Wow, knocked out and having to be admitted to the hospital? You are the Evil Knievel of guitar building. I hope you recover quickly.

As for the Myrtle guitar. I love the contrast that the binding gives, and the headstock is as radical as I've seen from you. Quite nice!

All three CN guitars have the keyhole in the headstock, but no two are actually the same. The first reflects the shape of the head face, the second reflects the head back, and the third morphs from the face to the back, which is possible because it is hand carved.

Well . . . I actually have several bicycles, but when I want to carry cargo (ship a guitar) I usually turn to my smallish SUV.

The crashed bike, A carbon fiber Specialized Diverge which needs about $800 in parts to repair, is a Gravel bike. The is a sort of road bike which has a relaxed geometry and is able to carry about twice the rubber of a road racer. As it happens, I am having a new bicycle made for me as we speak. It was ordered a couple of months ago. It is being made by Brad Bingham, who has won awards 7 years in a row from the Hand Made Bicycle Show as best Titanium welder in existence. I think of him as me, but making bicycles instead of guitars. . . not that I have won similar awards.

The new bike is called a “Built”, and is also a Gravel Bike. It will weigh about the same as my carbon bike, but be much stronger. Mostly, however, it will be more fun to ride. That’s because carbon is light and efficient, but has a dead feeling on the road. Titanium, on the other hand, requires great skill in construction to be similarly light and efficient, but has a quality in the ride which is springy and resilient: FUN!!!

This is not unlike much of the argument for owning my guitars as opposed to most others, and since I spend a lot of my quality time riding my bike, why not have the best?

Dang Bruce take it easy out there! Just yesterday I almost crashed on my bike ride home when I hit something under the fall leaves all over the road and almost lost it.

Calfee does great work on repairing CF frames.
https://calfeedesign.com/carbon-repair/

BTW I have a Moots TI road bike and it's the best riding bike I have ever had and I have quite a few myself.

Bruce, what a hair-raising tale! But glad you have bounced back, as it were. The Myrtle guitar meanwhile is looking fabulous, very “organic” design, probably deriving from your approach. Definitely one to watch!

Glad you're ok Bruce!

SO good to see you posting again! And that nice patio backdrop - maybe that makes it into a business expense? ;)

Congratulations on the Bingham bike. I checked out Brad’s website and see he cut his teeth at Moots. Very nice. Looking at Redir’s post makes me reflect on the number of guitar players that also cycle. There is some connection, beautiful objects that do something if you put in the effort to make them work.

Bruce, btw, I consider my Sexauer L00 a couch noodler even if it isn’t in the official CN register. Perhaps it can be CN #0. Love that guitar, an ergo marvel. It has a quick responsive sound and would need disc brakes were it a bike.

Bruce, it was probably not your first crash, but let’s hope it’s your last. My road bike is now “permanently“ on a trainer on the back porch. I hope to be safe there, but you never know.

I am not “safety” oriented. I had a trio with Eric Schoenberg and a Bassist, Larry Mersereau 25 years ago which we called “@risk.calm”. We (or I at least) never played anything quite the same way twice, and it was entirely improvisational given that we were playing swing to bop standards. I am much the same today, not only with the music, but also with the guitars.

Today is my first day back to work in my recuperation process. I created a new batch of P juice, stained the myrtle parts of CN#3, sealed it, and put on the first coat of oil varnish.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP20/305/1stcoattop.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP20/305/1stcoatback.jpg

2nd coat is on and dry enough to handle:

http://mojoluthier.com/LP20/305/2ndcoatheadfront.jpg

That headstock is a beauty Bruce!

P juice
 

My goodness, your Pernambuco stain sure makes everything it graces mighty pretty!!!

Ride careful out there

Paul

I am thinking that another term for the P induced color is: "Cremonese Brown".

I think that is a marked step up from P-stain. In my profession, that means something completely different! :D

Yeah I know, but Cremonese brown is the color usually attributed to Cremonese era violins by makers such as Stradivari or Guarneri. The means to achieve the exact finish tone is generally considered lost knowledge.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP20/305/2coatsport.jpg

Beautiful Bruce...:up:

My gosh, that is a stunning guitar! The colors are so rich and the flame is beautiful. I hope to get to play one of your guitars someday, Bruce.

Man, that is hot. Bruce, I have just learned that shipping Oregon myrtle guitars to Europe is now banned. So sorry. But I can take the guitar off your hands. You're welcome.

My next build is not quite defined by the customer, so I am doing other things while I wait for clarity. One of these things is to repair and refinish the Pernambuco L)) I made for the Memphis Show a few years back. There was catastrophic flooding in Texas at the time, so we camped a few days in the desert near El Paso, and the Flatsawn Pernambuco did what I expected: it cracked in 13 places! I have been using this as my own guitar ever since as it sounds just fine despite the open sores. It is stable at this point, however, so I filled the cracks with CA and will add a few coats of Varnish. Maybe it will become salable . . .

http://mojoluthier.com/LP20/Salable.jpg

I am also have a path from the driveway and home to my shop put in. The "Garden Path", so to speak:

http://mojoluthier.com/LP20/GardenPath.jpg

So beautiful!

Bluestone? That's a lovely meandering garden path!

Hi Bruce - Congrats on both healing up nicely from the crash and the new bike.

I’m curious what the p-juice/cremonese brown stain looks like in the jar. Your varnish has just a hair of color, so I’m wondering whether the stain looks darker or lighter in the jar than it comes out on the instrument.

The new bike exists but is not yet here.

The P juice in ammonia is a VERY dark burgundy. In water, it is candy apple red. Once dry on maple it is much less dramatic, but a beautiful color under varnish. A bit of vintage maple toner makes it truly seductive IMO. On myrtle it is significantly deeper despite the myrtle being quite light in color.

The Garden Path is completed but there is dirt to be moved. Here is a view of the shop from the back porch of the house:

http://mojoluthier.com/LP20/GardenPath2.jpg

I love that purfling so much. I think you referred to it as the 'poor mans abalone' or something like that. I think it's even better then that.

Today I started my next guitar following the Myrtle CN. This will be a JB-16 in Australian blackwood. JB is my fully asymmetrical MultiScale, and 16 is my biggest version of it. This will be my first JB-16 with a side port.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP20/306/platejoining.jpg

Bigger is better! Hahaha... Bruce, have you ever done a bevel to go with the usual Wedge?

This will be fun to watch. And I Love that "poor mans abalone" purfling too!!!

Salud

Paul

I believe the arm bevel is in direct opposition to the "Live" guitar concept which informs my building. In my concept the entire guitar contributes to the sound we hear, and the energy propagated by the strings must flow smoothly through the structure. The bevel amount to a hard spot in the energy stream, not unlike a rock in a river stream, which causes a disruption in the flow.

And if that's not enough, the diminished size of the top no longer matches the body volume, which is quite a curve ball for controlling tone and balance. Pay for a larger guitar than you get, and get a mixed tonal bag as well.

The Amazon RW contrasts well with the Oz B'wood . . . and just about everything else, too.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP20/306/backstrip.jpg