#46
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Rosette Purflings & Rear Headstock Veneer
With the teflon spacers removed, the Zebrawood purflings can be installed between the black fiber/maple/black fiber purflings and scaped flush with the Adirondack Spruce top (nice looking top to boot!).
A Gaboon Ebony back veneer is being glued to the headstock.
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |
#47
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Peghead & Veneer
After rough cutting the headstock profile, Steve screws his polycarbonate profiling routing template to peghead (left). Now routed, you can begin to see the two tone Macassar Ebony headstock veneer (right). You can begin to visualize that once the two slots are routed and bound, it will make a definite statement.
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |
#48
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Rims n’ Tuners
Here are some shots of placing the ladder braced Macassar Ebony back onto the lined rim assembly. The large elastic straps affix the back so they can use a dental tool to scribe the brace locations into the reverse kerfed Honduran Mahogany linings. Even without finish, the striking figure of the striped heartwood and pale sapwood.
Here are the lined rims with rough spruce side reinforcement strips being glued in place. The OD of an elliptical sound port can be seen in the upper bout. The marked hole is larger than the actual port which will be bound and purfled. Finally, a set of custom tuners for the guitar from Rodgers Tuning machines. We chose a black geometric pattern engraving pattern on 110 mm brass plates with Black MOP elliptical buttons to visually tie into the Ebony appointments of the instrument. We also used less ornate straight sleeves and short style pips for a more contemporary aesthetic.
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… Last edited by iim7V7IM7; 02-23-2022 at 06:42 PM. |
#49
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Shazam--those tuners are gorgeous!
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2013 Stehr Auditorium (Carpathian/Myrtle) 2015 Stehr Auditorium (Adi/BRW) 2020 Baranik Meridian (Blue Spruce/Manchinga) 2020 Wilborn Arum (Tunnel 14/Coco) 2021 Kinnaird Graybeard (BC Cedar/Bog Oak) 2022 Kinnaird CS Student Build (Adi/Padauk) 2023 Kinnaird FS (Italian/Koa) |
#50
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Aren’t they?! That what most tuners want to grow up to look like.
Steve |
#51
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Exciting and beautiful stuff.
scott memmer |
#52
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Quote:
Yes, Rob definitely made you some "adult" tuning machines there. Being that you live in Texas, I think you should wear your best pair of boots when installing them...
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |
#53
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That's exactly what I thought too - they make even ebony buttoned Gotohs look boring.
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#54
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SK |
#55
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Bracing the top - Part I
Now that the rosette is installed, Steve and Ryan have begun to brace the Adirondack Spruce top. The top was of average density, but is quite stiff. This starts by laying out the brace pattern on the top. They also conduct deflection testing on their Sitka Spruce brace stock when it all at the 5/16” thickness to understand the relative stiffness between the x-braces, tone bars and finger braces. After that some are trim to a 1/4” thickness.
Here is the top in Steve’s go-bar deck with the x-braces and tone bars installed on a 25’ dish. The finger braces will be installed later. You also may notice next to the African Padauk bridge plate an additional brace installed parallel to the lower edge of the bridge plate. This style of brace is attributed by many to luthier Don Musser who shared plans for this via the Guild of American Luthiers in the early 1980s. Don’s goal was to both mitigate against structural bridge “budge” and to provide alternative structure to allow to taper the x-brace on the low E string side a bit more in the lower bout than the high E string side for enhanced bass response. Like all things in luthierie, others ideas are experimented with and adapted. Steve has been using this type of brace in his guitars for about 30 years now. He retains some localized stiffness in their carve of this brace on the high E string side. This is why the 2-5/16” note (which is the target bridge spacing) was written on the underside of the top to remind them of the high E string location when latter carving the brace. I also believe it also allows him to adjust his tone bar carves as well (the nearer one is different than the farther one). The end result is he has found that it enhances the treble response in a pleasing way.
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |
#56
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Looking terrific, Macassar has got such a rich texture! And those tuners… whoa.
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#57
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While the Macassar Ebony is indeed beautiful (and quite dense) Steve chose it because of its acoustic potential given my goals for this instrument. Some Ebonies are quite high in damping and have a dead tap to them. Others can be more lively, not rosewood lively, but not ebony dead either. This set has some tap tone to it. Most higher damping woods are of moderate density (e.g., Koa, Maples and Mahoganies) but density and hardness also can impact the timbre of an instrument. This set is quite dense as most Macassar is. Steve and Ryan thinned this back to about 0.070” (which is quite thin) to try to compensate for this. It still will be on the heavier side for a guitar of its size. This will be my first moderate damping/dense wood guitar so I am interested to hear how it sounds. With all this talk about the visually striking back and sides, my experience is the lion’s share of a guitar’s tone is in the top itself. The Adirondack Spruce top set that Steve selected for this project that he sourced from Randy Lucas also has him excited. The process of voicing the top is upcoming shortly as they cave the top braces.
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |
#58
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Looks YUMMY
The whole enchilada looks muy Sabrosa!!!
Those tuners are sure pretty… Your descriptions of what is going on are very enlightening. Thanks for making things so understandable. I have no doubt you will be thrilled with the results. Paul
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3 John Kinnaird SS 12c CUSTOMS: Big Maple/Cedar Dread Jumbo Spanish Cedar/WRC Jumbo OLD Brazilian RW/WRC R.T 2 12c sinker RW/Claro 96 422ce bought new! 96 LKSM 12 552ce 12x12 J. Stepick Bari Weissy WRC/Walnut More |
#59
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In any case, looking forward to following along what is sure to be a sweet, sweet instrument. |
#60
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Binding the Peghead
Steve routed a 0.100” deep ledge around the perimeter to accommodate the b/w purfling, as well as the 1/16” Gaboon Ebony binding.
Here is a shot of the b/w purfling in installed. This is a shot of Steve installing the pre-bent Gaboon Ebony binding pieces. As you can see, these are the most demanding areas to bind on his guitars. This is a shot of Steve mitering the point in the ebony binding. It is so black! He could have simply butted the joints, but mitering is a better solution (and more fun!). Heis using a single-edged razor blade for this task. His fingers are taped to keep from getting stuck to the CA glue to the work. Now, with the second piece of Gaboon Ebony binding installed, he just needs to install a remaining piece down the right side of the peghead veneer. The peghead binding and purfling is finished in this shot. You might have noticed the darker color in earlier pics. That was a swipe coat of shellac to protect the wood from CA glue stains. Now that everything is installed, the peghead veneer, binding and purflings has been lightly sanded to level everything, and that kissed off the shellac coat back to bare wood.
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |