Build thread: Doug Fir & Walnut Humphrey Northwest II

JHumphrey · #1 04-21-2014, 06:19 PM

I am hoping to finish this build in time for the Marylhurst show in Portland. I love building with doug fir, and clients are always interested in the sound- how does it compare to spruce, cedar etc?

I don't have any fir guitars on hand, and I love the sound so much, I decided I needed to build one to show at Marylhurst.

I use ONLY doug fir and local black walnut woods in this guitar- it is 100% wood from within 50 miles of my home in Oregon. And these woods sound great!

This is a refinement of my original Northwest model; some shape changes, bracing changes and a few minor tweaks. I hope you enjoy!

NW II rosette by JBH woodworking, on Flickr

JHumphrey · #2 04-21-2014, 06:21 PM

Here is the gluing of the sides:

NW II side glue by JBH woodworking, on Flickr

JHumphrey · #3 04-21-2014, 08:52 PM

and here, ready for binding:

NW II ready for binding by JBH woodworking, on Flickr

ukejon · #4 04-21-2014, 09:47 PM

Looks great. Can't wait to hear a sound file. Love the rosette.

random works · #5 04-21-2014, 09:52 PM

Fantastic that you are using local wood. It just makes sense all the way around...nice looking guitar shaping up to be a beauty.

picassov7 · #6 04-21-2014, 10:21 PM

Josh, so what will the fretboard material be if everything is local?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ukejon

Looks great. Can't wait to hear a sound file. Love the rosette.

+1 on the rosette! Very cool design.

marty bradbury · #7 04-22-2014, 08:53 AM

Beautiful looking guitar, and local woods!! Excellent! Might have to take a road trip to Oregon.

Glennwillow · #8 04-22-2014, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

Beautiful looking guitar, and local woods!! Excellent! Might have to take a road trip to Oregon.

I am having similar reactions, also being a Northwest guitar player. What a cool idea! I had no idea you could make a guitar top from Douglas Fir, but when I look at that grain, I realize, WHY NOT? I hope to hear one of these guitars one of these days.

Congratulations Josh for being so adventurous!

- Glenn

marty bradbury · #9 04-22-2014, 02:19 PM

Hi Glenn. Back in around 2003 I believe,Tim McKnight sent out a guitar for a road trip to get opinions and the one I tried was Mahogany/Douglas fir. Sweet!!

theEdwinson · #10 04-22-2014, 05:31 PM

It's good to see that some builders are discovering how fine Doug Fir can be as a tonewood. I have about a half-dozen top sets in my stash that were re-sawn from a very old cabinet that came out of a woodworking shop. When we took the thing apart and cleaned up the boards, we found that every one was at least ten inches wide and perfectly quartered. Most had about 20 grain lines per inch. The color is pale tan, or "buckskin".
Re-sawn into guitar tops, the Doug Fir has a glassy, focused tap tone with amazing sustain. It's nice and stiff both ways, but has a very responsive feel to it. It makes a pleasing sound when you just brush your fingertips over it. I think it rivals the best Sitka, and may even be as good as red spruce- with a lot of the same tonal character.
Great choice pairing the Doug with your local Claro Walnut. These woods will definitely play well together, and I think you'll have a great sounding guitar, and a beauty to behold.

JHumphrey · #11 04-22-2014, 05:55 PM

Thanks all for the encouragement! I have built several doug fir guitars and agree that it is a top-notch tonewood, and am excited to finally have a "demo model" to show people who are interested.

picassov- the fretboard and bridge will both be walnut. I saved a particularly dense and ringy (as in tap-tone) section with straight grain (some figure) just for this purpose, have used it before as such, and it works excellently.

Pictures of binding and neck soon!

JHumphrey · #12 04-23-2014, 11:48 AM

Carving the neck today. Here is the blank roughed out:

rough neck blank NWII by JBH woodworking, on Flickr

and truing the sides of the peghead:

NW II headstock rough by JBH woodworking, on Flickr

ewh2 · #13 04-23-2014, 12:10 PM

Hello Josh,

What are you using for the neck? Maple?

I really liked the sarod guitar you posted here before.

JHumphrey · #14 04-24-2014, 04:34 PM

Thanks EW!

The neck is doug fir with a walnut center strip.

Here is the pegbox carved:

Pegbox carved by JBH woodworking, on Flickr

and the fingerboard bound, ready for inlay:

NW II walnut fingerboard by JBH woodworking, on Flickr

JHumphrey · #15 04-30-2014, 12:48 AM

Approaching go time! Hoping to get everything together by Friday. The finish is curing, ready to be buffed out tomorrow.

Here are some shots of the inlay process- inlay bits cut:

inlay materials cut by JBH woodworking, on Flickr

epoxied in place:

inlay epoxied by JBH woodworking, on Flickr

and finally leveled, polished and neck fretted:

final inlay NW II by JBH woodworking, on Flickr