Build: Buendia 12-fret Jumbo cutaway in German/Braz.

[jmagill]

I have a Leonardo Buendia Jumbo cutaway on order with a start time of February, so I was delighted to find this message from Leo in my Inbox this morning:

"I was able to fit (your) guitar two spots before it was scheduled. So, it's official, the building process has begun."

This build has been facilitated by my friends at Dream Guitars, who have been most helpful in getting me on Leo's build list and working out the specs with me, including body style, the Manzer wedge, and measuring the neck profile on my Circa OM so that Leo can duplicate that profile on the Buendia.

Here are the specs and the first build photos:

Jumbo body style
Florentine cutaway
German spruce top
Brazilian rosewood back & sides
Brazilian rosewood hand-carved bridge
12-fret one piece Honduran mahogany neck; profile to match my Circa
Manzer wedge
Buendia's segmented & broken Amboyna burl rosette
Bridgepins, ebony w/MOP dot
Binding, ebony with black/white purfling
End graft, triangular style matching binding
Endpin, ebony w/MOP dot
Buendia's interrupted backstrip, in ebony w/ black/white purfling & Amboyna accents
Top braces, Sitka spruce
Back Braces, Mahogany
Saddle, Compensated Bone
Nut, Scalloped and compensated bone
Buendia's asymmetrical snakehead headstock
Ebony headcap veneer with Amboyna burl wedge
Back of headcap veneer, matching the back or choice of other wood
Tuning Machines, Gotoh 510 Series stealth in chrome with black buttons
Fingerboard, ebony with ebony binding and maple purfling
Fingerboard Radius, 20′′
EVO frets
Buendia's 'Dice' position markers, in Amboyna burl on frets 5, 7, 9, 12 & 15
Case, Hoffee custom hardshell case, deep red exterior, gold interior
Scale Length, 25 1/4”
Nut width, 1 25/32" to match my Circa
Saddle string spacing, 2 1/4”
Finish, nitrocellulose lacquer
Clear pick guard

The back is joined:




The rosette is sketched out on the joined top:



The Amboyna rosette sections are cut to the template:



Much more to come...

[TomB'sox]

Congrats, the specs sound great and the start looks amazing....

[GaultierRedon14]

This looks like it will be quite a beauty! Nice choices. I'm curious-what are the body dimensions (lower bout width/depth) of the Jumbo model?

[jmagill]

Originally Posted by GaultierRedon14

This looks like it will be quite a beauty! Nice choices. I'm curious-what are the body dimensions (lower bout width/depth) of the Jumbo model?

lower bout width: 16 1/2"
depth at tail: 4 3/4"

Here's the page at Leo's website that gives most of the jumbo's dimensions.

[jmagill]

As a Photoshop jockey, I'm fortunate to be able to create mockups of the instruments I commission and send them to the builder and say, "I'd like it to look like this."

So, here's the mockup Leo's working from of what I hope the guitar will look like. I posted this in the thread about who's expecting builds in 2017, but here it is again:

[BBWW]

This will be a beauty.

[jmagill]

New photos from Leo:








In this photo I boosted the contrast way up in order to bring out the great silking in the top. Looks like there might already be some top braces glued in underneath, too:

[ukejon]

That's going to be one beautiful big guitar. The rosette is really eye-catching. Each panel looks like a mini Southwestern mesa landscape.

[Diamondave]

That's is gonna be a guitar of guitars! Great choice! Leo is a big time favorite of mine, I have an upcoming project myself... exciting!

[jmagill]

Leo's "interrupted backstrip" in ebony, maple and Amboyna. This pic really shows off the green highlights in the Braz. back:



Detail:



Braces being glued on the go-bar deck:

[zackl]

Now thats an interesting concept : a 12 fret 16.5" Jumbo!

I'd love to hear the reasoning behind that concept. Large body size / effect of 12 fret.

Very nice !

[jmagill]

Originally Posted by zackl

Now thats an interesting concept : a 12 fret 16.5" Jumbo! I'd love to hear the reasoning behind that concept. Large body size / effect of 12 fret. Very nice !

Well, to answer your question, first here's a bit of the backstory on this guitar, as concisely as I can tell it.

