The Acoustic Guitar Forum - Michaud OM-R Fan Fret Build Thread

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Michaud OM-R Fan Fret Build Thread

Hi everyone,

After the long and painful wait, It's finally my turn to challenge the great Joel Michaud for a quite special build.

Specs :

OM-R Florentine Cutaway Amazon Rosewood / Swiss "moon" Spruce

- Body joint : 14 frets
- Fan fret 635-660 (25-26) / Perpendicular Fret : 6 or 7
- Soundport
- Michaud Bevel Arm + Rib (a first for Joel)
- Fretboard : Rocklite
- Bridge : Rocklite
- Binding : Rocklite
- Nut size : 44mm
- Design with oxidised metal
- Machinehead : Robson 501
- Frets : EVO gold

I was lucky enough to visit Joel and his shop in Calgary back in January before the build started so we could discuss specs and select a great top. Joel is an amazing guy and so much fun to deal with. He takes his job very seriously and if you're picky about what you're looking for, he is definitely your guy ! Joel is a perfectionist who strive to always push further and bring his best in every guitar he makes. He experiments a lot with side projects allowing him to only incorporate in his build what he believes is working well. I think I'm really giving him a challenge with this one, and I'm quite picky...!

Here are few pics I can share with you of Joel's shop during my visit :

https://i.imgur.com/A6dYWcp.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QRedvIZ.jpg?1

Now the wizard Joel holding what's going to become my guitar :

https://i.imgur.com/AQnf0JP.jpg

Closer look at the sets :

https://i.imgur.com/4GNGjTD.jpg

Amazon Rosewood :

https://i.imgur.com/xXlJnCz.jpg

Swiss Moon spruce top :

https://i.imgur.com/AfI4oUq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/bfoM52E.jpg

One of these will become my bridge : Bois de Rose (it darkens a lot when exposed to UV, and polishes really well) :

https://i.imgur.com/Pdyr7Uo.jpg

This is going to be a lot of fun !

Congrats on your upcoming build (s)! Astrand as well!! Wow!
The pics are absolutely delicious!

That amazon rosewood looks absolutely incredible. So does the moon spruce.

You are one lucky man. Getting guitars from 2 of my favourite luthiers. Will there be a post about your Astrand as well?

I’ll be watching this one. Nice wood choices and interesting specs. The oxidized metal will be fun.

Great to see the pics of Joel's shop and your amazing woods!

Love Joel's guitars, and I'm sure this will be no exception.

You're a lucky man--thanks for sharing the ride!

Woods look fantastic! That Spruce is so creamy.

Congrats on the build and thanks for sharing. I played a couple of Joel's at Woodstock. Wonderful tone.

Those woods look great - I'm looking forward to this thread!

Hey Jason! Great to see this thread underway. As we've already discussed, your very own Michaud Made is going to knock your socks off! What an incredible build and I'm very much looking forward to seeing it progress. As well as the next build you have in store for us as well - hopefully we get to see that too! :D

Keep up the enthusiasm man!

That is some fantastic wood!.....oh his shop ain't bad either!! LOL
Another fun one to watch. Thanks for sharing.

Update guys !! Rosette and Rim (almost finished) !

The rosette's finally done... Not without hard work though, trust me !

As in the specs I wanted an oxidised metal work which is kind of Michaud Made's signature design on his guitars, although other luthiers are kind of "copying/borrowing" this from him now.

After discussing with Joel, hecame up with a first shot that he, for some miscommunication with me glued on my soundboard before checking with me it was all good to me (he thought he did).

Unfortunately it wasn't to my liking and didn't have the vibe I wanted like some results it had on other builds. Obviously with this technic, Joel can get quite a lot of shades of various colors and pattern to end up with. I felt terrible knowing he spent a lot of time on it... But I had to say I didn't really like this result and the colors...

Joel didn't know if he would be able to route out the pieces of metal without making any damage to this soundboard which is quite an extraordinaty special one, but said he wanted this guitar to look right for me, so he would take the risk and the extra work on it. Trust me, Joel would go any length to get it right for you. I'm so fortunate to have chosen him as my builder.

Thanks to his skills, in the end the risky operation was a success (Joel added a new skill to his craftsmanship with this one hahaha).

After discussing a bit more about my vision of the colors and looks. He came up with new pieces of oxidised metal that were so beautiful that I don't even have words for it. Just stunning !

I of course gave him a big thanks and told him he could definitely glue those on !!

The general idea for the Rosette design came from Joel and that we slightly tweaked together (it's a lot of fun, I don't wanna get too much into the design process, but Joel listens and is willing to tweak/adapt to your needs so it fits to you tastes which is awesome)

Here is the process and final result of the rosette (metal pieces are not glued yet) :

https://i.imgur.com/oAvVzIy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/fkSGO3q.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gG4gfsK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2MYrZuY.jpg

RIM (almost finished) :

https://i.imgur.com/eMDgdrA.jpg

Can't wait for the rest of the process !! Thanks to Joel for being so invested and patient with me ! He's the nicest guy you can find

very nice indeed.....keep the pictures coming!!

What an incredible build... you're one lucky dude and that's one sexy guitar ;)

I have said this countless times already but it can't be stressed enough - Joel is a real stand up guy and does what it takes to make sure every guitar he builds is his best guitar!