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  #1  
Old 07-17-2010, 09:48 AM
Howard Klepper Howard Klepper is online now
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Default Dovetail Madness III

I was commissioned by Trevor Moyle of the Acoustic Music Company in Brighton, England to build the next of my Dovetail Madness series for him. Since the second in the series is named "Dovetail Madness II, a/k/a Son of Dovetail Madness," I'm continuing in that vein and calling this one "Dovetail Madness III: The Next Generation."

The first two of these guitars achieved some notoriety for their design. What is less well known is that they both sound exceptional. I believe that the combination of woods adds complexity to the tone, especially when two different top woods are used.

This guitar will have a 15" lower bout and 14 frets to the body. The top is of European spruce and "chocolate" colored western red cedar (as were the first two in the series). For the back and sides Trevor wanted a more subtle contrast than the previous models, but nonetheless to use special, top grade woods. We settled on African blackwood and the extraordinary "Firestorm" cocobolo that Allied lutherie had a few years back. This was a single log of intensely colored and unusually patterned coco. I've held on to a few sets of it for special projects such as this one.

First comes the dovetail joinery. Dovetails cut into the tangential edges of thin pieces of wood are quite fragile until they are joined and backed up in the construction process. I lost a lot of test pieces before I got my system working reliably enough to cut valuable tonewood. Here are the guitar's top, back and sides freshly joined:







More to come soon. But here's a view of my workbench area in the new shop, ready for a new guitar to start. I like to clean up in between guitars. The tidiness is only temporary.

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  #2  
Old 07-17-2010, 10:06 AM
JohnM JohnM is offline
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looking forward to seeing more Howard! I remember seeing the Dovetail guitar when we exhibited at Healdsburg in 2005. Good stuff!

Also, might I note, your shop is way too clean. You shame me....now I have to go clean my shop up. Seriously people, go check out Howards website and guitars. He makes a helluva instrument.
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Old 07-17-2010, 11:08 AM
John How John How is offline
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Glad to see the line continue Howard. I love that firey coco but missed out on getting any. I eagerly await your progress on this one. Hey I would love to stop by one of these days and check out your new shop.
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Old 07-17-2010, 11:35 AM
Rollie Rollie is offline
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Looks great Howard .Keeping those dovetails so clean must be challenging ..I see you've been there done that when it comes to combining wood species to create a tonal statement...Very artistic work.. and you do have a nice clean looking shop ..I know that sawdust does build up fast ..

Last edited by Rollie; 07-17-2010 at 11:40 AM.
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  #5  
Old 07-17-2010, 05:39 PM
mesa mesa is offline
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Howard your guitars and workmanship are amazing! This will be great to follow....be still my wallet
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Old 07-17-2010, 08:35 PM
cpabolting cpabolting is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mesa View Post
Howard your guitars and workmanship are amazing! This will be great to follow....be still my wallet
Second that one!
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A brand new duet I wrote with my daughter:
https://youtu.be/u0hRB7fYaZU

Olson Brazilian Dread #1325
Olson Brazilian SJ #1350
Olson Tiger Myrtle Dread #1355
Olson Brazilian Jumbo #1351
Olson 12-string Jumbo (one of only a few)
Martin D-42 Johnny Cash #51/200 (only 80 made)
And a few others

Quite a few limited edition and rare Martins
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http://www.kekomusic.com
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Old 07-17-2010, 09:18 PM
SuperB23 SuperB23 is online now
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Im excited to watch this build thread. I admired I or II at Healdsburg in 2009. Does it matter tonewise which wood you use on the Treble or Bass half of the guitar?
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  #8  
Old 07-18-2010, 08:46 AM
Bill Pillmore Bill Pillmore is offline
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Default Love the shop picture

Quote:
Howard Klepper
www.klepperguitars.com

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are
the easiest person to fool."
--Richard Feynmann
Spent the morning reading Richard Feynmann quotes.
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Favorite Guitars
Woolson LG
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  #9  
Old 07-18-2010, 08:56 AM
mesa mesa is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperB23 View Post
Im excited to watch this build thread. I admired I or II at Healdsburg in 2009. Does it matter tonewise which wood you use on the Treble or Bass half of the guitar?
I was thinking about that very thing.... By the way Super that baby must be getting big
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  #10  
Old 07-18-2010, 10:53 AM
Howard Klepper Howard Klepper is online now
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I don't think that it matters much which side the different woods go on. The question whether bass comes from one side of the guitar top and treble from the other has been pretty well decided by laser interferometry photos of vibrating guitar tops, and the answer is no. There may be some subtle difference in timbre that vary with which side gets which wood, but those are impossible to predict or detect at the present level of the science.

That said, I am switching the cedar/spruce on this one. The previous two had cedar on the bass side and spruce on the the treble. This one is vice versa.

