Circa 00 build

[Teleplucker]

Another update from John on the 00 guitar.

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"The box is together! I will next sand the sides and top/back to
clean them up and level the sides. I may then do a little voicing of
the top by judicious sanding of the lower bout. I have a lot going on
in the shop in the next week, so it will be a little while ( a week
or two ) before I get the neck together and bind the body. After that
we set and fret the neck and off she goes to finishing. "


I'm thinking the Beeswing Mahogany back and sides are going to look great when they are finished. I was curious about the triangle on the back of the guitar so I asked John about it. He uses the trangle to help him layout the back/sides/top of the guitar.

[ChuckS]

I've heard great things from an owner of a Circa 00. Congratulations!

I've always liked the looks of mahogany; from plain, to ribbon, to flame, to beeswing. It can have a wonderful depth to it. Yours looks extremely nice; should be great under a finish.

The rosette and other appointments seem to be a great match for the rest of the guitar. Looking forward to seeing it with binding and purfling.

I haven't had a mahogany guitar for about 3 years; and am getting very anxious. Our builds seem to be at about the same stage.

[Teleplucker]

Thanks Chuck,
This will be my first mahogany guitar and my first 00 body size. Not sure how it worked out that way in 35 years of playing guitar.
The binding will be understated, the only flash on this guitar will be the sunburst finnish and a torch inlay on the headstock.

The headstock was a choice all of its own. I really like the slotted look but I don't like changing strings on them. John's slotted headstocks are very nice, another place where his abilities really shine. I considered the difference in price between the slotted and the plain with an inlay and decided to go with the inlay.

[pepperboy]

Love the torch inlay on a guitar and Love sunbursts! This out to be a knockout of a guitar! I'm enjoying your build progress photos. Keep us up to date!!

[jmagill]

Great to see these pics. When I told John his photography had improved, he said, "Wow, my old pics must have really sucked!" BTW, I compliment your choice of rosette. :-)

John is building me a cutaway 00 also, so I'm taking vicarious pleasure in watching yours develop. I also elected for a solid headstock which will have a custom inlay based on this original Martin torch pattern from 1902 (on a TJ Thompson guitar).



I redesigned this pattern to be thinner with a few less curlicues & pearl dots so it looks less 'busy.' Dave Nichols will be doing the inlay. The guitar will also have a matching pearl rosette and pearl inlaid bridge pins.

I don't normally like pearl on my guitars, but it seemed appropriate, given my goals for this one: to recreate the feeling I had when I visited Gruhn Guitars in 1980 and played a rosewood Martin 00 from the late '20s-early 30s that redefined for me what a guitar could sound like.

John and I defined our target sound as having the massive cojones of the Adirondack/Madagascar rosewood OM he built for me, but with a quicker response to a light touch and lots more overtones, then I left all the wood choices to him.

Our conversations currently revolve around German/Italian spruce and Madrose. I'll be following this thread with interest, and eagerly await build pics of my own.

[Teleplucker]

Good morning Jim,

First let me say how much I enjoyed the last two years at Swannanoah. I can't believe that I live here in NC and it took me so long to check out the Gathering. I will definitely be back next year.

When I was trying to decide the specs for this guitar, John sent me a photoshoped picture of a 00 with a cutaway and a torch inlay. I believe he said that you had done the picture. Can you post that on this thread? I think that pic was the one that convinced me to go with a solid headstock.

[jmagill]

Originally Posted by Teleplucker

When I was trying to decide the specs for this guitar, John sent me a photoshoped picture of a 00 with a cutaway and a torch inlay. I believe he said that you had done the picture. Can you post that on this thread? I think that pic was the one that convinced me to go with a solid headstock.

I see my secret is out.

It's obviously easier to make aesthetic design decisions if you can see them first, and my years of experience with Photoshop do allow me to create and modify images of guitars that don't yet exist, so I did a mockup of my 'dream 00' with different image layers for slotted & solid headstock, belly & pyramid bridge, short and long pattern fingerboard inlays, cutaway and various rosettes and headstock inlay variations that I could turn on and off in a variety of combinations, and then, over a period of looking at them daily for a month or so, zeroed in on the design I wanted.

Then I sent the image to John and said, "Make me this:"



Here's a closeup of my re-design of Martin's 1902 torch:



And here's the original:

[Teleplucker]

That's the picture that made me go with the solid headstock and cutaway. John says that his sunburst looks like the "pale sunburst" pics that are posted on the Pantheon webpage http://www.pantheonguitars.com/ . I can't wait to see it all put together.

On another topic, this year at Swannanoa I took a class with Stephen Bennett. I had never heard of him before so I didn't know what to expect. It was without a doubt the best class that I have been in. I don't like to say that someone is the "best" guitar player, but if I had to make a list Stephen would be at the top. A great musician, great teacher and a super person to be around. Of course all of the staff was top notch, the program is well run and it's a pleasure to spend a week there.

Thanks for all that you do!

[fretfile100]

Let me concur that the Circas that I played at Swannanoah were extraordinary. Stephen Bennett was also my favorite instructor , though
Pat Donohue was a very close second. Great guitars, inspiring faculty, beautiful setting ans beer. How long till next year?

[dulcimerman62]

Great to see the photos and updates on the Circa build. I am having John build me a 7/8 dread Euro/Ziricote...hopefully by next summer...going on 18 months since my deposit...He's an outstanding luthier and I wish you all the best on this stunner.

[jmagill]

Teleplucker and Fretfile100: Glad you had a great time at the Gathering; I did too. I'm especially glad we were able to get Stephen Bennett as well. We wanted to have him for '08, but he had to stay home that summer in order to get a kidney transplant (!), so it was great to see him his old self again. Stephen also owns a Circa.

dulcimerman62: I know how hard the wait for a new guitar can be. Here's a link to some pictures of a 7/8 dread John had with him this summer. Just imagine the back's ziricote, (will yours have a cutaway?) and this is what yours will look like:

http://www.magills.net/CircaSmallDread.html

[dulcimerman62]

Jim:

Mine will not have a cutaway...your Circa OM photos I believe inspired several design aspects for things like binding, endgraft choices. John said he found some killer bearclaw euro spruce tops so I am going for a bearclaw euro spruce top and ziricote back/sides...I will ask John to document the build which I understand probably won't take place until early next year.

My girlfriend heard the sample 7/8 dread he sent out to me several months ago to try out that he had build a few years ago. She simply referred to it as "The John Guitar". It's been the gold standard soundwise so any other guitar I have with the name John as a builder in it has become known as "A John guitar but not THE JOHN GUITAR".

[Teleplucker]

Another update from John Slobod on my 00 guitar. This series shows some of the work on the neck. Body binding starts next week!

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As I move the pins from 1X to 2X to 3x, the tapered jig gets
smaller which of course leaves more board to be trimmed off by the
flush trim router bit. 1X is for binding only. 2X is binding and
single layer purfling, etc.....






This group show the trimming of the fretboard to its proper taper. It moves from 1-25/32 at the nut, to
2-1/4 at the 12th fret. I have most of my boards machined on a computerized mill at 1-13/16ths at the nut. They are also wider at the 12th fret. Then I cut them down individually to spec for each order. I use a homemade tapering jig with pin holes which are used to accommodate all my binding configurations.















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Here I am about to trim the headplate for its binding and purfling.
I use a different jig for each nut width that I offer. (I know yours is a 1-25/32) I pin the plate to the jig, and then use different bearings on the cutter to remove the proper amount of wood for each binding/purfling combination.

[Teleplucker]

A few more pics


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[SuperB23]

Looking really good!!! I would love to play a Circa guitar at some point.