Build Thread: Danny Davis Acoustic Instruments @ Tangled Strings Studios

[mdutr0]

I am very happy to be posting this thread because it means that I have commissioned a custom, hand made acoustic guitar for the first time!

The luthier is Danny Davis at Tangled String Studios in Huntsville, Alabama. Danny is a retired NASA engineer who has been building guitars and other acoustic instruments for over 20 years (mandolins, kalimbas, etc.).

This past weekend I was in Huntsville to visit family for Memorial Day. My uncle, father and I paid a visit to Danny in his shop. My uncle, another NASA engineer who has known Danny for a long time, made the introductions and soon we were eyeball deep in guitars and guitar-talk. We took the grand tour and Danny showed us every step of the process of how he makes guitars and mandolins and explained a lot about his design philosophies.



This is Danny and I discussing specification options (Danny left, me right).



This is the showroom portion of the shop. That's me on the left with the nerdy glasses and the guitar. Danny is on the right. The guitar in my lap is a 12-fret 000 that Danny made for himself. It's got a K&K in it and we were trying it out on a Fishman Loudbox.

After a wonderfully informative consultation with Danny, I have placed an order for a guitar with the following specs:

Size/Type: 000 12-fret configuration
Top Wood: Sitka Spruce, Bearclaw grain
Back/Side Wood: Mahogany, Beeswing grain
Neck Material: Mahogany, slotted headstock
Fretboard: Massacar Ebony
Head plate: Madagascar Rosewood
Bridge: Black Ebony
Rosette: Single ring B/W/B
Purfling: B/W/B
Binding: Tortoise Acetate
Scale length: 25 11/32"
Nut width: 1 7/8"
Electronics: K & K Pure Mini



This is an impromptu lay out of the guitar we did for cosmetic purposes. That's not the top of my guitar, it's a demo top Danny uses to show people his bracing pattern but it was convenient to use it to get an idea about how the guitar would look. That is the actual piece of Massacar ebony and Madagascar rosewood for the fretboard and head plate respectively, however. Also pictured is a piece of the Tortoise Acetate binding and B/W/B purfling.

The build will take (roughly) 12 weeks or so and I will be documenting the process here on the AGF.

Danny makes wonderful guitars and he deserves to be better known here on the forums and in the real world.

Danny's website: http://www.tangledstringstudio.com/ddai/welcome

The Black Crows use Danny's guitars!: http://www.al.com/entertainment/inde...t_rich_ro.html

[photomat]

Congratulations!

I have one of Danny's guitars and it is amazing. I had never heard of him before, but I picked one up hanging in a shop here in Seattle. Since then I have spoken to him once and some friends have family in Huntsville and have stopped in to say hi.

I will keep an eye on this thread.

Here is my Dread..

[mdutr0]

Great pictures!

I would love to hear the story of how that guitar ended up on a wall in a store in Seattle. I'm sure it plays as beautifully as it looks.

[Tangled String]

Just got registered and online to this great guitar forum! I can tell you the story behind the guitar in Seattle. My husband, luthier Danny Davis, made that guitar for a dear friend's son. His son moved from Chico, CA to Seattle with all his worldly belongings. Parked his van somewhere, went sightseeing, and came back to find everything in the van gone. Stolen. Next thing we know, it was found years later in a guitar shop by the former person posting on this thread, who kindly informed us prior to purchasing. Since we were not 100% sure at the time that the guitar was originally stolen (instead of legitimately sold) by the owner, we opted to let the new buyer have it. So that's how it all went down We hope you are enjoying that guitar!

[photomat]

Welcome Tangled!

If the original owner would like it back, do get in touch with me. It was pretty beat up, but I can tell whoever owned it must have played it a lot. I took one strum at the guitar store, and even though it was dried out to the point of not playing well, I knew it was a special guitar. I humidified it back to shape and it is set up perfectly.

You can find my email under my profile….

