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  #76  
Old 11-16-2018, 09:56 PM
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Guitars44me Guitars44me is offline
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Smile Fab pic!

I love the pic of the back and tools! Very VERY old school! Makes perfect sense here!


Cheers

Paul
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  #77  
Old 11-17-2018, 11:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Guitars44me View Post
I love the pic of the back and tools! Very VERY old school! Makes perfect sense here

Cheers
Paul
Thanks Paul, I thought it was a good picture too.

Mark
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  #78  
Old 11-17-2018, 12:34 PM
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Default Closing the box

The top has been voiced and is now being glued up to close the box. The guitar body will soon emerge from it's clampcoon:

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  #79  
Old 11-19-2018, 11:01 AM
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Default No Vacation

The plan was to fly out to San Francisco last Saturday for Thanksgiving with my son's family and we were also going to be together for my granddaughter's 5th birthday. There is so much smoke in the Bay area due to the not-so-close fires we all decided to postpone our visit. So I'm back in the shop

The clamps are off and the guitar body is all closed up. First thing is to bend the binding and glue on the end graft:



A very simple Black Ebony wedge seems most appropriate. While that glue sets up I've radiused the Black Ebony fretboard and have been working on the back side of that bird mouth joint which is a volute on the back of the headstock:



So much of the design work on the vintage style guitar is different from what I usually do, yet I love the simplicity and design to purpose aspect of it all. I told my wife that I think I'm an old guitar letch. I'm like Benny Hill at a Miss America Pageant!
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  #80  
Old 11-20-2018, 10:20 AM
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Default Binding and Headstock

I've got the binding on today. It is Black Ebony and purfling on the top and back is five very fine lines of black and Maple:



I also selected out the head plate which is a craggy and figured piece of Walnut. Here is a picture of it with a seal cote of shellac. I'll be doing a lot of prep on this before it's done. It will also have a very detailed stag head cut out up top:



Thanks for viewing!
Mark
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  #81  
Old 11-20-2018, 10:23 AM
Nemoman Nemoman is offline
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Wow, mark--this one keeps getting better and better!

Beautiful look thus far...
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  #82  
Old 11-20-2018, 04:51 PM
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Originally Posted by Nemoman View Post
Wow, mark--this one keeps getting better and better!

Beautiful look thus far...
Thanks Nemoman, It's been a fun build. I'm also learning a few things that will carry over to future builds. Certainly, it's making me think I could offer a "Woodsman" option on a few of my other models too.
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  #83  
Old 11-21-2018, 08:13 AM
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Default Clean up

Here I am cleaning up the binding with various hand scrapers. Because of the way I'm finishing this guitar I need to clean this up perfectly before starting the finish process. Time spent now will be a lot more time saved later:

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Last edited by Mark Hatcher; 11-21-2018 at 10:51 AM.
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  #84  
Old 11-21-2018, 12:10 PM
jaymarsch jaymarsch is offline
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Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher View Post
Here I am cleaning up the binding with various hand scrapers. Because of the way I'm finishing this guitar I need to clean this up perfectly before starting the finish process. Time spent now will be a lot more time saved later:

Looking good, Mark. You made a smart decision postponing your SF visit. It is finally raining now and we are getting our first real reprieve from the smoke-filled skies.

Best,
Jayne
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  #85  
Old 11-21-2018, 03:12 PM
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Looking good, Mark. You made a smart decision postponing your SF visit. It is finally raining now and we are getting our first real reprieve from the smoke-filled skies.

Best,
Jayne
Thank you Jayne, Glad the rain is coming in! We will be out in April. The snows are coming down here and for Thanksgiving it is supposed to drop down to 14 degrees. So we’re hunkering down by the woodstove and having friends over for dinner. It will be nice and cozy. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving too!
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  #86  
Old 11-22-2018, 05:59 PM
Zandit75 Zandit75 is offline
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This is looking great as expected Mark!
Just curious about the thickness of the back for this body? The champher is probably over exaggerating the thickness, but it looks quite thick.
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  #87  
Old 11-22-2018, 07:39 PM
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This is looking great as expected Mark!
Just curious about the thickness of the back for this body? The champher is probably over exaggerating the thickness, but it looks quite thick.
Hi Zandit75, The back is quite thin and you are right about the champher making it appear thicker. I use a 1/4” roundover router bit when cutting the top and back plates flush which makes them appear thick. I like the roundover because it leaves less wood to remove when cutting the binding and purfling channels.

Mark
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  #88  
Old 11-23-2018, 07:55 AM
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I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I'm in the shop this morning recovering from my turkey stupor so I thought it might be better to take a couple pictures. Here is a close top picture to show the fretboard, rosette, and purfling:



Here is more of a body shot:



Thanks for following along!
Mark
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“Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.”. Andrew Fletcher

Last edited by Mark Hatcher; 11-23-2018 at 10:15 AM.
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  #89  
Old 11-24-2018, 03:18 PM
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Default More New Old Wood



I'm working on building up my stock of old woods. I just got this shipment of Honduran Mahogany. It is 150+ year old sinker wood from Belize. It is being brought up with ropes from old logging rivers and processed by the local population in small boats. This is all being done in a noninvasive manner and is making available some beautiful old growth Mahogany.

I am trying to source as much 100 yr+ woods as I can for my new Woodsman guitars. I'm carefully going through it and selecting out the best cuts for backs and sides and the smaller pieces will be for necks, as well as neck and heel blocks. The even smaller pieces will go to side braces. The really gnarly wood goes to headstock top and back plates.

Here is one of the first back and sides sets I cut today:

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Last edited by Mark Hatcher; 11-24-2018 at 03:37 PM.
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  #90  
Old 11-24-2018, 03:40 PM
ClaptonWannabe2 ClaptonWannabe2 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher View Post
The top:



The top for this guitar came from a train tunnel in Oregon that was built in 1835. It is old growth Redwood cut over 173 years ago. That would be the top left tunnel you see here on this old hand colored lithograph:



The tunnels were reinforced with concrete and when the old beams were removed they threw them off down into the ravine. My source is a local guitar builder/fireman who has been hiking down into the ravine, examining the beams and cutting off the prime pieces he is able to pack out.





So if I were to say this is a prewar top I'd be talking about the Civil War.
These tops have been fabulous. They ring like a bell, well, like several bells because of all the different tones you can get tapping them.


Here is the top I selected for this build:



And we're off!


All right. Now I am just mad. I am sure you are probably a nice person, but the stories of wood like that just......

If I had a couple beers in me I'd take a swing at you.
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