Gwaltney Guitars Build - G3 Model

[Denis]

That sapele is stunning Greg! Adi for the sapele and Lutz for the Aussie Blackwood? Sounds good to me!

[gregg]

Originally Posted by Nemoman

I think an Adi top will be a great compliment to the sapele set! Would love to see that one in the small jumbo model...

I think so too, I'm leaning that way.

[gregg]

Originally Posted by Denis

That sapele is stunning Greg! Adi for the sapele and Lutz for the Aussie Blackwood? Sounds good to me!

Funny thing Denis, I keep rummaging around the shop and finding wood I forgot I had, I re-sawed some cool flamed Claro Walnut today as well as the quilted Sapele, found some Honduran Rosewood sets, giant billet of Wenge, cocobolo sets, Osage Orange sets, more Aussie Blackwood, Mahogany, 75+ sets of Lutz Spruce....etc....In the end though, thinking the Sapele/Adi & Aussie Blackwood/Lutz is as good as anything. Thickness sanded and bent the Aussie Blackwood sides today(as well as double-side partner pieces), will be gluing in head and tail blocks tomorrow. Will feel like a guitar being born tomorrow with the rims built, cool!

[Denis]

Originally Posted by gregg

Funny thing Denis, I keep rummaging around the shop and finding wood I forgot I had, I re-sawed some cool flamed Claro Walnut today as well as the quilted Sapele, found some Honduran Rosewood sets, giant billet of Wenge, cocobolo sets, Osage Orange sets, more Aussie Blackwood, Mahogany, 75+ sets of Lutz Spruce....etc....In the end though, thinking the Sapele/Adi & Aussie Blackwood/Lutz is as good as anything. Thickness sanded and bent the Aussie Blackwood sides today(as well as double-side partner pieces), will be gluing in head and tail blocks tomorrow. Will feel like a guitar being born tomorrow with the rims built, cool!

I remember the Lutz on the guitar I played. 75+ sets? Sounds like there's a lot more Gwaltney guitars left to be made!

[gregg]

Originally Posted by Denis

I remember the Lutz on the guitar I played. 75+ sets? Sounds like there's a lot more Gwaltney guitars left to be made!

Yeah, I bought a bunch of Lutz Spruce billets before they were very popular, sawed them up into sets around 9-10 years ago. Turned out be really good stuff.....75 is conservative

[gregg]

Here is a pic of the double-side laminating jig, I use West System Epoxy for this....and every clamp in the shop The Aussie Blackwood is hiding in there.

[Steve Kinnaird]

Proof^ one can't have too many clamps.
Looking good, Greg. Love that Sapele!

Steve

[gregg]

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

Proof^ one can't have too many clamps.
Looking good, Greg. Love that Sapele!

Steve

Hey Steve....I saw your Sapele guitar build, going to be very difficult to match that beauty, nice job!!

[Kenneth Casper]

Love that blackwood, Greg!

[gregg]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Casper

Love that blackwood, Greg!

Hey Kenneth, I was checking out your guitar build, beautiful work. I am very happy with this blackwood, beautiful to look at and think it will make a great sounding instrument.....best news is that I have another handful of sets to slice off of the same billets.

[gregg]

Here is a part of a neck block lamination(vertical & parallel grain - large enough for 2 guitars) will finish it tomorrow with a small foot. I also made some plywood out of Lutz Spruce and mahogany, the 5 ply piece will be used for the tail block, the 9 ply was just an experiment. Hopefully I will have the Aussie Blackwood rims glued to the blocks tomorrow.

[gregg]

Here is a shot of the double-side rims with the Ryan A4 Kerfing....love these!



And a pic of my sanding board with the remnants of rim preparation.



Kerfing being glued on now, I will show the results later.

[gregg]

The kerfing being glued on to the rim, 2nd half tomorrow. After this I will install the carbon fiber internal struts/braces. I also decided to use laminated mahogany tail and neck blocks instead of the plywood I built. Hard to see the laminations on the blocks as they are jointed surfaces.

[gregg]

Installed the internal carbon fiber struts, they are a bit tricky and time-consuming to get right, but sure does make the rim stiff.....next up is the back plate bracing.

[colins]

That looks amazing Greg!

Col