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#16
09-17-2016, 03:15 PM
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Guitar #5 in the list of Sexauer guitars I'm offering for sale between September 23rd and October 8, 2016 is a pure example of the cutting edge of what I am thinking about when I pull the stops to surpass the Martin paradigm on its own terms. This is a cutting edge traditional guitar IMO.
A year or two before I made this one, I heard about a piece of Pernambuco still in Brazil that described as ideal for my needs, and I bit the bullet and said I'd pay the price, whatever that turned out to be. The price turned out to be one of my 00 sized 14 fret Mini-OM flat tops in Brazilian Rosewood with a Bachmann Italian top in exchange for 10 sets of truly quartersawn Pernambuco. You might say I overpaid, but I have yet to see any other Pernambuco on the market of this quality, though some is close enough to not need to quibble, this stuff is pretty much perfect as if I ordered it from Whatever You Call The Top Dog. I looked at my ten sets and realized that some of them were so thick that a bandsaw master might be able to re-saw them into two sets . . . challenge accepted. I started with the thickest, and stopped when I got a failure, ending up with 15 good sets and two that were a bit thinner than my goal, but usable. This guitar is made from one of those last two sets. None of the sides are thin, I might add. I build very lightly compared to most builders I am aware of, as by the way Martin did in the 20's and early 30's judging by those I've measured. So my target for this quality of Pernambuco in a back is between .065 and .070, in most guitars. The back on this particular guitar is between .055 and .060. That's why I made it a smaller guitar than my average size, and why it has a creative bracing pattern on the back. There are 11 extra braces in the back of a variety of lengths. They are there not so much because the back is not strong enough to do its job (it is IMO), but to control unwanted resonances, the kind of thing lay people refer to as "wolf notes", and which I call "local resonance nodes". This is a controversial subject, but I am very pleased with my success addressing this "problem", in fact I consider it one of my main advantages on my competition. I am fond of saying "balance is the frontier" in steel string lutherie, and I do believe it's true. The upshot of the previous paragraph is that this guitar has the response, volume, and balance I expect from all my work. This guitar has not only got an asymmetrical string path, being a MultiScale, but the entire guitar has been trapezoidally distorted along with the fret pattern, as you can likely make out in the photos. I made a few symmetrical guitars with MultiScale before I started making Asymmetrical bodies, but I could see that the bridge movement was being impeded by its off kilter relation with the template, so I got into the asymmetrical body as a more honest reflection of tradition guitar proportions from the POV of function. I truly believe that there are obvious advantages in MultiScale having to due with tonal acuity, and as long as the string length disparity is not too extreme, no ergonomic disadvantages at all. This guitar has a Martin long scale bass, and a Martin short scale treble, so it is the best of both worlds IMO. The perpendicular fret is the 12th, making the bridge less rotated than many MultiScales made by others, which mean the tone is less affected by having bass strings picked further from the bridge than treble strings, an Achilles heel of many MultiScale guitars. Also. the guitar is slightly wedged, being about 5/16" less thick on the bass side than it is on the treble side. Again, this is much less than many of the wedged guitar made by other builders, but it is enough to make the guitar far more comfortable to play, and is subtle enough that the instrument does not appear out of proportion. Excepting the many Schoenberg models, the majority of my flat top work in the last 10 years has this slight wedge in the body. I have a bad habit of picking a guitar up by grabbing it in one hand by the lower bout, fingers on the top and thumb on the back. This is one of three guitars in my life that tried to teach me to stop doing that. The pressure of my thumb made a very sharp report (pernambuco is like that) when it cracked the back at the extreme wide point about 3/8 of an inch in. The crack did not extend all the way to the purfling and was a candidate for a CA repair, which is what I did. That is some time ago and I am no longer in shock, and the crack has been stable since, but accounts for the extremely good price on this otherwise brand new high end of my range guitar. 2011 JB-00 -- #2060511 -- Current price list $16,150, current inventory $10,500, 9/23 through 10/8 only $7,500 Back and side are fully quarter-sawn Pernambuco Top is Italian Spruce Neck is genuine H. mahogany Ebony fingerboard and hand carved bridge with gouge textured wings Cambodian Rosewood binding black/white/red/white/black (.010" each) side and back purfling Hand carved headstock (sculpture) Tortis (tm) PG Waverly tuners need I say oil varnish finish? Here are some pictures taken against my garage earlier today:           Here's the crack about 2 to 3 times actual size. I'm taking the hit so you won't have to.  Tomorrow #6, this one's big sister. Thanks for reading. 