Matt

[mdutr0]

Work has begun on the bearclaw Sitka spruce top!

Here's some pictures of the process.



You can see a dreadnought shape drawn on this half of the sound board. Danny had that shape drawn on the wood before I chose it for the top of my 000. Fortunately, he used a pencil and not a sharpie.




Here are the plates laid out together with the 000 shape outlined. You can really see the beautiful bearclaw in the grain from this angle. No pick guard will be permitted to hide nature's beauty on this guitar top.

More to come...

[J.R. Rogers]

Looks like a nice little showroom! I'd love to spend some time there. The build is looking great, too. I hope you'll keep us posted.

JR

[mikealpine]

Just want to point out that Matt's offer is really nice. Terrific gesture, Matt.

You may now resume your regularly scheduled thread...

[mdutr0]

Originally Posted by J.R. Rogers

Looks like a nice little showroom! I'd love to spend some time there. The build is looking great, too. I hope you'll keep us posted.

JR

Sir, your wish is my command.



Here's the top, glued and cut to shape, along side the bracing plan.



Now with a sound hole and a nice little groove for the rosette. The neck block, tail block and popsicle stick brace alongside in their proper places on the bracing plan.

[photomat]

Great looking Top and I can't way to see Danny's build process. Thanks for sharing this build with the gang here.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Tangled String

Just got registered and online to this great guitar forum! I can tell you the story behind the guitar in Seattle. My husband, luthier Danny Davis, made that guitar for a dear friend's son. His son moved from Chico, CA to Seattle with all his worldly belongings. Parked his van somewhere, went sightseeing, and came back to find everything in the van gone. Stolen. Next thing we know, it was found years later in a guitar shop by the former person posting on this thread, who kindly informed us prior to purchasing. Since we were not 100% sure at the time that the guitar was originally stolen (instead of legitimately sold) by the owner, we opted to let the new buyer have it. So that's how it all went down We hope you are enjoying that guitar!

Hi Tangled,

I played that guitar at Matt's house about a year ago and I must say, it was my kind of dreadnought -- very responsive for fingerstyle playing. I really liked it! And of course, Matt was nice enough to let me play it!

- Glenn

[mdutr0]

Well, it's picture time again!

This time we will have a look at the braces.



These are the spruce blanks for the braces. Danny will true them such that the grain is oriented perpendicular to the grain of the top itself. Danny's braces are 5/16" thick. The final height of the braces is determined by the frequency response of the glued-up top/brace structure.



Here, the process of laying out the braces has begun. If you look closely you can see the fine lines Danny has drawn in as a guide.

[mdutr0]

More braces!



Danny uses a 20' radius for his guitar tops. This is the jig he uses to cut the braces to the same radius for a good glue bond. Danny uses a lot of clever jigs in his shop that he has devised over the years.

Danny is one half engineer, one half artist - the perfect combination for a luthier.



Here is the bridge plate in raw form being measured for trimming so it will fit precisely between the braces.

Edit: I don't think I mentioned this before but the top thickness on this guitar is 0.110 inches, which is just under 1/8 of an inch. Danny measures the frequency response of his tops as he is building. Based on experience, he has certain frequencies that he is aiming for based on the size and shape of the guitar being built - with some allowance for variation for the particular piece of wood in question. Being an engineer, Danny uses electronic measuring equipment to see what the frequency response is but he tells me that over time he has developed an ear for it and he can usually get pretty close just by ear!

[mdutr0]

Here are a couple of pictures of the braces being glued into place.



Side Note: You can see one of Danny's in-progress mandolins next to the jig. I don't know anything about mandolins but I know that Danny hand carves the arch in the top and back of all his mandolins - that sounds really hard to me!



Danny's jig is set up to give the top a 20' radius. He uses the same jig for the back of the guitar as well.

Speaking of which...

[mdutr0]

Here are the hands of the master himself working on the back braces.



And the mahogany back in the 20' radius jig



More to come...