Razo #19 Build Thread--Malaysian/German

Nemoman · #1 09-22-2016, 05:47 PM

I've been watching build threads for a long time on the AGF (thanks, JR!) getting anxious for the chance to show this one of my own. It's been a long time coming, but I'm excited to finally post a build thread for my Razo. I'm getting super excited as I'll be picking this guitar up from Jonathan at the SBAIC.

This journey began way back in 2013 when I spoke with Jonathan reagrding his work and put down a deposit in March of that year. Several life events and delays later, here we are and the guitar is ready for prime time. There were a lot of anxious moments on my part during the early part of this process, but I held out and believed in Jonathan and knew that he would come through for me if I was patient. Of course the proof will come about once I have it in hand and strum those first chords, but he definitely delivered on the looks end. It is truly a stunning guitar.

Shortly after I commissioned Jonathan, we spoke about what I wanted from the guitar and my playing style. i primarily play with a flatpick and wanted something that would deliver on that end without breaking up. I also needed it to be a smaller body style as my right shoulder issues rule out the use of a larger guitar. We decided to go with his new OM shape which at that point was still in development. Jonathan was able to procure a beautiful set of Malaysian, and upon seeing it, I knew I had to have it on my Razo.

Initially we weren't sure what we were going to use for the top wood. I was keen on possibly pairing the MB with a sinker redwood top, but we worried about the contrast of the top and back woods competing with each other. So in the end we decided we wanted to go with something creamy white in order to really let the MB shine. And Jonathan had some beautiful German Spruce that fit the bill.

I'll be adding to this thread over the next several days, so for now I'll leave you with the first pics I saw of the back and side set, the back after joining, and the top that we eventually selected after joining.

Thanks for checking it out! Much more to follow...

nacluth · #2 09-22-2016, 06:15 PM

Excellent!!! Looking forward to seeing this one come together and then to get a chance to see it in Santa Barbara too - even better. Congratulations on this build. That is some sweet looking Malaysian Blackwood. I'm excited to see what our fellow Texan can do with it.

Next week!

Joel Teel · #3 09-22-2016, 07:03 PM

That's a beautiful set of Malaysian, Nemoman!!!
Congratulations...and I'll be watching.

Joel

Nemoman · #4 09-22-2016, 07:08 PM

So once I got the call from Jonathan that he was ready to begin in earnest, we began to formulate some ideas on the detail choices for #19. Being an architectural designer myself, I already had some ideas swirling around in my head. I should mention that Jonathan was always very receptive and gracious about incorporating my ideas and has been very gracious and understanding throughout this aspect of the build.

We knew that we wanted the guitar to be simple, but elegant, and I wanted to incorporate some segmented aspects into the design. So my original idea was to use ebony on the backstrip with multiple segments running on the back touching neither the top or the bottom binding. Jonathan worked up some sketches, we decided on one and the game was afoot!

So this is what we had at this point...

Once we saw it on the back, I liked it, but we weren't totally satisfied with the look. It felt like it had too many segments and wasn't quite the proportions we were after. So Jonathan dove in and revised what he had already done by extending the lower segment to the bottom and combining the adjacent segments above.

At this point, I was really digging the change and was totally happy with it!

But more change to the backstrip was yet to come...

Thanks for following along!

rogthefrog · #5 09-22-2016, 07:54 PM

That looks very cool. Looking forward to more build pictures.

I'm wondering about the wisdom of picking or rejecting a soundboard wood species primarily because of its color, though. Typically people don't choose between rw and spruce because they are so different. Usually it's more like Englemann V. Sitka V. Adirondack, or redwood v. cedar, or even mahogany v. koa v. walnut. In any event, spruce will probably make you happier than redwood as a flatpicker, so it's all good.

cigarfan · #6 09-23-2016, 04:34 AM

Congrats Nemoman! That is most definitely the prettiest set of Blackwood I have ever seen. Should sound awesome. Great to see Mr. Razo in the mix again too. I'll be following along.

BTW, the first image in your last post isn't showing for me.

Marcus Wong · #7 09-23-2016, 05:52 AM

Very nice set of wood!

Nemoman · #8 09-23-2016, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogthefrog

I'm wondering about the wisdom of picking or rejecting a soundboard wood species primarily because of its color, though.

Yeah, agreed--probably not my best choice of words. Jonanthan and I discussed the tops and he felt he could give me everything I wanted with the German spruce--said it had a beautiful tap tone. So I put my faith in his opinion--and all other things being equal, having the creamy contrasting top fit the bill for me.

Thanks all for the comments--it is one of the most striking sets of Malaysian that I've ever seen.

Cigarfan--thanks for the heads up on the pic. Tried reloading it--hope all can see it now.

Update coming soon...

Nemoman · #9 09-23-2016, 09:44 AM

At this point we turned our attention to the rosette. Jonathan texted me and asked if I had any thoughts or ideas on it. I had played around with some sketches--I knew I wanted it to be segmented somehow to tie in with the backstrip. So I sent Jonathan this sketch...

He liked the looks of it and we proceeded from there.

Originally the thought was to use the Malaysian for the rosette segments, but Jonathan suggested going for something with a little more figure or possibly some color. He found some maple burl and sent me some pics of the burl blank to see what it looked like...

I thought it would look pretty cool, so we decided to roll with it--here's the finished rosette. I think it turned out great!

That's all for now--next up, the backstrip, take 3...

cigarfan · #10 09-23-2016, 09:59 AM

Ooooo! I like the rosette! Great choice on the burl.

Nemoman · #11 09-26-2016, 08:39 AM

The box was now closed up and things were moving along nicely. But now that we had the burl on the guitar for the rosette, Jonathan felt like he wanted to tie the burl into the backstrip somehow. So he went back and revised the backstrip to incorporate some of the burl. We were both happy with how it introduced some color onto the already amazing set of Malaysian. So here's where we were at this point...

We also wanted to use the burl on the endgraft and Jonathan had a simple idea for that. I also wanted to have him install a K and K in the guitar so we wanted the endgraft wide enough to accommodate the endpin jack. It ties in very nicely with the theme we now had going on. You can also see a bit of the subtle arm bevel I wanted on this guitar.

Thanks for checking it out--more to follow...

cigarfan · #12 09-26-2016, 12:11 PM

Man, that Malaysian BW looks so cool. The burl really punches up against the dark MBW. You must be really getting excited.

gstar · #13 09-26-2016, 05:39 PM

This looks amazing. Congratulations! You must be very happy. Thanks for sharing.

Nemoman · #14 09-26-2016, 06:47 PM

Thanks for the comments guys. Yeah, I'm getting extremely excited. Not only is it a thing of beauty to look at, Jonathan feels it is extremely promising in the sound department as well. That's what has me really jazzed...

Nemoman · #15 09-26-2016, 06:57 PM

Next up was the soundport...

Originally I had just thought we'd go with a typical round one bound in ebony. But since we had a lot of linear features going on, I asked Jonathan about doing a slim horizontal one similar to one he had done on an earlier Razo. He thought it would work well and sent me a sketch of what he had in mind. I gave him the go-ahead to proceed.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I really love how the soundport came out. Totally in keeping with the remainder of the guitar...

So now we had a completed box! Next up, the neck and headstock.

Thanks for watching--stayed tuned...