New Build--Stehr Auditorium--BRW/Adi

Nemoman · #1 05-01-2015, 05:34 PM

I'm supper excited to be having Joel Stehr build me one of his awesome guitars. I purchased one of Joel's Oregon Myrtlewood guitars from an AGF member a few months back and really love the tone and craftsmanship in that guitar. So I was toying with the idea of getting on Joel's build list and sent him an e-mail inquiring about his current wait time. As luck would have it for me, Joel had to withdraw from the Memphis show, and had 4 guitars currently underway that he was working on for the show. This particular auditorium model had just been started and therefore allowed customization to occur if someone adopted it. We talked numbers and specs., and Joel made me an offer I couldn't refuse--plus I won't have to wait 18-20 months for my turn in line to come up!

So here are the specs...

Auditorium Model--13 frets to the body
Back and sides: BRW from century old farmhouse beam
Top: Adirondack Spruce
Cutaway: Florentine
Armrest and rib bevels
Cocobolo bindings w/ maple purfling
Custom rosette and fretboard inlays
Bound headstock and fretboard
Headplate and backplate TBD
5-piece laminated neck: blk walnut/maple/peruvian walnut/maple/blk walnut
Gotoh 510 tuners

More details to follow...here are some pics to get it rolling--thanks for following along!

David Wren · #2 05-01-2015, 05:41 PM

Beautiful wood!

vintageparlors · #3 05-01-2015, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemoman

Back and sides: BRW from century old farmhouse beam

We've got lots of farmhouses in Vermont. I'd better start looking closer.

swiftz07 · #4 05-02-2015, 07:13 PM

Joel does amazing work and your woods looks spectacular! This will be a fun thread to watch

congratulations!

Nemoman · #5 05-05-2015, 08:59 AM

Joel sent me a few progress pics last night, so I thought I'd share them. He does all his builds with double sides--the inner sides are Mahogany and are stained dark on the interior since the back is BRW. We're just finalizing the details on the fretboard and rosette. We plan on keeping it fairly simple with some of Joel's trademark leaf inlays along with some other new ideas. Joel has a great looking Macassar fretboard and headplate that we're going to use. The backplate will be coco to tie in with all the binding.

Here are the latest pics...

Macassar fretboard and headplate with binding and purfling...

Coco end wedge...

Thanks for following along...

dcn · #6 05-05-2015, 09:07 AM

Looking awesome, Nemoman. I'm a fan of the sharp cutaway Auditorium shape.

Sage97 · #7 05-05-2015, 10:20 AM

That Braz looks like very similar to mine that Joel made awhile back. Our guitars could be cousins.

Marcus Wong · #8 05-05-2015, 10:26 AM

I don't know why more people haven't mentioned so but I think your BRW set is AWESOME!! Looks like there is lava running down the middle. Really nice colour contrast. I wouldn't do too much with the back strip

Joel's leaf inlays are also really classy, looking forward to seeing them incorporated into the build. If I am not mistaken, he usually has the headstock leaf in red which would tie in very nicely with the reddish figure on your BRW

Nemoman · #9 05-05-2015, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Wren

Beautiful wood!

Thanks for checking it out, David!

Nemoman · #10 05-05-2015, 10:45 AM

Thanks all for the nice comments!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus Wong

I don't know why more people haven't mentioned so but I think your BRW set is AWESOME!! Looks like there is lava running down the middle. Really nice colour contrast. I wouldn't do too much with the back strip

Joel's leaf inlays are also really classy, looking forward to seeing them incorporated into the build. If I am not mistaken, he usually has the headstock leaf in red which would tie in very nicely with the reddish figure on your BRW

Marcus--I totally agree, the BRW reminded me of lava as well. We think along the same lines as I'm not going to have any backstrip and just let the wood do the talking. Joel's leaf inlays are very classy and elegant--we plan on using coco and other woods with red and orange tones to pick up on the colors in the BRW. The leaf inlays will also tie in nicely with the Coco bindings. Thanks again for following along...

Nemoman · #11 05-05-2015, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sage97

That Braz looks like very similar to mine that Joel made awhile back. Our guitars could be cousins.

Sage--would love to see finished pics of your guitar. Feel free to post them here or shoot me a PM or an e-mail...

Glenn23 · #12 05-05-2015, 11:01 AM

I have this really old set of Brazilian that I smugly thought was one of the prettiest sets I'd ever seen.
"Mirror mirror on the wall, who has the prettiest Brazilian of all?"
"joel Stehr does."
Thanks a lot mirror.

Sage97 · #13 05-05-2015, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemoman

Sage--would love to see finished pics of your guitar. Feel free to post them here or shoot me a PM or an e-mail...

I only found one pic of the back but here are a couple pics of the guitar. Joel has pics of mine on his site. The arm bevel pic on mine is the main pic of his home site. Your Braz will look amazing once Joel is done with it.

Stehr-16 by sage972003, on Flickr

Stehr-4 by sage972003, on Flickr

Nemoman · #14 05-05-2015, 02:23 PM

Thanks for posting those, Sage! It definitely looks like a kissing cousin on the BRW--beautiful top on yours as well. You're making rethink whether I should go with mahogany for the outer lams of the neck--I'm currently going with walnut, but I like how the mahogany compliments the color tones going on. Thanks again...

Marcus Wong · #15 05-05-2015, 06:29 PM

WOW looks like someone took a paint brush to the back, such a nice figure. You two are really lucky to have such a nice set of BRW! Whatever Joel comes up with, he is going to do justice to it alright.