Now I have to make a traditional acoustic.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by arie

just curious, are you purposely trying to make a guitar from found objects?

Not really, just using whatever available materials I have at my disposal. I bought some cedar tops online and was going to make a couple of guitars with them. I have some Honduran mahogany that I was going to use for it but since I have never built a traditional acoustic guitar I thought I would learn some of the methods making a smaller one when I found the cedar plank for grilling salmon. At a cost of $3 it was not going to bother me if it did not turn out to sound stellar.

The oak I have was from a discount bin so not a lot of cost involved there. The southern pine I came across and wanted to use it on a guitar, originally on a solid body but considered it for this one. I really wanted this guitar to be a small travel guitar that I would not worry over it getting beat up and thought the pine would hold up well enough. Finding the table leg was a fluke, and given what I have been reading of oak being a good tonewood maybe the mahogany (or similar species) would be more appropriate.

So I just want to go through some of the learning curve with no worries of scraping wood that deserves a better fate. I do want to build a body with the fence board top and compare it to the guitar tops I bought but that is a project for the future, used the boards to get the hang of my resawing capabilities (I need a coarser tooth blade) and my sander's ability (good enough for the girls I go out with).

Nice to have someone post, wasn't sure if anyone cared tho see my progress.

[arie]

cool. actually i've been eyeballing those salmon planks myself. i'm always on the lookout for "tonewood furniture" but i never find anything good just counter top leftovers and junk. maybe somebody will throw out a brazillian rosewood chest of drawers one day and i'll score, but around where i live people know what they have.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by arie

cool. actually i've been eyeballing those salmon planks myself. i'm always on the lookout for "tonewood furniture" but i never find anything good just counter top leftovers and junk. maybe somebody will throw out a brazillian rosewood chest of drawers one day and i'll score, but around where i live people know what they have.

The salmon plank is a little on the short side but I thought to give it a try. Was totally unexpected, my bus was taking too long to come so I decided to walk to my connecting stop. Life smiled on me given all the other curve balls being thrown to me lately. Actually the fence boards were a surprise and I think they might sound pretty good after sawing them and tapping them. Time will tell though.

I also build my own guitar amps and have been checking thrift stores for tube radios and the like. Nothing for the longest time and a couple weeks ago a console stereo for $20. The power transformer is of most use for me, the output transformers are 5W and I have enough already. What I did not count on is it also had some nice sounding 10" speakers that have become my favorite for home. If I were not in acoustic guitar mode I would be building an amp for them.

[printer2]

So I asked in the general forum about other parlor guitars that have been made in the past that I could pattern mine after. No response so I am just winging it. I thought to use the same thread to ask the question on headroom on a guitar using a cedar top and if a thicker top will allow it to be suited for both fingerpicking and strumming. It is already making its way to the bottom of the page so I doubt I will get a reply so I thought I might as well ask here. Or would it be wrong for me to ask the question in the custom shop forum? Not the biggest hurry yet as I still have to bend the sides and all the other steps from there. Just trying to not get stuck when it is time to do the top.

[printer2]

Had a thread transferred over to Custom Shop and there seems to be a little more interest in this project at Custom Shop so rather than keeping two threads going for the same project I be posting there.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=289190

[Viking]

Originally Posted by printer2

Changed to this motor, only 1/4 hp but seems to work well enough, cost a whole $10. Still have to do an elevation control, used a bolt and threaded rod coupler to test it out.

Where did you get the electric motor for 10 bucks?

[printer2]

Thrift shop. Usually look for old tube radios and saw it. At first did not bother as they wanted $20 and it was smaller than I wanted to use. They dropped it down to $10 and I cold not pass it up. Works well enough for me.

[printer2]

The rest of the build thread was posted in the Custom Shop forum (mods moved it there from the General Discussion section). Just had to mention today and this forum seemed appropriate. I called up a local luthier and asked if I could come down and he could look at my guitar and give me some tip from what he could see.



I did not want to bother him that long as time is money and it looked like he had enough work to do but by the time I left he spent a good hour with me. Aside from the obvious mistakes I did like reversing the direction of the middle section of the three piece top (which he did not mention) he gave me some tips and where I went wrong (head block and tail block oriented the wrong way for one), he said sonically there is nothing wrong with it.

He said it sounded fine and had good volume for the size of guitar. He played it for a bit and I must admit it was the best I heard it sound. He was surprised that the back and sides were made of pine, after that telling him the top originally was a fence board didn't seem all that odd, neither the fretboard previous life was a pallet. He commented on the truss rod and the design I used helped out in the neck stability. It was my turn to be surprised as I sent him a link to the above picture as a introduction, seems that he took enough of an interest to look at the rest of my construction pics.

He said lot of my methods were not too different than normally done, it would just take longer with the tools I had. He gave me some suggestions as far as longevity and how I can make the guitars more playable (I still have to set the neck angle a little better). When we started talking about amplifier design and that I have a few tube amps under my belt I decided to say thanks and run off as I felt he was more than generous with his time. He said he would like to see guitar number ten and that I had a good start with number one, even with the added difficulty with my wood selection. I did not know what to expect when I walked through his door but he made me feel like I would be welcome to return again.

It was a good day.

[CoolerKing]

Great thread, thanks for sharing. Always good to get honest positive feedback.