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#18
09-17-2016, 09:24 PM
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Quote:
Looks like $7500 Sale Price
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#19
09-17-2016, 09:29 PM
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That's it!
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#21
09-18-2016, 05:51 PM
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For you, bobernet, a free white cane with your purchase. I will carve it myself.
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#22
09-18-2016, 05:55 PM
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If you're considering buying, Please Read This:
I am getting really good response before the sale, some instruments have multiple interested buyers. When the sale starts, I will do my best to give right to purchase in the order that I was originally contacted. I will honor the sale price, it is not an auction.
However, if someone want to jump the gun on the sale, I have found a way to do that that seems ethical to me. The "Jump the gun" price will be exactly halfway between the sale price here, and the price on my inventory page. That's still a killer deal. After the sale I plan to revert absolutely to the Inventory list pricing, should I still have any of these guitars. I have had several people ask to buy before the sale starts, which is why I felt I had to come up with something. Thank you.
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#23
09-18-2016, 11:45 PM
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Presale
I have bought a few things on "pre sale". Normally means you buy/pay then wait to pickup the item on a specific future "sale date". That was for men's shoes at Dillard's though.
 In any case, great looking guitars, and some folks are going to be happy new owners.
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#24
09-19-2016, 08:12 PM
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2008 JB-16-Pernambuco
By now you know FT means flat top in my nomenclature, and you may have guessed that ES is Eric Schoenberg ( the very clever Duck Baker once guessed that it is what comes before FT), and then there's the fairly obvious JZ designation (JazZ) I use for my fully carved guitars, but I bet no one has correctly guessed what JB means. When I was in the 11th grade the high school I was in (Skyline High in Oakland, CA) called their student "police" the Spartan Service Society, or "SSS" for short. Honest. One day at lunch one of them asked me where the missing chairs from the table I was eating at were? I looked around the table saw that there were only five of the possible eight, looked around the room (Every corner, high and low) and then innocently said I didn't see them. Yes I was being a wise guy, but the next thing that happened was he broke my nose in three place giving my life long breathing issues AND making my face for ever somewhat asymmetrical . . . just like my JB guitars (except they have no breathing problem). His name was/is Jack Brenneman. Not that I hold a long term grudge or anything.
 This guitar has something in common with the JB-00 and also with the "Satriani". It is conceptually similar to the JB-00 in design and function, except has a paddle head instead of a slot head. And of course it is much bigger. It is a Small Jumbo, similar to a J-185, or to Martin's 0000, or could be compared to any of the SJ guitars from the Olson school, sizewise. Also, it does have that kind of tonal character as it moves a lot of air, yet has a balance that is pretty unlikely in a dread. Were is symmetrical, it would be the model I call a Penngrove. What it has in common with the "Satriani" is first that it is made from "the Infamous Crackwood", but from the best set of the five rather than the worst set as the other was. The other commonality is that the guitar is bound, bridged, and head-plated with the ToyBoy rosewood I described in the "Satriani" post. This guitar has had two previous owners. Both are multiple buyers of my work, and both traded it in for other later work. One of them made the arm rest which I have left on the guitar. It could easily be removed, he says, if you didn't like it. The guitar does have my subtle wedge, which the rest pretty much obviates, but he did a good job and I have let it stay for now. On this guitar, as on the others, I did all of the finish work here in my shop. This is important for a number of reasons. Not least because I am very good at it after nearly fifty years of conscientious practice, but most because I deeply care in a way that I doubt anyone else could. When I say the finish is as thin as practical, you can be assured I mean it. It is a matter of performance. This guitar does include the Calton DeLuxe case I had made specifically for it. Both the case and the guitar show use, but nothing extra-ordinary: 95% IMO. #1701108 -- JB-16 -- current list: $16,350, inventory: $10,500, sale: $7,500 Back and sides are Pernambuco Top is AAA German spruce Neck is Honduran mahogany Ebony Fingerboard MOP fretboard birds are level in Playing position Binding, bridge, and head plates are Dalbergia camatillo (probably) MultiScale: 25.4 x 24.9 +/-, nut is 1 3/4+ (1/64), BP spacing is 2 1/4 -(1/32) Tortis PG Waverly gold tuners Oil varnish finish Here are pictures, once again taken this very day:          Once again, thank you for looking. Last edited by Bruce Sexauer; 09-19-2016 at 08:14 PM. Reason: Change title
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#26
09-20-2016, 05:34 PM
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#27
09-20-2016, 05:35 PM
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The "MagCat", a 2013 FT-15-WRX
I wrote this whole post, and when I hit preview it disappeared! Okay, I'm doing it again.
