The Acoustic Guitar Forum

The Acoustic Guitar Forum (https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/index.php)
-   Custom Shop (https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=38)
-   -   Sexauer/'17 (chapter 1) (https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=454830)

Bruce Sexauer 01-18-2017 12:45 PM

The D guitars I showed are done and getting some tweaking (I'm playing hem and making adjustments). I am loving them and there were a couple of surprises in the results. All please me enormously, but one seems exceptional, at least as far as shear power is concerned, and that is the UMGF version of the D28. Despite this, I do prefer playing the AGF version as it seems more versatile and could in no way be called a slacker. No one would think either has any issue till they picked up its sister. Just goes to show there is ALWAYS a better (different, anyway) guitar. I will get to pictures before any leave, I hope.

Bending the Cocobolo Sapwood (CocoBlanco?) was a bit intimidating, but like most things, a little practice made it work.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Berger0/bentbinding.jpg

Bruce Sexauer 01-19-2017 12:33 PM

Here's the last inch and an eighth of binding going onto the Single 0 I am making at the moment. I could wrap the bass side binding all the way around to miter into the cutaway, but instead chose to keep the centerline join that is traditional, making the mitered corner much easier to nail.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Berger0/lastinch.jpg

Bruce Sexauer 01-20-2017 04:26 PM

New Dog
 
My family got a new member yesterday, tentatively called "Colt". He is 45 lbs, 11 to 12 months old, and indiscriminately friendly.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Berger0/Colt1.jpg

Nemoman 01-20-2017 04:30 PM

Welcome to the forum, Colt!

Congrats on the pup--I've got a Queensland, and they're incredibly loyal--goes to work with me at the office everyday. Yours looks to have a bit or two of something else mixed in--Border Collie perhaps?

Enjoy--he looks like a good 'un...

iim7V7IM7 01-20-2017 04:30 PM

I think he looks like he is questioning the compressor noise in the background and why daddy has all those sharp tools..:)

Nice 🐶

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer (Post 5201319)
My family got a new member yesterday, tentatively called "Colt". He is 45 lbs, 11 to 12 months old, and indiscriminately friendly.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Berger0/Colt1.jpg


oliverkollar 01-20-2017 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer (Post 5201319)
My family got a new member yesterday, tentatively called "Colt". He is 45 lbs, 11 to 12 months old, and indiscriminately friendly.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Berger0/Colt1.jpg

That's one good looking pup!

Congrats Bruce!

Will be rolling through town early Feb., hopefully the D-18 and 28's are still there!

tadol 01-20-2017 05:22 PM

Very sweet - congrats!

Bruce Sexauer 01-20-2017 09:53 PM

Indeed, we figure for a border collie/Aussie cattle dog mix.

cigarfan 01-21-2017 04:38 AM

He's a looker. Hope he likes guitar music! Congrats.

BradHall 01-21-2017 08:02 AM

Glad Colt found you Bruce. You inspire me to finally be receptive to a new family member. Oh, and nice guitar.

Bruce Sexauer 01-25-2017 12:02 PM

I was reminded in Howard's Wabi Sabi thread that the Sebastopol Guitar Festival is coming up this Saturday. I am committed to be there myself, and hope to see some of you readers there as well.

This is a one day event from 10 AM through around 10 PM, and has a top level acoustic entertainment (headlined by Jim Hurst) as well as a dozen or so local luthiers, musical workshops, and ongoing jamming around the edges. It takes place in the Sebastopol Community Center just east of downtown off highway 12, and they have done well with signs in the past. No, I do not actually know the address, but I have been there before and can find it in time.

I expect to have the Pear 0 and a couple of my mythical dreadnaughts along to show off.