The rosette is installed. Walnut burl and maple burl, with some of my custom marquetry purflings. Previous DM's had the two rosette woods butt joined; on this one I've interlocked them to pick up the dovetail pattern of the top. The reversal of light and dark from top to rosette makes it impossible to continue the interlocking tail pattern, so it switches to a scarfed joint that follows the dovetail shape and size.



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Old 07-18-2010, 02:11 PM
cpabolting cpabolting is offline
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So Howard...outside of the artistic element of the use of these different tonewoods.... is there any positive sonic aspect (or negative for that matter) that comes from using two differnt woods on the top, sides and back?

Do you suppose there is anything that happens for example in the vibration of the top and the transfer of sound that might be impeded by the use of the different materials?
__________________
A brand new duet I wrote with my daughter:
https://youtu.be/u0hRB7fYaZU

Olson Brazilian Dread #1325
Olson Brazilian SJ #1350
Olson Tiger Myrtle Dread #1355
Olson Brazilian Jumbo #1351
Olson 12-string Jumbo (one of only a few)
Martin D-42 Johnny Cash #51/200 (only 80 made)
And a few others

Quite a few limited edition and rare Martins
-----------------

http://www.kekomusic.com
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  #12  
Old 07-18-2010, 04:37 PM
Howard Klepper Howard Klepper is online now
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Keith, it has seemed to me that guitars with multiple top woods gain a complexity in tone. In other words, I think I am hearing an additive result, with elements from both top woods. This is unscientific, like much we think we know about the guitar.

The contribution of multiple back and side woods is harder to judge, and I am inclined to think the effect is more to give an average of the qualities of the woods--their density, stiffness, and damping. Again, an unscientific sense of what I am hearing.

Here is the X brace being glued:



And the first three back braces:

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  #13  
Old 07-18-2010, 04:54 PM
cpabolting cpabolting is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Howard Klepper View Post
Keith, it has seemed to me that guitars with multiple top woods gain a complexity in tone. In other words, I think I am hearing an additive result, with elements from both top woods. This is unscientific, like much we think we know about the guitar.

The contribution of multiple back and side woods is harder to judge, and I am inclined to think the effect is more to give an average of the qualities of the woods--their density, stiffness, and damping. Again, an unscientific sense of what I am hearing.
Had not occurred to me that the whole could be greater than the sum of the parts or that some synergy could be gained from the combination of materials. Very interesting. There was a Martin guitar MTV model that used different woods on the different sides on the backs of the guitars, and Martin has also used some different wood for the center wedge on some different artist models and I suspected it may have impacted the tone to some degree but wasn't sure if it was done for just visual appeal or sonic properties.
__________________
A brand new duet I wrote with my daughter:
https://youtu.be/u0hRB7fYaZU

Olson Brazilian Dread #1325
Olson Brazilian SJ #1350
Olson Tiger Myrtle Dread #1355
Olson Brazilian Jumbo #1351
Olson 12-string Jumbo (one of only a few)
Martin D-42 Johnny Cash #51/200 (only 80 made)
And a few others

Quite a few limited edition and rare Martins
-----------------

http://www.kekomusic.com
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  #14  
Old 07-18-2010, 05:09 PM
JohnM JohnM is offline
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I think too many people tend to think of a guitar in halfs. Things like scalloping a single side, ect.. I, like many others, tend to think of it all as a unit working together. Sure some things have more effect than others, but it all works together.

If you were to put a piece of masking tape on the guitar right below the bridge would it effect the sound? Yes. Could you hear the effect? Probably no. However if you put 35 pieces of tape on the face of the instrument you just might hear an effect. It's all the little things adding up that make a great guitar stand apart from a good one. Guys like Howard here as well as many other of my colleagues understand this and as a result you get to see some of the greatest work in lutherie the world has ever seen. Whether it be a simple yet soulful instrument, innovative and new, or a work of art that sings hand builders, for the most part, grasp the concept of luthiere aggregate if you will.

Hats off to Howard for his unique artist sense and methods.
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  #15  
Old 07-18-2010, 06:35 PM
mesa mesa is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnM View Post
I think too many people tend to think of a guitar in halfs. Things like scalloping a single side, ect.. I, like many others, tend to think of it all as a unit working together. Sure some things have more effect than others, but it all works together.

If you were to put a piece of masking tape on the guitar right below the bridge would it effect the sound? Yes. Could you hear the effect? Probably no. However if you put 35 pieces of tape on the face of the instrument you just might hear an effect. It's all the little things adding up that make a great guitar stand apart from a good one. Guys like Howard here as well as many other of my colleagues understand this and as a result you get to see some of the greatest work in lutherie the world has ever seen. Whether it be a simple yet soulful instrument, innovative and new, or a work of art that sings hand builders, for the most part, grasp the concept of luthiere aggregate if you will.

Hats off to Howard for his unique artist sense and methods.
John, you and the other builders on this forum are a classy bunch. Thanks for hanging out with us
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