This is my 7th guitar in my 9/23 - 10/8 sale, and it is an example of a brand new guitar from unusual materials. This guitar should have been easy to sell on mere merit, it is right there in the middle of my pack, as goos as any IMO. If you were blindfolded you'd never guess it didn't have a spruce top. And yes, green is not the normal color for a guitar, but this Tulip Magnolia is stunning beautiful. It came from Tom Thiel at Northwind Tonewoods, and Tom told me it came from the beams of a barn in New Hampshire which was put up in the mid-1800's. The Catalpa I milled myself from a wind downfall I salvaged after a big blow in Mill Valley CA, where, ironically, it grew on Walnut Street, right around the corner from Catalpa Street! A few years ago I made a guitar with Catalpa back, sides, top, and neck which was exceptional, so I had wondered how a Catalpa top would do paired with a more conventional tonewood for back and sides. Well, I am still wondering as there is nothing conventional in Magnolia. Except for the wood choices and the "WRX", there is nothing unconventional about this guitar, it is my conservative rendition of a Martinesque OM, being dimension-ally identical but with a slight variance in the template outline which renders rounder shoulders and hips, and a slightly rounder bottom. Nowhere is the template as much as 1/16" off Martin's, but it does alter the aesthetic considerably. It causes a passing resemblance to an SJ IMO. "WRX" is pronounced "Works", and is a concept I borrowed from the automotive world, but not Subaru. Factory race cars of the highest order are supplied to the factory teams with every possible bell a whistle, and at the same time some factories also supply fully functional and competitive but less fancy cars to privateer teams for reasonable prices. These are often referred to as "Works" cars. My "WRX" is as good as any of my other work, but has less adornment; simpler rosette and purflings, less inlay. But all o f the quality stuff is there; master wood choices, HHG, oil varnish, and most importantly, my full attention in process. I sell these for less and try to put them into the hands of working musicians. I do not offer them to any retailers I may have. #2330713 - The "MagCat" - FT-15-WRX -- Current retail: $9000, Inventory: $7500. sale only: $5000 Tulip Magnolia back and sides Catalpa top Honduras mahogany neck Amazon rosewood Fingerboard, bridge, and binding Tortis PG Gold Schertler tuners (some say gold Schertlers don't exist) HotHideGlue and oil varnish Today's pictures, literally:          
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#28
09-21-2016, 05:07 PM
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FT-000-C: My Schoenberg Prototype
One of my friends of many years, David Spurgeon, is an architect who took his education on the east coast and happened to be excellent friends with another fellow who has become one of my freinds subsequently, Ed Rudolph. Ed had a buddy moving from the East Coast and who needed a shop put together to facilitate his business intentions in Tiburon CA, so Ed called David. David drew up some simple concepts, and upon approval was aked to find someone who could actually build it. David knew I would want to meet the guy and would likely love to opportunity to build a guitar shop, and so I was introduced to Eric Schoenberg, Ed's old pal.
