The Acoustic Guitar Forum

Go Back   The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > Custom Shop

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #16  
Old 11-25-2020, 05:44 PM
D. Churchland D. Churchland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,442
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by TomB'sox View Post
I am sure your guitars are great and you seem like a great guy, but your wife comes out as the true winner in this thread lol. You are a lucky fella.
She is definitely awesome. I married way up on the ladder with her.
__________________
churchlandguitars on Instagram

Formerly known as, "Will Kirk"
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 11-25-2020, 05:45 PM
D. Churchland D. Churchland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,442
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by colins View Post
Just caught up with this thread and wanted to compliment you on that rosette. Really like the asymmetry as well as the story behind the components.
Thank you I appreciate that. I'm curious how it'll look under finish too. I'm hoping it'll pop nicely and add some nice variety to the look.
__________________
churchlandguitars on Instagram

Formerly known as, "Will Kirk"
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 12-02-2020, 01:44 PM
D. Churchland D. Churchland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,442
Default

Binding is on, but pictures will have to come later as I'm a doofus and totally forgot to take them before I left for work today.

Also wanted to give a little shoutout to Luthier's Mercantile. I had previously ordered some purfling and other parts from them for this build. Upon arrival the purfling they sent me was actually the incorrect type/style etc...

A quick phone call and they ended up letting me keep the incorrect purfling (which I will use on another build) but they sent the correct purfling right away. So kudos to LMII. Great company and great people.
__________________
churchlandguitars on Instagram

Formerly known as, "Will Kirk"
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old 12-02-2020, 08:24 PM
Guitars44me's Avatar
Guitars44me Guitars44me is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Mountains east of San Diego
Posts: 7,376
Smile Kudos!

Will, this is just a very cool thread!

I am impressed with your ability to make lemonade out of the tiny space lemon.

Count me another fan of your wife, as well! So great to have a supportive spouse!

Carry on and stay well!

Paul
__________________
3 John Kinnaird SS 12c CUSTOMS:
Big Maple/Cedar Dread
Jumbo Spanish Cedar/WRC
Jumbo OLD Brazilian RW/WRC

R.T 2 12c sinker RW/Claro
96 422ce bought new!
96 LKSM 12
552ce 12x12

J. Stepick Bari Weissy WRC/Walnut

More
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old 12-05-2020, 09:14 AM
D. Churchland D. Churchland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,442
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Guitars44me View Post
Will, this is just a very cool thread!

I am impressed with your ability to make lemonade out of the tiny space lemon.

Count me another fan of your wife, as well! So great to have a supportive spouse!

Carry on and stay well!

Paul
Thank you Paul, I'm a big fan of hers as well.
__________________
churchlandguitars on Instagram

Formerly known as, "Will Kirk"
Reply With Quote
  #21  
Old 12-05-2020, 09:27 AM
D. Churchland D. Churchland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,442
Default

Big update time. Had a bit of extra time this weekend to get the purfling installed. I had previously routed out a small channel on the top for the purfling but it ended up being a little too narrow for the material I had chosen. It's my mistake since I just mis-measured by a small bit.

But I have tools to fix it. And for the job I chose my violin purfling cutter and a simple dentist's scaler. The scaler lets me easily remove the waste, the purfling cutter works quite a bit better than something like a gramil because of the blade design. It does take a little practice but once you get it, you get it.

I worked my way around the whole guitar one piece at a time. I run the cutter across the area a few times, then carefully lift out the slices of spruce. The result is actually much cleaner than the line I had routed previously.





It was a bit tedious, but working around the guitar you can see it starting to take shape. For this guitar I opted to use a single black line to help separate the light colored binding from the top and make it stand out a bit. If I hadn't mentioned it before the binding on this one is sycamore. Bends easy and works easy, plus it is very similar to maple in looks so it goes well with things like rosewood.

After a bit of work and some sanding to bring everything flush the purfling is installed. I like clean separation of lines and the black definitely does that for this one.







And with some light out this morning here's where she sits currently. You can see the fadeaway on the upper bout starting to stand out a little more but I love how the black highlights the whole piece. It's making me want to work with some other more complex purfling styles in the future. Maybe a herringbone guitar of some variety will be in the future. Still needs finish sanding.





And some views of the binding on the back. I need to clean up the little glue smudges from the install. Not too worried about it nice thing with hide glue is that is cleans up well and doesn't leave a nasty scar or stain under finish.





I'm feeling pretty great about this build so far. Not much left except for the neck carve/fingerboard/finish etc...
__________________
churchlandguitars on Instagram

Formerly known as, "Will Kirk"
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 12-11-2020, 09:26 AM
D. Churchland D. Churchland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,442
Default

Alright first few coats of finish are going on. I'm pretty happy with the grain and look of this top even after a few coats. If you're into french polish/shellac the cut I'm using is a 1/4 cut Amber flakes with 1/8 cut super blonde flakes.







I'll buff things a bit glossier after I get a good layer applied.

