me of the three piece backs common among flamenco guitars built in Granada like this one. One of my favorite looks!