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  #211  
Old 07-08-2014, 04:48 PM
oliverkollar oliverkollar is offline
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Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer View Post
The Tonewood is well known, and this is a classic example of the very best old growth at a quality level generally thought to be unavailable to mortals. It is quite expensive, highly sought after, and has recently became increasingly controversial in some circles. Historically, most luthiers AND most guitar players have preferred this Tonewood. I am not going to name it here, and probably no one else is going to either.
That's some amazing straight/quartered "brown" wood……..

Looks awesome as usual Bruce!!!!!
  #212  
Old 07-10-2014, 01:52 PM
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Amazing what a frame does to a pretty picture!



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  #213  
Old 07-11-2014, 02:57 PM
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Default The Neckst Step:

(It's a beginning)
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  #214  
Old 07-11-2014, 09:03 PM
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Originally Posted by justonwo View Post
Well it is clearly some kind of laminate.
Tropical Brownwood laminate is my favorite, right behind Formica.

Also really enjoyed your clip, was there an augmented chord in the bridge? Unexpected and pleasant.

Words typically fail me when describing tone, but there is something great with the trebles, like a water glass rim being rubbed.

Last edited by CoolerKing; 07-11-2014 at 09:23 PM.
  #215  
Old 07-12-2014, 02:34 PM
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Bruce

I wonder if you might comment of the origin of the bird inlays that adorn many of your guitars. I'm certain I've probably read most of the pages on your site but don't recall anything mentioned there...
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  #216  
Old 07-12-2014, 03:22 PM
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Yes, Travis, there is a story about the birds! An old one, too, as it goes back to the mid 1970's.

I was living and working in Vancouver, BC at that time, and had recently started reading the newspaper on a daily basis, something i have continued till this day. Up to that point I was completely disinterested in current events, being young and having an entirely eventful life. But when I went to apply for Canadian citizen ship I was quizzed on my knowledge of things Canadian to show that I was indeed qualified for permanent status, and I came up short. I was sent home with instructions to subscribe to a newspaper and return in 6 weeks for a reassessment. And yes, that worked out.

Like here, the Newspaper there had a local section with filler articles and human interest stuff. One day there was a large picture on the front page of this section featuring the local garbage dump. Huge piles of refuse with hundreds of gulls wheeling over them. It was the birds that were in focus, not the garbage, certainly for me anyway, and I noticed a number of them were caught in very nice poses. I traced a few of the better ones and adjusted their size with a copier (or something, I don't really remember that part) and have used them ever since as my standard inlay. When the computer came along I drew them more idealistically in Micrografix Designer and continue to print out patterns up to and including this very day (actually did it this morning for the first time in a couple of months).

With the littlest birds I am no longer following the lines on the paper at all, but rather using them as spatial coordinates, and while the pattern remains the same, the birds I cut are wildly variant and have much more life than they used to. No two the same, and quite a lot of fun to do. You'd have to be a research fanatic to get a sense of what I mean exactly, but there are pictures in my website of birds from all but the earliest guitars I've used them on.

Thanks for asking, I don't think I presented this story online before.
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  #217  
Old 07-13-2014, 11:09 AM
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This story really speaks to me ... a window to an artist's original inspiration that has endured the years ... thanks for sharing!
  #218  
Old 07-14-2014, 08:16 PM
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Strung up the Baritone Uke today, and will deliver it tomorrow. But for once I did pass it through the photo-booth. Here's the page I made for it if you want to really get a look at it, and here is a pic to tempt you to look:

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  #219  
Old 07-14-2014, 08:46 PM
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Wow, that is really cool!!! Great job, as always. I'd love to hear it.
  #220  
Old 07-16-2014, 02:31 PM
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I am getting some work done on the "mysterious dark wood Guitar". It will be an OM, pretty straight forward w/o a cutaway or a side port, but neither will it be a stripped down WRX. It is what I call my standard FT-15, except with higher end wood. The top is Rudolf Bachmann Italian spruce, and it is braced already and has the end block gluing in as of today. I am about to bend the sides, and I thought you'd like to see them while they are still able to lie next to each other as they are really quite exquisite:


I am inspired to build this guitar partly because the similar OM I have had for sale here since 2011 has finally moved to the East Coast. It is as good as they get IMO, but there was no reason to make another till now. Here's the back on the "old" one, so dark I had to tweak the contrast and lighting for you to be able to see the grain!:
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Last edited by Bruce Sexauer; 07-16-2014 at 06:12 PM.
  #221  
Old 07-16-2014, 02:34 PM
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That side wood doesn't get any better, looks a little like Ziricote, which I suppose is another tropical Brownwood.
  #222  
Old 07-16-2014, 03:03 PM
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Originally Posted by matthewpartrick View Post
That side wood doesn't get any better, looks a little like Ziricote, which I suppose is another tropical Brownwood.
No. It's not tropical. It's from Iowa.

(I'm sorry, a South Park joke of sorts).

Beautiful wood though. Looks like Malaysian Blackwood to my eyes.
  #223  
Old 07-16-2014, 04:31 PM
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Default North American Brownwood

I resawed and stickered this NABW (just a matter of time till Claro is contraband too!) a few months ago, as you may recall, and now it seems like time to unpack it and have a look. More a bit further down the line.



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  #224  
Old 07-16-2014, 06:18 PM
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Seems like there's always two ways of looking at something . . . or more, but this time only two:




I have a preference, do you?
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  #225  
Old 07-16-2014, 07:20 PM
Nort Nort is offline
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Since you asked ... I think my preference would be for the lower photo.

Bruce, will you reveal your preference after some others have weighed in?
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