Memphis Mini - Big Hollow Single O festival build

[newvintage]

I had been kicking around a lot of ideas for guitars for the inaugural Memphis guitar festival, and I only just hammered them out. Here is one guitar:

single O
24.9" scale
Sinker WRC / Macassar Ebony
Moustache bridge
Bloodwood binding
Fine Herringbone
Evo frets
Sitka top bracing
1-13/16" nut
2-5/16" string spacing

I am excited to hear the sinker Cedar with the clarity of the Macassar

Some details may still change, but that's a good start.
I will be using some Macassar Ebony that was given to me by a retired Timber salesman. I have resawn it and am laying out the 4 piece back.

[theEdwinson]

The Macassar is lustworthy, Bevan. I think putting a Sinker Cedar top on it- especially for an 0-size guitar- is an inspired choice. The Macassar will add focus and projection to the warm, complex Cedar. I picture this as a fingerstyle dream guitar. Imagine minor key Appalachian folk songs fingerpicked on it. Or some good old Irish trad arr's.

I'll be curious to get your take on the sound of this guitar, as compared with your Adirondack and Lutz-topped 0-guitars. I know you favor those woods, and this is your signature sound.
Fortunately, I have a built-in advantage at the Memphis, since you're my roommate at the hotel. So I'll be able to check this baby out. In my mind's ear, it sounds legendary.
Good luck with your builds, & see you there!

[newvintage]

Laying out the seams took a bit of work, but it all came together in the end. The idea is to use this extremely high quality timber that has aged for decades and is perfectly quartersawn, and yet too narrow to span half of a guitar's width.

The three seam reinforcements and the four braces make an interesting grid pattern, which I find eye-catching and pleasing.

[hreboredo]

Looking forward to trying this beauty in Memphis!

[welshruss]

Nice one Bevan,

The guitar you made me is excellent and has inspired me to get into some ragtime playing.

Russ

[OddManOut]

Originally Posted by newvintage

The three seam reinforcements and the four braces make an interesting grid pattern, which I find eye-catching and pleasing.

Looks very cool...both the pattern and contrast are quite striking.

[newvintage]

Here is the back pattern. The outer bookmatches are hardly visible, which is the way I intended it. I stood over these boards for quite a while laying out the seams.

I used a filter on this photo to bring out the contrast in the Macassar Ebony

[Steve Kinnaird]

Beautiful wood, excellent joining!
Look forward to seeing this in Memphis!

Steve

[newvintage]

Beginning the process of Bracing the top:


I glue the plate in flat, then the rest of thebraces are glued in to a 25' radius dish. The Xbraces are mostly radiused, but there is a flat section around the bridge plate that is not radiused and just pressed into a curve. The plate is mortised into the x-braces, vintage martin style.

The first bend in the first side:

[Oxwood_Handmade]

Cool! Great looking wood and nice work! Ill be sure to get over to your table at the festival. Less than three months! You and I have both got to get a move on!

Good luck!

[newvintage]

Here is the top held fast in a radiused dish to shape the bracing.



Oxwood_handmade - you are right! what am I doing wasting time at the computer!!!???

[newvintage]

I used to use strips of wood glued perpendicular to the sides as a reinforcement, but once when it was especially dry I noticed the strips were remaining their original length while the thickness of the sides had decreased, leading to little bulges on the top and back at each stave. That was the moment I understood why C.F. Martin used linen ribbon. It still reinforces across the grain, but without any predetermined length of it's own.
This is the same reason I stopped using a plywood endblock. It is better to use a solid block that will change with the sides as the guitar goes through it's life.



Notice the endblock and it's surface that contacts the top and back. I cut the block into a truncated pyramid so that the gluing surface for the top and back plates is only as wide as the kerfing. This not only allows for maximum vibrating area, it eliminates the differential in top deflection that otherwise occurs at the edges of the block, seen as two small humps or darts.

[newvintage]

The serial number ( first two digit) and year (last two digits).

[newvintage]

The sinker Cedar top from behind

[ukejon]

That is going to be a sweet little guitar.