The sides and back are finish sanded and just need finish as well. We're getting close to the finish line with this one. While the shellac cures I'll tackle the fingerboard/neck. The fingerboard on this one is some really nicely reclaimed brazillian that I'm at a bit of a crossroads on. I'll post an update with it relatively soon. All for now.
__________________
churchlandguitars on Instagram

Formerly known as, "Will Kirk"
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 12-14-2020, 05:39 AM
colins colins is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Victoria, Australia
Posts: 3,524
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Will Kirk View Post
Really like the colours and textures in that Indian rosewood. It will make the French polishing all the more worthwhile.
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 12-14-2020, 05:37 PM
CoolerKing's Avatar
CoolerKing CoolerKing is offline
FKA matthewpartrick :)
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: North Havana
Posts: 5,344
Default

Let's see another shot of that back set!
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 12-15-2020, 09:57 PM
D. Churchland D. Churchland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,442
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by matthewpartrick View Post
Let's see another shot of that back set!
It's in the midst of getting finish right now. Once she's a little shinier I'll put up a few pics.
__________________
churchlandguitars on Instagram

Formerly known as, "Will Kirk"
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 12-20-2020, 09:10 AM
D. Churchland D. Churchland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,442
Default

Took some time, but the finish has been applied and the rosewood really pops.

I really don't like uber sticky/shiny finishes so with my shellac/french polish I usually go for a mild gloss instead of super duper nitro levels of shiny. Tends to make the guitar feel a bit more organic too in my opinion.

matthewpatrick since you asked for another back shot here you go.







Since rosewood bleeds like crazy with shellac I ended up having to do a good bit of separate finishing to keep the bindings looking clean with as little bleed over as possible from the rosewood. I'm happy with the contrasting colors though.

Fingerboard and neck are next. Not much longer until this one is making noise!
__________________
churchlandguitars on Instagram

Formerly known as, "Will Kirk"
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 12-21-2020, 10:21 AM
Archaic Guitars Archaic Guitars is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 64
Default

Looking good. I also like a matte finish from time to time. Plus you don’t have to spend so much time pore filling!
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 12-21-2020, 10:33 AM
Nemoman Nemoman is online now
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: N. California
Posts: 3,141
Default

Beautiful set of Rosewood--really like the contrast with the binding!
__________________
2013 Stehr Auditorium (Carpathian/Myrtle)
2015 Stehr Auditorium (Adi/BRW)
2020 Baranik Meridian (Blue Spruce/Manchinga)
2020 Wilborn Arum (Tunnel 14/Coco)
2021 Kinnaird Graybeard (BC Cedar/Bog Oak)
2022 Kinnaird CS Student Build (Adi/Padauk)
2023 Kinnaird FS (Italian/Koa)
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old 12-22-2020, 02:30 PM
D. Churchland D. Churchland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,442
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Archaic Guitars View Post
Looking good. I also like a matte finish from time to time. Plus you don’t have to spend so much time pore filling!
True, I still do a sawdust/shellac pore fill regardless of the level of polish.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nemoman View Post
Beautiful set of Rosewood--really like the contrast with the binding!
Thank you. I didn't expect the rosewood to turn out as dark as it did, pleasantly suprised!
__________________
churchlandguitars on Instagram

Formerly known as, "Will Kirk"
Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old 01-04-2021, 02:06 PM
D. Churchland D. Churchland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,442
Default

Big update time. This one is done and on the books. Turned out looking a bit more deco looking than I had initially thought it would but I like it.





The single pearl inlay is one I cut from a nuclei. I would've bought inlays but I wanted to learn to cut my own from round stock. I'm really happy with the look and luckily I still have several hundred nuclei left to work with so I'll definitely make more in the future.



The reason for the inlay is that the braz for the fingerboard was extremely old (a little over 100 years) and at some point in it's existence it had had a few holes drilled in it all in that single spot. Rather than waste the whole board I repaired the hole with some braz scraps and then inlaid the pearl dot to make it look nice.

And some more glamour shots. I really loved the grain in this piece of adi, definitely distinct and to me it gives it a nice organic look.







Some lovely grain lines.



The rosette also turned out nice with the contrasting lines and variations.



The saddle is a through saddle like old vintage guitars which I really like. However I wanted to try something a bit different with the lines and the way the saddle sits in the bridge. There's no hard edges and it's easy enough to lower the saddle like a traditional captured one. The bridge I also made from the same board of braz as the fingerboard.



This was a really fun build and I'm really thrilled with the results. I'll post soundclips later as it's still breaking in right now. Plus you can't really get a feel for the sound until at least 5-7 days after being under tension. But so far it's highly responsive and has a wonderfully thick and woody quality to it.
__________________
churchlandguitars on Instagram

Formerly known as, "Will Kirk"

Last edited by D. Churchland; 01-04-2021 at 02:21 PM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

  The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > Custom Shop

Thread Tools





All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:15 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=