Bruce Sexauer 01-25-2017 08:50 PM

I suppose I am easily amused, but it does tickle me that this little gem, though w/o finish and frets, barely weighs 3 pounds!

http://sexauerluthier.com/LP17/Berger0/scale1.jpg

http://sexauerluthier.com/LP17/Berger0/scale2.jpg

Bruce Sexauer 02-01-2017 11:14 AM

Passin it Around (working title)
 
I got out the two D28 inspired guitars I made last month and recorded a couple of clips with them yesterday. It's a tune I wrote in the afternoon, my first actually completed song in perhaps 20 years! I have been going to Bluegrass jams and don't seem to be motivated to learn any appropriate 3 chord songs, so it is easier to create them, for me. Of course this tune does have 4 chords.

I posted these clips yesterday in the nearby Single 0 thread documenting my build for II/V/I(Bob Berger) , but of course they should actually be in this thread as they have little to do with the Single 0 or Bob.

I call the tune "Passin it Around", but it probably not the final title.

This guitar is the Sitka over EIR "AGF" dread:

Passin it Around (c 2017)


Here's the same tune, slower, and with the so-called "UMGF" dread instead.

Passin it around


I will work toward getting some pictures of these two guitars and post them for your pleasure.

clinchriver 02-01-2017 05:39 PM

Good stuff Bruce, sounds like you have spent some time jamming with Jerry Gracia and the Dead

SJ VanSandt 02-02-2017 10:29 AM

I love the song - you should do that more often! I like the faster version better, and I think I like the sound of that guitar a little better, but that could just be my bias toward the AGF. :)

Bruce Sexauer 02-02-2017 11:12 AM

These 2 guitars are as different from each other as an 18 and a 28 would be, though not in that way. They both have the Rosewood sound, but the UMGF is more authoritative and crunchy, while the AGF has a more diverse palette of tone colors and greater clarity. I'd choose the former in a heartbeat as a band guitar, but for sitting around a picking the latter is my fav. I love them both and don't have to play favorites, thankfully; neither is likely to stay around here in the long run.

Bruce Sexauer 02-04-2017 01:58 PM

SBAIC guitar progress
 
I have talked a bit about the guitar I will be giving away at the August 2017 rendition of the Santa Barbara Acoustic Instrument Celebration. If you but a ticket to the show and bring the stub to the bin on my table, you will be entered to win this guitar. If you come for two days, you get two chances.

The guitar is my WRX version of an Adirondack over California Walnut 00 sized 13 fret to the body instrument. Ihas my standard varnish finish, and quite a bit more decoration that I usually put on my simplest offering, as it commemorates the event, and I love my birds on the fingerboard, so I did that instead of the dots I usual include to keep the price down.

I offer the following photos to give some insight into how the birds get from paper to Pearl inlaid in Ebony. Sadly I cannot cut and take meaningful photos at the same time, but as you can see they are all different despite starting from the same line drawing, and that is what I call "evidence of the hand".

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/birds1.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/birds2.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/birds3.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/birds4.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/birds5.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/birds6.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/birds7.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/birds8.jpg

Bruce Sexauer 02-04-2017 04:36 PM

Tuners are in the SBAIC guitar, and the bridge is next, once I've made it.

These are Schertler's base tuners through a MadRose head plate, truss rod cover yet to come:
http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/tuners1.jpg

This is my second true bird's beak, though not as Martin did aesthetically. The back strap is from the Walnut back cut off bits:
http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/tuners2.jpg

Bruce Sexauer 02-04-2017 08:00 PM

SBAIC bridge
 
I made the bridge for the SBAIC guitar this afternoon, and will likely glue it on tomorrow. This is a rather nice piece of Dalbergia spruceana, more often called Amazon Rosewood. You'd have to be more of an expert than I am to tell it from BRW, unless you could smell it, as I did, and then I am enough of an expert.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/bridge1.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/bridge2.jpg

tadol 02-04-2017 09:21 PM

I like! I like!

