New guitar, custom build "van der Gaag"

ReneMeester · #1 05-25-2011, 02:50 AM

Hi there!

I have been looking for a new acoustic guitar for a while now. The new guitar had to be in the OM/000 range soundwise and shapewise.

A few weeks ago I have been to a few shops who have a lot of the "better" acoustic guitars in stock and played several of them to find out what I like.

Anyway. I also went to the European agent for van der Gaag guitars. Johan van der Gaag is a builder from New Zealand from dutch origin. He builts solid wood acoustic guitars, but also Mandolins and Irish Bouzouki's. He uses a lot of local woods like Ancient Kauri, Puriri and Tasmanian blackwood.

At the agent I have played several models made of different kinds of woods. There was one beautiful guitar I fell in love with instantly but unfortunately this guitar was allready sold. I went home without a new guitar. After a few weeks of thinking things over I have decided to give van der Gaag the assignment to build me a new guitar with about the same specifications (with some adjustments by me) as the one I played that day.

Because I am very thrilled and excited about this new guitar that gets build especially for me and I think it's fun to share the photo's of this build with you people I will post them in this thread when things progress.

I am curious to learn what you think :-)

ReneMeester · #2 05-25-2011, 02:59 AM

First I will post the specifications the way I think about them now. During the buildingprocess things can be changed if told in time of course.

- Waikato body shape

- Black Walnut back and sides

- Redwood top

- walnut rosette

- Walnut on the front of the headstock

- wave shape headstock

- Florentine cutaway

- 1 3/4 inch nut width (taylor size)

- Scale Length: 25 1/2"

- 5 part laminated neck. Dark (Tasmanian BlackWood), light (FiddleBack BlueGum), dark (Purriri), light (FBBG), dark (TBW)

- 2 way trussrod

- adjustment side of the trussrod in headstock.

- nickel plated waverly tuners. (butterbean knobs)

- ebony fingerboard

- fingerboard near soundhole wave shaped (with frets running all the way through)

- small dots (2 mm) inlayed in fingerboard

- sidedots of course

- no bindings on neck

- bindings/purflings on body to be decided later during build

- highlander iP-1 pickup

- case

ReneMeester · #3 05-25-2011, 03:02 AM

First I'll post the pictures I have got from van der Gaag of the wood that he is going to use for the sides and back. Sides and back are going to be made of Black Walnut.

Sides:

Back:

ReneMeester · #4 05-25-2011, 03:05 AM

Yesterday van der Gaag started the built and I received these pictures from him in the mail.

Very beautiful to see the shape of the body with the Florentine cutaway

ReneMeester · #5 05-25-2011, 03:10 AM

Here's another photo he sent to show how the black walnut will look after it has got its paint job. Stunning!

This is a bouzouki but its the wood that matters :-)

That's it for now.....

Until the next update!

Loki · #6 05-25-2011, 04:56 AM

Thanks for this. It's really interesting to see the building of an instrument by a 'different' builder, especially one with very personalised specs. and styling.

My personal instruments all have multi piece necks and I personally believe that the technique enhances stability, and may indeed increase sustain. Whether they actually do or not I plain really like the look of them.

Please keep posting the lovely pics.

ReneMeester · #7 05-25-2011, 03:51 PM

This morning I found some new photo's in my mailbox. :-)

The clamps that were there are taken off and you can now see the detail of the wood very good. There are also some nice close ups of the florentine cutaway.

^ The detail in the wood on the sides looks just like a beautiful sunset,

ReneMeester · #8 05-25-2011, 03:53 PM

^ Detail of the florentine cutaway. Really tight and amazing work the way the pattern of the wood goes from one side to the other.

ReneMeester · #9 05-25-2011, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loki

My personal instruments all have multi piece necks and I personally believe that the technique enhances stability, and may indeed increase sustain. Whether they actually do or not I plain really like the look of them.

Yes. the multi piece necks give more stability because it is more difficult for the wood to work and bend. I also agree with you that it also looks good.

Berf · #10 05-25-2011, 07:17 PM

The world's a fascinating place when you can get a New Zealand guitar made by an ex-pat Dutchman using indigenous timbers who is willing to ship his creations back to the Netherlands...

Are the redwood and walnut grown locally?

Best of luck with the build... lovely to see something from the southern hemisphere making it on here.

ReneMeester · #11 05-26-2011, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berf

Are the redwood and walnut grown locally?

Hi Berf, yes, the woods are grown locally. The black walnut comes from an old tree that was standing in a park in Leamington, Cambridge, NZ. You can see it in the photo beneath.

The redwood is also is from NZ. Redwood grows really well there I'm told.

The woods for the neck (tasmanian blackwood, puriri and fiddleback bluegum) are woods that can only be found in New Zealand (maybe in Australia too, I don't know). More on that probably in the next updates.

Bruce Sexauer · #12 05-26-2011, 09:08 AM

On my recent trip to NZ I learned that virtually the entirety of both islands has been harvested and replanted. There is a lot of Monterey pine there, and I mean a whole lot, they grow it for the pulp and paper industry. A variety of other trees grow well there too, but there aren't a lot of big ones as pretty much everything was recently planted. There are said to be a couple of stands of Kauri on the North Island that are protected, but I didn't see them. Tasmanian Blackwood, not unsurprisingly, is most commonly from Tasmania. It also grows here in California where we call it Black Acacia. In NSW (hi Berf) it is called Austrslian Blackwood.

ReneMeester · #13 05-30-2011, 02:48 AM

We are a little bit further again. :-)

^ Here Johan van der Gaag is busy with the side bracings.

Furthermore we've been busy to find out how the five part laminated neck must look like because Van der Gaag is almost ready glueing the parts for the neck together.

^ Here you see from left to right: a bouzouki with a finished neck made from Tasmanian blackwood, Then unfinished Blackwood, then unfinished Puriri and unfinished Fiddleback Bluegum. Besides all that on the right is the rough sawn out back of my guitar made of black walnut

ReneMeester · #14 05-30-2011, 02:55 AM

^ Again some unfinished wood for the neck. Johan made it wet so I could get an idea what it will look like when it will have a finish on it.

The Puriri is the darkest wood and wil be on the outsides of the neck. The fiddleback Bluegum will be replaced by two small strips of maple. (the bindings will also be flamed maple). The inner part of the neck will be made of Tasmanian Blackwood.

^ I have created an example picture on the computer in Illustrator to get an idea what the neck will look like

ReneMeester · #15 05-30-2011, 03:00 AM

^ The neck at the heel will look something like this. (example taken from a Lowden guitar)

I have chosen the next purfling and backstrip for the guitar.

^ backstrip

^ Purfling

^ Here's an example of the purfling on a guitar Van der Gaag made earlier for someone else.

Okay that's it for now. See you at the next update!