In 2009, I came across The Greatest Guitar I've Ever Heard, a Somogyi 000-12 fret formerly owned by Paul Heumiller of Dream Guitars. You can hear a clip of it here, and believe me when I say that it sounds even better in person. It had a voice that I immediately dubbed “The Huge & Exquisite,” which has haunted me ever since, and, given the cost of a Somogyi, one that has been forever out of reach.

Fast forward to last summer when Paul told me that Leonardo Buendia had just completed his three-years-long apprenticeship with Ervin Somogyi and was now making his own guitars with the voice I was looking for. Even better, with a bit of finagling on my end, I could afford one. So I contacted Leo, told him the story of the Somogyi, let him hear the clip of it and asked him to build me his version of “The Huge & Exquisite,” which I described as superbly balanced, with a deep and powerful rolling bass with just enough clarity not to be muddy, a mid-range that is strong and articulate, and gloriously rich, chime-y, sparkling trebles.

Cosmetic choices aside, EVERY decision about the specs for this guitar has been made to serve the primary goal of getting that Huge & Exquisite voice. In my final instructions to Leo I wrote, "I’d like to request that if there are times during the build when you have to decide between various options, please always choose the option that has the best chance of getting the sound we’re after." Leo suggested German spruce over Brazilian rosewood and I agreed. This will be my first guitar with Brazilian. We decided on a jumbo because Leo thought it was a good choice to serve our goals and because I thought it would be a good complement to my OM and 00 (see my sig).

We went with a 12-fret neck for a couple of reasons related to the sonic goal. Leo pointed out that the Somogyi I liked so much had a 12 fret-neck, which moves the bridge lower, into the top’s ‘sweet spot’ and, importantly, uncoupling it from the x-brace underneath it, and he said that definitely affects the sound. Here’s what he wrote: "There are just a few factors that really differentiate guitar sounds. One of these is the 12 frets to the body. 12 frets to the body will place the bridge on the center of the top. The bridge's location is an important factor in determining the possibilities and character of a guitar's sound. The best and richest sound will be gotten if the bridge is in the middle of the vibrating area, from where it can command both high and low pitched vibrational activity… a 12-fret guitar will not overpower a comparable 14-fret guitar, but it can instead give you a sound of unprecedented delicacy and sweetness that is perfect for some fingerpicking players.”

I’m not worried about this guitar having enough power & volume. Power & volume are some of the signature qualities of Leo’s guitars. Also, I’ve lived with both 12-and 14-fret guitars for years now and, with a cutaway, I can still reach fret 15 easily and seldom miss those extra frets up high on the neck.

One other thing I opted for (for a few more bucks) is a Brazilian rosewood bridge instead of ebony. I’d been re-reading Ervin Somogyi’s books, The Responsive Guitar and Making the Responsive Guitar and I noted that he is of the opinion that using a bridge made of rosewood instead of ebony will enhance the guitar’s tone, so I wanted to get Leo's thoughts on that. Here’s what Leo wrote: "I agree with that theory. To me, the most important consideration is the hardness/density of the wood as an energy transmitter. We want a very live but lightweight wood. The same as Ervin, I like to use materials with a high Q (vibrational liveness) because they'll absorb less energy. That said, my choice would be Brazilian rosewood… When I was under Somogyi's apprenticeship I was voicing one of my first guitars and I tested it by attaching different wood species bridges to the top. By using a frequency device that I'm currently using for consistency I concluded that the heavier bridge (more mass) delivered a lower frequency. That's the way that a denser/heavier bridge could change your tone. If we assumed that bridge sizes and design are the same, same bridge pins, same soundboard braces, etc., an ebony bridge which is heavier than rosewood will have more inertia, losing attack by absorbing string energy but having a longer sustain, changing in that way your guitar's response.”

Again, I'm not worried about a Buendia jumbo having enough low frequencies, or having a fraction less sustain in a sound that's already known for its sustain, because….

For me, it’s all about The Tone…

[SiliconValleySJ]

Jim, I saw this one on Leo's bench today. The BRW on this looks great, and that amboyna looks better in person than in photo. I can't wait to see it all finished--it should have some great grain pop to it all over.

I know Leo's tone is a slight bit different than Ervin's, but quite candidly, I really like Leo's of the entire Somogyi family.

[justonwo]

I also got a chance to see this one on the bench. Beautiful work. I'm sure you will be pleased!

[jmagill]

Thanks, guys. I feel like I'm in pretty good hands with Leo. I'm envious that you get to see it taking shape on the bench...