Bruce Sexauer 02-05-2017 03:19 PM

SBAIC bridge gluing
 
Although I do not typically admit to working on Sunday, I DID glue the bridge onto the SBAIC guitar today. That means there is every chance that I will get the strings on and hear this puppy tomorrow! I have made this guitar using mostly PVA glue, which is only the second guitar in 20 years which is not primarily HHG. I cannot see how the neck to body connection or the bridge connection could be as good with PVA, however, so I did use HHG for those.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP16/265SB/bridgegluing.jpg

Bruce Sexauer 02-08-2017 11:55 AM

Dream Series #8
 
I am behind by at least three guitars as far as showing completion photos is concerned. I will get to that, but I have been liking my outdoor pictures lately, and the weather is abysmal.

So today I have started a new guitar. It has been a few years since I have made a guitar for Dream Guitars, but before the banking debacle i made quite a few. 7 of those were what Paul Heumiller calls "Dream Series", and since I made a special label for the series, it makes sense that we will make another of those . . . sort of. The "Dream Series" is not exclusive to my work, and a number of other luthiers also make "Dream Series" for Paul, but in our case is mean something fairly specific. Our "Dream Series", so far, are all Brazilian Rosewood/EuroSpruce fully asymmetrical MultiScale 15" and 16" guitars, what I call JB-15 and JB-16. This one will be a JB-16 with Brazilian Rosewood supplied by Paul and Rivolta Italian Spruce for the top. All of this wood has been in my shop for over ten years.

Here are the back and top ready to be joined:
http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Dream/rawback.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Dream/rawtop.jpg

Bruce Sexauer 02-13-2017 04:27 PM

Dream Series
 
Here are the sides as supplied by Paul, followed by the sanded sides and and the joined and back-stripped back.


http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Dream/Backstripin.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Dream/rawsides.jpg http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Dream/sandedsides.jpg

Bill Kraus 02-14-2017 07:06 AM

That's a beautiful set of rosewood Bruce. Is that a tapered backstrip or is it the camera angle?

Bruce Sexauer 02-14-2017 10:38 AM

Yes, the backstrip is tapered. I have been doing that on my "standard " guitars for about 15 years. The goal is for the backstrip to appear to flow into the graft. They are actually different tapers, of course, and it is surprisingly challenging to get the illusion just right.

Aculadd 02-14-2017 12:05 PM

I hope I'll be able to play these two that you are sending to DG after they are finished, since I live close to Paul. As you know, I do love your guitars.

Bruce Sexauer 02-14-2017 02:22 PM

Two? You may know something I don't, yet.

Bruce Sexauer 02-14-2017 02:35 PM

JB-15-Dream Series
 
Top's done, and the end blocks are glued on:
http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/Dream/blocksgoin.jpg

murrmac123 02-14-2017 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer (Post 5231267)
Yes, the backstrip is tapered. I have been doing that on my "standard " guitars for about 15 years. The goal is for the backstrip to appear to flow into the graft. They are actually different tapers, of course, and it is surprisingly challenging to get the illusion just right.

Bruce, I would just like to clarify, if you would be so kind, as to why the tapers are different... :confused:

I am in the process of starting my first (well under the radar) build, and this tapered back strip melding into the end graft is a feature which I had figured into it , thinking I was being innovative, but I see I am 15 years away from being innovative...:(

The way I am constructing the back strip/end graft mating is to glue up the tapered strip initially overlength, ie the length of the back plus the height of the end bout, then glue up the two back halves with the center strip in between, which I assume is how you do it as well, and cut off the surplus to form the end graft. The angle will then remain the same ...obviously it requires precise measurement and cutting to get the widths at the "mating points" spot- on, and the width of the binding plays a part as well.

But as far as I can see the angle of the taper should remain the same , no ?

TomB'sox 02-14-2017 04:11 PM

That is also quite a different technique with the end blocks I believe. I have not seen them being glued to the top first, rather most seem to glue them to the rim assembly and then to the top when the top is mated to the rims...hmmm as Artie Johnson use to say hmmmm veeerrry interesting.


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:12 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Copyright ©2000 - 2022, The Acoustic Guitar Forum

vB Ad Management by =RedTyger=