Upcoming NGD: Michaud J-R

vpolineni · #1 10-18-2018, 07:45 PM

3 years...

Keep that in mind as you read this post. I read a thread on here from years ago asking how long people would be willing to wait on a builder's wait list. It referenced Kim Walker and other luthiers who close their list once it gets past 8 years.

My journey has been three years long and will thankfully end next week at woodstock! I will be picking up a commission from the one and only Joel Michaud. While the wait has vacillated from being unbearable to even times where I forgot about it, the silver lining has been forming a great friendship with an awesome person.

So onto the guitar. As with the greven that I recently sold, there's a back story to this as well. The top will be moon spruce, one of the three tops that I purchased from florinett (if you're counting, that's two of the three tops but don't worry, I have plans for the third top next year

). The back and sides are a beautiful set of quartersawn bois de rose. I became enamored with this rosewood after seeing simon fay's build with it and by sheer dumb luck, I came across a quartersawn billet of it. I had it resawn by dave borson (who is the best!) and that yielded a 4 piece back/sides set.

I decided to splurge as this is a once in a lifetime build for me so the tuners will be alessis. Regarding aesthetics, Joel has been gracious enough to let me bug him over the past three years and he's drawing upon some of his prior builds to incorporate some amazing design and in some ways, this guitar won't be a typical michaud build. For example, we were both awe-struck by the beauty of the bois de rose that the guitar will not have the typical michaud back strip or end wedge. That was a little disappointing at first but to his credit, Joel's instinct was right and it's the correct decision.

This isn't a build thread as I don't have many pictures but I plan to go through my old emails and find as many as I can. For those who are going to woodstock, the guitar will be there on friday and saturday. I'll be there on saturday and look forward to meeting as many agf members as possible. It's a long time in the making but I have no doubt that it will be totally worth it!

TomB'sox · #2 10-18-2018, 07:59 PM

Congrats and enjoy the Woodstock experience for it is truly that!!!

justonwo · #3 10-18-2018, 08:16 PM

Joel builds great guitars. Yeah, those build times can be excruciating. I commissioned one of my guitars in 2011. Still waiting . . .

Have fun at Woodstock. Very jealous!

Marcus Wong · #4 10-18-2018, 10:08 PM

YES! I have been waiting to see this! Stop stalling and out with the photos Vasu

mikealpine · #5 10-19-2018, 05:47 AM

It will be great to see this at Woodstock! Too bad I will be there Friday, it would be terrific to see someone picking up their guitar for the first time. Enjoy!!

TomB'sox · #6 10-19-2018, 06:35 AM

Will this new guitar be attending the B.I.G. with you also? Seems like it should just travel from one festival to another for all to enjoy!!!

doodahdoug · #7 10-19-2018, 07:23 AM

Vasu, I can almost feel your excitement for this Michaud build to be in your hands next Saturday. The Moon Spruce and Bois de Rose combination will look and sound fantastic together. The J-R model is the only one from Joel's lineup that I haven't had an opportunity to play yet so I'm looking forward to that.

Michael Chapdelaine will be performing with Joel's guitars Friday afternoon before your arrival at Woodstock. I will do my best to get some phone video of him playing your new J-R.

Once you had a chance to break this guitar in please stop over for another visit and we can compare David and Goliath (my O-R and your J-R).

See you in Woodstock!

vpolineni · #8 10-19-2018, 04:31 PM

Thank you all for the nice comments and for sharing my enthusiasm!

Mike, sorry I won't be able to meet you on friday. I have to miss that day for work but I hope that you get to see the J-R as you make your way around the tables.

Tom, thank you and yes I'd be more than happy to bring the guitar to B.I.G next year. Thank you for putting on such a great event!

Doug, I'm definitely bringing the guitar to your house once we're both back in dallas. It'll be fun to hear the smallest and largest sizes in comparison. I'm not sure if Michael will be playing this guitar I'll have to check with Joel.

Juston, thank you for the kind words I've really enjoyed our pm's over the years. It's a shame that you won't be able to attend the show this year. 7 years and counting??? Wow I'm sure it will be worth the wait plus you have an amazing stable to keep you occupied.

Marcus, I'm working on it! If you have any pics from Joel feel free to post them. I remember you got to see the woods in their raw form when you visited his shop right?

I'll dig through emails this weekend and write more about the thought process on what went into the build. Thanks everyone!

vpolineni · #9 10-23-2018, 06:51 PM

Sorry for the delayed post, it's been a crazy couple of days as I get ready to head to woodstock this weekend!