At the time, Eric was already way into have his Schoenberg Guitars made by a partnership called the Littleton Guitar Works +/-, so I did not distract him from that, but I did ask to have his repair concession, and he gave it to me. I did virtually all of his repair and Martin warranty work for three years, and watched as the Littleton relationship grew unwieldy and span out of existence. So I made an unsolicited prototype to demonstrate to Eric that I could work within the conservative parameters of his guitar concept. Eric had a billet of Adirondack spruce he kept in his shop and which I had looked and discussed with him many a time. It came from a wood lot in New Hampshire which he had access to, but was too full of branches, so he thought, to be used for guitar tops. As time passed I started to see where there was a single probably guitar top in the billet. Though probably not of the most perfect and desirable quality, I thought it would be Okay. Eric said that if I really thought there was a top in there after both he and Dana Bourgeois said not, well have at it. So i did, and this guitar is the result. I have the surround from the top I cut hanging on my wall and I think of it as a sort of diploma, or master's thesis. I will put a picture of it in this post down somewhere below here! The Brazilian rosewood I used in this guitar has a story as well. It came to be as a timber a bit too narrow for typical guitars, but perfectly quartered and of the highest quality from a luthiers viewpoint. A couple showed up at my shop door one day and told me they had recently arrived in Sausalito from south America by sailboat, and that they had used heavy timber as part of their ballast, and would I be interested in looking at what they had. Do I like wood? well, to make a long story shorter, I took this lovely piece of Rosewood off their hands for a reasonable price, and still have a set or left today. Yes, the guitar has a 4 piece back, but although the market my not love the 4 piece back, it doesn't bother me at all. The first owner of this guitar was in the Rocky mountains. He had a lot of guitars, multiple houses, and a new wife when he made contact with me. He had recently retired and was feeling great about the future. Active in the stock market at the time, he got a stock tip he couldn't pass up and leveraged as much of it as he could. It was a bad tip. The courts allowed him to keep one house and one guitar. Mine is not the one he chose to keep, and he shipped it back to me to be put in tip top condition. Unfortunately, it apparently took a tumble in flight and the headstock was broken off. also the back took a couple of cracks. He did not insure it for its full value, so I offered him the difference if I could have it back, which he agreed to. I replaced the Martinesque neck I had made with a then contemporary Sexauer neck, and I fixed the back and refinished it. I have been using this guitar ever since as my personal "House" guitar, where all the others are relegated to the shop. The good news, last I heard, was that his wife stayed. Also worth mentioning, the guitar that replaced this one in my house is the Flamenco "Blanca" I made a few weeks before the Flamenco "Mulatta" I am showing at SBAIC. This guitar is one of the last I did with NitroCellulose lacquer. It shows a bit more wear and tear than any other guitar here, but has sustained no further real damage since the in flight stumble. The neck is straight and the bridge is healthy; it plays and sounds as a Sexauer Guitar should. I reckon this to be among the top three collectable acoustic guitars I've made. The first Acoustic is lost to my records. The Satriani is the other. #611099 - FT-000-C - Schoenberg Prototype -- current retail: $14,100, Inventory: $10,500, Sale (9/23 - 10/8 only): $7,500 Brazilian rosewood back and side and head plate Adirondack spruce top Honduran mahogany neck Ebony FB and bridge Padauk binding and head back plate Celluloid PB My NitroCellulose lacquer finish Waverly tuners Fresh pictures:           finish smush from vinyl wall hanger many years ago.  
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#29
09-22-2016, 07:55 AM
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Bruce,
My wife surprised me with a trip to Napa, CA for my 40th birthday a few years ago. On our way north, we stopped by Eric's shop and were utterly charmed by his company and generosity, letting me play any number of guitars. He told me more about his design and handed me a couple of Sexauer guitars. I'd not heard of you before that and was blown away by the tone and response of the guitars. Just amazing. This has been a really fun thread to follow!
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#30
09-22-2016, 04:46 PM
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