First Commission - Wilborn Nautilus - (DEMO VIDEO)

[virob]

I sure love your enthusiasm! You’re in for a great ride.

[TomB'sox]

Originally Posted by Guitars44me

Cool backstory and great choices! This will be FUN to follow. Ben will knock your socks off for sure.

That may be the prettiest EIR I have ever seen. Love the colors in that back! And Ben works wonders with his aged Sitka.

Enjoy the process!

Paul

Originally Posted by mikealpine

Loved reading the journey and will echo that the back and sides are among the prettiest and most interesting I have ever seen. I will enjoy following along and wish you tremendous joy and fun on the ride.

You guys may just have seen that wood before...John and I will be sharing sister sets. My first Elliebelle that you may have seen at BIG, is a sister set to this set. That is why I was teasing John a little in my post about this wood and this luthier? I can also say, not only is it very unique for EIR, it is one of the best sounding guitars I own, it has a cedar top though.

Tom

[BlackKeys36]

Originally Posted by Godfather

BEAUTIFUL wood set for your build. I will be following along. Thanks for posting.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by invguy921

Congratulations! I vividly remember my first one...and it was very cool. I'm certain yours will be a special experience. Not only do you have some gorgeous wood choices, but the builder is really special as well. I'm confident you'll be tickled with the resulting masterpiece!!

I'll enjoy watching this one, thanks for sharing the experience!!

Thanks for following along!

Originally Posted by mikealpine

Loved reading the journey and will echo that the back and sides are among the prettiest and most interesting I have ever seen. I will enjoy following along and wish you tremendous joy and fun on the ride.

Thanks, Mike!

Originally Posted by virob

I sure love your enthusiasm! You’re in for a great ride.

Thank you! I'm pretty excited!

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

You guys may just have seen that wood before...John and I will be sharing sister sets. My first Elliebelle that you may have seen at BIG, is a sister set to this set. That is why I was teasing John a little in my post about this wood and this luthier? I can also say, not only is it very unique for EIR, it is one of the best sounding guitars I own, it has a cedar top though.

Tom

Haha. I was wondering if you were enjoying watching everyone indirectly compliment your EllieBelle! Yesterday I stumbled across a video that Isaac Jang made of Ben's table at Woodstock 2017 where he was displaying your guitar...gorgeous!

[jaymarsch]

Lots of gorgeousness and excitement in this thread! Having had the good fortune to have gone through the commission build process, I am thrilled to hear about yours. Enjoy all of it.

Best,
Jayne

[TomB'sox]

Originally Posted by BlackKeys36

Thank you!



Thanks for following along!



Thanks, Mike!



Thank you! I'm pretty excited!



Haha. I was wondering if you were enjoying watching everyone indirectly compliment your EllieBelle! Yesterday I stumbled across a video that Isaac Jang made of Ben's table at Woodstock 2017 where he was displaying your guitar...gorgeous!

That is it (third one he shows), gives you a good idea of what it will look like under finish. My first Wilborn and my first time meeting Ben who I am proud to say has become a good friend, at least on my end, he may not feel the same lol!

I picked that guitar up, fiddled with it for 3-4 minutes looked up at Ben and said, "I'll take it", he sort of had a look in his eye like really, just like that haha? It was a Sunday afternoon if I recall, I can't believe how many people must have overlooked one of the best guitars of the show!

I also picked up the prototype Kinnaird OO of Spanish Cedar which was built before doing the first commissioned OO for the now late Bob Tucker, a great guy who sadly left this earth way too soon. Bob wanted Steve to do an OO so mine was built to see how it would go and it went well to say the least. That was a good show for me.

[BlackKeys36]

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

That is it (third one he shows), gives you a good idea of what it will look like under finish. My first Wilborn and my first time meeting Ben who I am proud to say has become a good friend, at least on my end, he may not feel the same lol!

