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  #16  
Old 12-01-2012, 10:01 AM
RiloKiley RiloKiley is offline
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Originally Posted by John Osthoff View Post
I am very excited to be working with Juston on this project. He has been great to work with and I thank him for taking the leap of faith to work with me on this guitar. We are still working out a lot of details and although we have many of “basic” parameters in place we are still deciding on tonewood and many other details. It is a fun process.

One of the things that is very important to Juston is intonation. In this thread on compensation I explain a little bit about “standard” compensation and how everything is a compromise. This is true with any tempered scale instrument such as a piano or a fretted string instrument. Most of us have gotten used to these approximations or found ways to work around this slight out of tuneness.



With typical compensation and checked at the 12th fret, we get an approximation that is “close enough” for most players. Often this results in the greatest intonation errors on the lower frets. Compensating at the nut and saddle helps with this.

Yes my saddle is “straight” (perpendicular to the strings) but it is also quite wide. Juston posted some pictures that show where the string “breaks” off if the saddle … where the actual scale for each string is created on that end. I do a lot of calculations based on scale, string (core) & tension etc to get me in the ball park. After that a nut and saddle are made and there is some “empirical” testing (with a strobe tuner) that will be done to get this even closer. I imagine on this 12 string it will be a long process to get it “nailed” but hopefully my calculations will get me close to begin with so I don’t have to make too many nuts and saddles.

While this guitar is still in the design stage it may be a ways off before I actually get to “cutting” any wood, it is still very actively being worked on. I am really looking forward to getting this one going.
One absolute necessity for myself as a consumer for high end guitars is that they intonate well across the whole fretboard. I get irritated by tuning and intonation problems. Don't get me wrong, many famous recordings and guitars have problems with staying in tune, and I enjoy many of these recordings. I love sonic youth for example, although their approach to tunings is very intentional. That being said, as a player I tend to quickly notice tuning problems, and it drives me crazy. Fortunately, I've noticed that all of the high end acoustics I've owned have been very good at staying in tune, and sometimes it even surprises me how good they are at this, since low humidity is an issue in the winter where I live

It's nice to see luthiers working hard on this and getting it right! I would imagine it is especially important on a 12 string.
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  #17  
Old 12-08-2012, 01:01 PM
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John and I considered a variety of tops, including Adirondack, Carpathian, and Euro spruce. We also considered a variety of rosewoods and rosewood variants.

Ultimately, John felt European "Transit of Venus" Spruce and Southeast Indian Rosewood was most likely to give me the sound I want. I love the look and color of straight grained SEIR. It's hard to beat.






Last edited by justonwo; 12-08-2012 at 02:05 PM.
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  #18  
Old 12-08-2012, 10:08 PM
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John builds great guitars...

Chris
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  #19  
Old 12-09-2012, 03:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by justonwo View Post
Ultimately, John felt European "Transit of Venus" Spruce and Southeast Indian Rosewood was most likely to give me the sound I want. I love the look and color of straight grained SEIR. It's hard to beat.
Of course it all depends on the zenith of Jupiter during the hour the E-ToV-S was harvested.

I personally prefer the North Ascarpment Yengshia SEIR, but it's hard to find NAY-SEIR in suitable lengths - the trees being 10' in diameter but only 23" tall.

Cheers,

Phil
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  #20  
Old 12-10-2012, 01:56 PM
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Of course it all depends on the zenith of Jupiter during the hour the E-ToV-S was harvested.

I personally prefer the North Ascarpment Yengshia SEIR, but it's hard to find NAY-SEIR in suitable lengths - the trees being 10' in diameter but only 23" tall.

Cheers,

Phil
Totally agree with you on the importance Jupiter's position during harvest, but I think most luthiers would agree the ToV is more defining. If you could have both, yeah, that would be awesome. But EToVS is as good as it gets.
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  #21  
Old 12-10-2012, 03:29 PM
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mikealpine mikealpine is offline
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Um...I just think it will look and sound nice. No matter what was in Zenith.
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  #22  
Old 12-11-2012, 11:58 AM
Kevin A Kevin A is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by justonwo View Post
Ultimately, John felt European "Transit of Venus" Spruce and Southeast Indian Rosewood was most likely to give me the sound I want...Totally agree with you on the importance Jupiter's position during harvest, but I think most luthiers would agree the ToV is more defining. If you could have both, yeah, that would be awesome. But EToVS is as good as it gets.
Dang...all I got was plain old Italian spruce...I'm not sure of the celestial impact upon this wood nor am I aware of how many virgins actually harvested it by moonlight.

Still sounds pretty darn good, though.
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  #23  
Old 12-11-2012, 12:09 PM
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I have yet to find virgins of legal harvesting age.

Uh...only after I typed that did I realize it could be taken a few different ways...
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  #24  
Old 12-12-2012, 02:35 AM
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Don't know about the virgins for harvesting, but every time I play my Italian spruce guitars I want spaghetti or pizza.
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  #25  
Old 01-11-2013, 12:54 PM
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After playing a number of mahogany backed 12 strings over the past several months, John and I decided to go with a more traditional wood combination for the 12 string - adirondack and mahogany. I think projection and clarity will be more important with the 12 string and I don't want to risk too many overtones in an instrument that is inherently full of overtone.

Last edited by justonwo; 08-12-2013 at 05:52 PM.
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  #26  
Old 08-12-2013, 05:53 PM
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Having really "discovered" mahogany and the thrill of its warmth and clarity, I made some wood changes for this project. Going more traditional. See above.
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  #27  
Old 08-13-2013, 05:08 AM
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Originally Posted by justonwo View Post
Having really "discovered" mahogany and the thrill of its warmth and clarity, I made some wood changes for this project. Going more traditional. See above.
Only Cuban will do then Joe

Venus Spruce - eh OK.

Last edited by geordie; 08-13-2013 at 05:11 AM. Reason: url
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  #28  
Old 08-19-2013, 01:08 PM
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Here's a first glimpse of the adi top and mahogany back and sides. I believe the third picture is with naphtha.





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  #29  
Old 08-19-2013, 01:27 PM
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Nice - but you knew I'd say that! I had a really good chat with John the last day. Remarkable how these guys work and think and apply their tremendous skill to the craft!

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

Good to meet you face to face at HGF!

Best,

Phil
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  #30  
Old 08-19-2013, 03:16 PM
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Likewise, Phil. Great to meet you. I think John's craftsmanship is at the very highest level, and I'm loving the 00-12 I have on loan. It's a tremendous guitar.
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