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  #1  
Old 09-27-2009, 02:31 PM
walrus walrus is offline
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Default Sexauer JB-16 Brazilian/German

Hello everyone! I'm excited to say Bruce is working on my first commissioned acoustic guitar. After finding this forum I thought I'd share some of the progress thus far. Here are some of the specs:

- JB (asymmetric multi-scale w/ wedge body) 16" body size
- Old Growth Straight Grain Brazilian Rosewood Back/Sides, flitch matched.
- "Old German" Spruce Top (seasoned stock from 1977)
- Adirondack Spruce Bracing
- "Textured" Brazilian Rosewood bridge
- Brazilian RW Headplate, Backplate, and Heelcap from flitch matched set
- "Hauser" inspired trim
- Pernambuco binding and purfling
- Bare Ebony Fretboard, no markers
- Fretboard Extension
- No Pickguard
- Slothead, no logo
- Graf Tuners with Snakewood Buttons
- Amber Sunburst
- Oil Varnish Finish
- Hide Glue Construction
- Calton Case

It all started from this:


This set of top grade Brazilian reeled me in for the commission. It's rare to see such beautiful straight grained wood. Bruce says it's one of the best sets he's ever worked with:


Flitch matched Brazilian Rosewood Sides:


After some conversation, Bruce recommended Carpathian Spruce for it's immediate power and responsiveness. While tapping (for the first time!) some of his primo unblemished, white, silky Carpathian tops, he taught me to hear that reverberating, bassy "kerrang" after the initial tap characteristic of top flight spruce. Those sets had it in spades. Well, another Sexauer I own has a German Spruce top I love so I wanted to try some, especially his "Old German" sets I heard so much about:


Bruce bought those sets in 1977; he doesn't know how old they were at the time. The tops have been seasoning in his shop since then and there were only a few left. Bruce jokingly called them his "dregs" relative to what he used to have. All of them had a yellow, aged patina and some had old, brownish streaks. At first, I tapped some of the more cosmetically unblemished ones; the tone wasn't as deep as the Carpathian sets and didn't have much of that reverberating sustain. I then tried a streaky set and holy crap! It had a super deep, bassy tap and a 3D reverberating warm sustain which felt like waves flowing past my ears. It was like tapping the face of a bass drum it was so resonant. It had the tap qualities of his best Carpathian x2. Wow!


The back with backstrip:


A closeup of the Pernambuco backstrip. A thinner version will also border the top. You can see the green border purflings which was inspired by Hauser:


The top with the rosette. The middle of the top is darker because this very old wood was aged too deeply to skim off the evidence of age. The tap tone was too incredible to pass up, and it'll have a sunburst anyway. Win/win!:


Closeup of the rosette. Green-colored wood with figured maple bordering the middle ring; it'll should pop under finish:


Still to come- Brazilian RW for the head & back plate (hand courtesy of Mr. Sexauer):
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  #2  
Old 09-27-2009, 02:33 PM
Michael Watts Michael Watts is offline
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Congratulations. Bruce makes wonderful instruments.
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Old 09-27-2009, 02:41 PM
Martin_Nut Martin_Nut is offline
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Amazing woods! Looks to be a wonderful guitar coming together. I've heard so many great things about Bruce's work - really looking forward to seeing more of this one as it progresses! Best wishes - have fun!
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Old 09-27-2009, 02:41 PM
Billy Boy Billy Boy is offline
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I think you have an incredible build underway...congratulations...and thank you for sharing your pictures...wonderful wood...
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Old 09-27-2009, 03:49 PM
K III K III is offline
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Congratulations!
I wish my first post would have been to start a build thread for a Sexauer Carpathian/Braz. I instead wasted it on when you can hear that a guitar breaks in

Good luck with your further build and enjoy it as much as we will.

Karl
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Old 09-27-2009, 03:56 PM
Fliss Fliss is offline
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Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing the excitement of your new guitar build! Looks like it should be an amazing instrument.

Fliss
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Old 09-27-2009, 04:12 PM
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ChuckS ChuckS is offline
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I've been admiring Bruce's work for several years. Would love to hear and play one someday. Looks like a fantastic set of woods and a great model. Since you already have one of his guitars your expectations and excitement level must be really high.
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Old 09-27-2009, 05:00 PM
Tom46 Tom46 is offline
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Easily one of the top 10 builders on the planet.

Beautiful build in progress...great woods.

My own preference would be a FT-14 12 fret cutaway with BRW/European spruce.

Last edited by Tom46; 09-28-2009 at 12:01 AM.
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Old 09-28-2009, 09:49 PM
walrus walrus is offline
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Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I just checked out some of the other build threads going on and whew! Talk about some spectacular guitars! Christmas is coming early for a lot of people On to some more pics...





Bruce recently pointed out to me the back braces have a slight asymmetry too:






I love this shot:
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Old 09-28-2009, 10:05 PM
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Diamondave Diamondave is offline
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Walrus, dude, that's going to be about the sweetest guitar on the Planet! Wow, this is going to be real fun watching this come together... I own one of Bruce's guitars, and as much as I LOVE all my others, every time I pick up his I grin to myself that it's just the best.... It really has true 100 year old qualities with today's goodies as well....

Here is a build thread to the one I own...
http://www.sexauerluthier.com/FT-15-07.html

Welcome to the AGF!
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Old 09-28-2009, 10:07 PM
Brock Poling Brock Poling is offline
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that is a spectacular set of brazilian. Congrats.
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Old 09-29-2009, 07:22 AM
SuperB23 SuperB23 is online now
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Boy that Brazilian looks stunning!!!!! You are in for a real treat with this one!!!! Thanks for sharing.
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Old 09-29-2009, 08:08 AM
Broadus Broadus is offline
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Welcome to AGF, walrus, and congrats on the Sexauer! You are a very fortunate man, indeed. Bruce is a great guy. I've enjoyed my bit of corresponding with him. He's always helpful.

And to Diamondave: that's a sweet-looking Sexauer OM you have. Congratulations.

Now that I have managed to get a month's worth of envy within the space of a couple of minutes, I'd better leave this thread!

Bill

Last edited by Broadus; 09-29-2009 at 08:54 AM.
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Old 09-29-2009, 08:49 AM
rmyAddison rmyAddison is offline
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Very, very nice!

Mr. Sexauer makes some might fine instruments, enjoy!!
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Old 09-29-2009, 09:03 AM
TaylorKoaFan TaylorKoaFan is offline
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I love that Brazilian. This should be fun to watch... thanks for sharing.
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