I picked that guitar up, fiddled with it for 3-4 minutes looked up at Ben and said, "I'll take it", he sort of had a look in his eye like really, just like that haha? It was a Sunday afternoon if I recall, I can't believe how many people must have overlooked one of the best guitars of the show!

I also picked up the prototype Kinnaird OO of Spanish Cedar which was built before doing the first commissioned OO for the now late Bob Tucker, a great guy who sadly left this earth way too soon. Bob wanted Steve to do an OO so mine was built to see how it would go and it went well to say the least. That was a good show for me.

What an awesome show! I know your comment was tongue & cheek, but I can assure you that both Ben and Steve & Ryan speak very highly of you.

Do you have an affinity for cedar or was your cedar buying spree at Woodstock 2017 more coincidence than pattern?

[TomB'sox]

No affinity, the Elliebelle was the first Cedar. I was a spruce guy before that, but Ben and others really turned me on to Redwood lately, a great combo between the cedar and spruce!

[BlackKeys36]

Cleaned-up laminated sides. Final thickness is right at .120. The laminations are Squiggly EIR Outside/Sugar Pine Middle/Regular EIR Inside. Sugar pine because it's light and doesn't crack. They hold their shape with no spring-back:




Neck block is made up of two pieces that are glued and doweled:




Shaping the glued/doweled neck block on disc sander...fancy jig to make sure fit es perfecto:




Another view of elaborate jigs for neck and tail blocks. They have sanding guides on the bottom that get changed out for the various models:




Extra bevel on the soundport side since we have a rather large window looking straight at it:




Gluing in the neck, tail, and cutaway blocks. Because the laminated sides are so stiff he's able to use go-bars against them to hold in the cutaway block:




Long ago Ben made a telescoping vice stand with a universal joint and a machinists vice which gives him unimpeded 360 deg access to anything clamped in it. In Ben's words, "a very useful little dude he has turned out to be":




Mahogany arm bevel backer and said backer moving into his new home:

[cigarfan]

Awesome! Thanks for the detailed look. This is great.

I remember that Woodstock when Tom came home with his first Wilborn. If I remember correctly afterward he said to me, "You didn't buy one?!"

[BlackKeys36]

Fingerboard bound, fret slots cut, and carved bridge:


The fretboard binding jig thingy is made of UHMW plastic and has screws on one side to clamp the binding to the fingerboard. This is the only place he uses Titebond 3 on the build for its longer open time. He uses compressed air to clean out any glue that gets in the fret slots:


Gluing in the Wilborn-made Kerfed Linings:

[Godfather]

Holy cow! only 3 days into this build and look how far along Ben is already. At this pace you will be enjoying it in no time. Thanks for the update.

[BlackKeys36]

Headstock Profiling. This is my first view of the Ziricote headstock veneer (my choice; I gave Ben creative freedom for this build) and I love it!


Veneers of Adirondack for Bent Braces and the braces glued and bent:


Lining that will surround the soundport tapered into arm bevel support:


Carbon fiber strut and connector (added to support the bass side of the upper bout where a large section of structure is removed for the combined soundhole/soundport):


Completed Rim Assembly :

[Hanter]

Wow this is moving at speed of light! And beautiful to boot, as with every Wilborn. Congratulations on this build and I will be following along with great interest. I have not heard a Sitka/EIR Comma series guitar so this will be interesting!

I have a question for Ben (and other luthiers too), not to question or throw a curveball at Ben's building timeline or philosophy, in fact its very much the opposite as I have great respect for Ben's builds. But... there are some luthiers out there who feel that the woods need some time to acclimatize in their "new shape" before more stress gets added quickly i.e. You build a neck, you leave it as a neck for a week or a month before attach it to the body; you build the rim, you leave it as a rim in its form for a bit before you close the box etc etc ... Is there any truth in that? What are your thoughts on that?

[cigarfan]

Pressing forward incredibly fast. Looks choice! Headplate is gorgeous!

[CarolD]

Amazing build as usual for Ben! Such clean, precise work. That headplate....omg...it’s got a face in it!