Seeing all of the pictures I'm about to post reminded me of the journey that is about to end, culminating in what looks to be a an amazing guitar. Let's start with the moon spruce. It could be purely placebo effect but I figured I have the time so why not? Here's a pic as it came from florinett:

I'm not an expert but it looks good to me! Tight grained and no run out.

When I got on Joel's build list. The J-R did not exist. For that matter, the idea for this build didn't exist. We actually had a great idea for a theme build that I hope he one day builds (Joel if you're reading this, use that one back/side set and make it happen!). When he introduced the J-R at santa barbara, I knew it was for me as I like larger bodied guitars. Plus how cool would it be to say I own the first J-R with a cutaway???

I wasn't sure about the standard 5" depth but that took care of itself with the selection of bois de rose. The billet I found would only yield a 4 3/8" depth but I think of that as a benefit both sonically and nostalgically. I say that because my first 'real' acoustic guitar was a Martin 0000-18 and this build is in some ways a homage to that. The J-R will basically have the same dimensions as the 0000 with a slightly increased lower bout depth and width (about 1/8" more).

Here's a pic of the bois de rose after being cut:

As you can see, it's nice but that picture isn't overwhelming. Well, Joel got his hands on it and realized that it could be reconfigured and voila!

That is what convinced us not use a back strip-it's too good as it is. We wanted to have a bois de rose theme so we chose that for the binding as well:

More to come in the next post...

vpolineni · #10 10-23-2018, 07:13 PM

Keeping with the bois de rose theme, here's the bridge (my first pinless bridge!)

Since we opted for no backstrip or end wedge, I was really hoping to incorporate metal somewhere into the build. That's quickly become one of Joel's signature aesthetics and while I truly appreciate the wood used in this build, I knew that I wanted that somewhere if possible. Well, Joel did not disappoint!
The rosette:

and headstock:

The tuners used are alessis 1:21 ratio. I went back and forth on this quite a bit (I usually use gotoh 510's or schertlers) but I knew that with a build this special, I'd always regret it if I didn't splurge so I went for it.

Now there is a risk with any new build. You obviously don't get to play it first but one of the upsides is customization. I won't lie... over the past couple of years I've seen some guitars in the classifieds and thought if I didn't have this commission, I could buy that and be happy. One of the reasons I'm glad that I went this route is because I really wanted a rosewood neck. I have that on an electric guitar and love it. Reading Mark Hatcher's comments on its sonic attributes got me even more excited about it as well. Here we deviated from the bois theme and went with dalbergia tucurensis. If I hadn't found the bois billet, I would have gone with tucurensis so I wanted that in the build and this was a logical fit. (oh and one final pick of the bois de rose for good measure)

Some yada yada details... the scale length is 25.7" as the guitar will mainly live in dadgad and C tunings as I hope to grow as a player and learn more about alternate tunings, leaving my comfort zone of standard. The nut width should be 1 25/32" with the string spacing 2 1/4".

Well, that's it in a nutshell. It's been a long time in the waiting and needless to say I'm looking forward to seeing it, Joel, and a lot of agf members on saturday. For those who will be there on friday, please stop by the booth and look at the guitar! Post your comments/impressions here so that I can be miserable while at a conference!

LouieAtienza · #11 10-23-2018, 08:29 PM

WOW, looking amazing so far!

chippygreen · #12 10-23-2018, 09:09 PM

Vasu - great to meet you on AGF!

I'll be at Woodstock Fri/Sat - Marcus is bringing me the JR he has in Singapore to tide me over until my build slot comes up in a year or two. Needless to say your JR looks fabulous and I look forward to seeing it "in the wood".

Hope to see you at the Michaud booth or at the show.

Justin

Marcus Wong · #13 10-24-2018, 06:25 AM

Can't wait to meet both of you Justin and Vasu! You are both going to be way over the moon with your J-Rs. They are an incredible breed of guitars

vpolineni · #14 10-25-2018, 07:45 AM

Thank you Louie and Justin! Justin, maybe the J-R that you'll have on loan will convince you to change your build order. Hopefully I'll have a chance to play it to compare it with mine.

Marcus, I hope that you have a t shirt for me! Looking forward to you at the show.

doodahdoug · #15 10-26-2018, 03:33 PM

Vasu, I had a front row seat for Michael Chapdelaine's performance with your guitar today at Woodstock and had a chance to play it myself this morning. It sounds as great as it looks. It was fun to visit with so many old and new friends from AGF and of course all the luthiers.