I'm quite pleased to begin this build thread, although it's starting before I had expected! John and I have been chatting over the past couple of years about a nice mahogany, smaller guitar, and I've been lucky enough to see and play his L32 in brazilian / LS redwood, as well as some great 1930s African mahogany / Italian spruce. I had tentatively decided on an all-mahogany L32, sometime in the future.
While visiting John's shop a month or two ago, I asked him about LS redwood, and John pulled out his last LS top. It had been sized for an earlier shape that John no longer builds, but it was about the L32 shape. In order to secure the top, and to prove to John I was serious, I went ahead and commissioned the build but asked him to put me far down the list.
John, as most of you already know, has been building his new Grand Concert (
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...=198691&page=2 and
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=210495 for example). That guitar is the result of 10 years of building, testing - and destroying! - prototypes with incremental changes in design and construction, resulting in a final (17) prototype of some new bracing and some other improvements that are now going into the Healdsburg builds for introduction this year.
To shorten the story a bit, John asked me if I'd be interested in having the new features (bracing, new bridge design, etc.) on the L32, and I said "of course!". He then called me a few weeks later, and asked if it would be alright for him to build the guitar for introduction at Healdsburg - that he would be able to keep up with his other Healdsburg guitars as well as the production guitars he was making, but really wanted to have this one to show to HGF attendees as well. "Well, of course!!" said I.
The first thing John did was to try a bit of body redesign, not radically, but slightly enlarging the upper bout, changing the flattened lower bout bottom, and giving it slightly more definition to the waist.
The next thing he did was spend some hours one night putting together his first "mosaic" medallion. He ran it by me and it blew me away! This will be placed on the soundhole, like his other Healdsburg guitars. It may look simple but John has done the math to keep the same soundhole area by slightly enlarging the diameter to account for the small intrusion of the medallion.
We had already chosen a nice African Blackwood bridge in John's new design, which will also be the fretboard and headstock overlay woods. Further details are being worked out as he goes along, but this will be an exciting guitar for you to visit and try out at Healdsburg this year!
I hope you enjoy seeing this come together as much as I'll enjoy posting it.
(John Cotten, you are now formally "challenged" to begin a build thread!)
The 1930s African mahogany for the back and sides:
The LS top - but it will not end up with this exact shape:
Here's the new shape:
I'll post more pictures as we go along!
Thanks for watching.
Phil