Greg German Guitar Build (video demo added)

[dbradfie]

The new Greg German "Agave" build has started.

The Agave is Greg's take on the deep bodied OM.

Here is a link to his webpage for more detail and pictures.

http://germanguitars.com/00_Models/Agave/Agave.htm

Here is a link to a similar guitar that sold at Dreamguitars that has a nice sound demo by Al Petteway.

http://www.dreamguitars.com/detail/2...man_agave_026/


Mine will have Malaysian Blackwood back and sides and German Spruce top with some nice bearclaw you can see in the pictures below. I'm excited about some of the decorative features that will be part of this build. Stay tuned.

Here we go. This is my first custom build and I am very excited.

Dan


A little hard to see here, but there is some striking bearclaw figure on this German Spruce





Wait until you see the sides!

[dbradfie]

Greg finished up some outstanding work and has started to make progress on the new build.


Malaysian Blackwood sides


Interior set of Mahogany Sides


Back, Tailstripe material, sides


Ready to bend the sides


Sides are bent

[CoolerKing]

Man that is some gorgeous wood.

[dbradfie]

Thanks for the kind words regarding the wood.

I especially like the sides on this set.

Here are some more pictures.


scraped


tail stripe

Note: The tail stripe is made from some leftover sapwood that didn't make the cut when the sides were trimmed. Greg and I both liked the "landscape" look to the side wood and agreed to trim the sapwood. The sapwood actually has an interesting tint to it when wet with naphtha so we decided to pull it all together by using it in the tail stripe.

It is very cool to work with an experienced builder who knows what things will look like under finish, and has that artistic vision of seeing how things will come together.

[vintageparlors]

Real nice sides

[StringMeUp]

This is going to be really nice! Congratulations, Dan.

[Martin Keith]

Beauty! Greg has one of the more unique and 'quirky' visual/aesthetic personalities in the scene right now IMO, alongside his obvious gift for craft. This will be a fun build to watch!

[dbradfie]

Solid Mahogany Linings



Radiusing the top and back glue surfaces



Back cut out



Gluing spruce center seam supports

[OddManOut]

Beautiful! Really nice sound sample from Dream...clear and lots of sustain. Something good will be coming your way!

[dbradfie]

You'll notice in the pictures above that Greg is using solid linings on this build. There has been some discussion in this forum regarding both double sides and solid lining vs kerfling. I asked Greg to share is experience/thoughts on the subject. For those interested here are Greg's comments:

"Normally the sides are about 2mm thick and kerf-cut lining is glued to it to make a wide enough surface to glue the top and back plates on. The kerfed linings are very flexible and easy to install, but they don't add much stiffness - they just add ~5.5mm of glue surface with a 16mm height to attach to the relatively flimsy sides.
These doubled sides are a little over 3mm thick. Solid linings take more effort to create, but they add stiffness to the rim. I can make them shorter (<12mm) since they are glued to slightly stiffer sides.
I like the idea of very rigid sides since I think they mostly act as a dampener when they can move. In addition, supporting the transverse brace with stiffer sides should preserve the neck angle for many more years."

"I suspect that a devil's advocate argument would be that reverse-cut kerfing is just as stiff after being glued. That is true in the x-dimension but not necessarily in the y or the twist mode."

[dbradfie]

neck blank



"CNC - I rough out the curved surfaces within about 1mm, more for the shoulders, final surface for the tenon and the fingerboard glue surface."



"Each side has opposing grain to help resist twisting."



"I leave a 1/4 inch tab of wood along the center of the neck for clamping it together."

[dbradfie]

"Many types of wood for the frames around blue abalone. Long time looking through magnification to get the fragile pieces together."



Even with CNC, there is a lot of work going into the rosette. The oval sound hole makes this process even more difficult.

I don't know if I've ever seen anything like this before. I'm really anxious to see this turns out!

[StringMeUp]

I just saw the finished rosette on FB. It is awesome!!!

[dbradfie]

Here it is, the finished rosette glued in place.



This is the description from Greg regarding the rosette process.

"I coated each frame with several coats, effectively finishing them first. If I were to sand them to bare wood and try to coat them with glue or finish while they sit side by side they would bleed color all over the place. I've encased them in finish epoxy until after the sunburst is done, then I will have to carefully scrape the epoxy flush with the top surface before spraying."

You will note from the above that the top will have a sunburst finish. It will be a very light sunburst, and it will be a stained sunburst. Very beautiful, but tricky. The desire is to get a little darker top with a slightly vintage feel, contrasting with some other more modern elements to the guitar. Definitely a Greg German, eclectic take on things.

I am 100% on board and can hardly wait to see the various elements come together.

More to come.

[maurerfan]

I'm very much a Martin and/or Larson traditionalist, and don't care much at all for the modernist ideas for the look of rosettes, but this one appeals very much .. nice work to boot!