Sexauer's guitars for HGF/13

[needspeed]

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer

Thanks, guys!!!

Looks like I'll string the companion tomorrow!

Just letting you know that today is tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bruce Sexauer]

I did string the Companion, and I sent it out yesterday! Not before I took some pictures to document it for my website, though, and you can find that page here.

Now I am back to the P-wood Kerala. The top is bound, and I expect the back to be too by the end of Friday. Pics soon.

[Bruce Sexauer]

The Kerala body is complete except for leveling the graft, so tomorrow I am on to the neck!

Evidence:

[tekaitora]

Bruce, when you have time I would love to hear you expand on your statement at your website about FT-0-JB/2 regarding the bracing. And again, thank you for your continued contributions to enriching the knowledge of luthiers and guitar lovers here.

[Bruce Sexauer]

I have never been much for editting, it follows reading my own writing is the major reason for that; I rarely do it. What did I say about the bracing?

[tekaitora]

Bruce, it was the phrase "Then there's the bracing, but that is a complex story!" that piqued my interest, although I strongly suspect it would take me a lifetime to begin to understand that complexity.

[Bruce Sexauer]

In this particular guitar I did an experiment with asymmetric upper bout bracing. Many luthiers write off the upper bout as as non-resonant re the sound and projection of the guitar, and I do not disaggree, but there is another issue which is often under-addressed IMO, and that is wolf notes. These imbalanced resonance nodes occur for a variety of reasons, but they have in common that they are local hot spots, and I have long thought that the upper bout is one of the main culprits. The trick is to reduce the likely hood of a resonance node w/o killing the guitar (or killing part of it). It is hard to say whether I was successful or not in this case because I have done a lot of work in this direction over the years and don't really seem to have much of a problem at this point. This means that improvement is difficult to quantify!

Still, I continue to work forward. Balance is the true frontier for the steel string guitar. This is most easily measured by comparing the best note on the instrument to the worst note. Not being able to tell which is which is the goal.

[tekaitora]

A fantastic story line! Many thanks, Bruce.

[Bruce Sexauer]

Pernambuco mellows from its early florescent character to a brick color w/o losing its visual clarity, but it takes some time after the finish is on and direct UV exposure has its risks. So, before putting on any finish I am giving some UV exposure to this guitar, avoiding the heat of the day. This is a first for me, and is gratifying in the vein of gardening, if that makes sense to you.

[CoolerKing]

Hi Bruce, its Matthew from UMGF, recently joined here. Loving the rosette design! Keep up the good work.

My own amazon carpathian build has finally gotten back underway after looking about 20k of garage contents including 90% of my luthier supplies tools etc.

[Bruce Sexauer]

Welcome to AGF, Matthew. I read your thread yesterday. I wish I was as comfortable with showing my work in UMGF as I am here. They are polite, but I feel like a bit of an interloper with my relatively progressive thinking.

[Bruce Sexauer]

Those of you who followed my last build thread (Steve Sommers' JB-16) may be amused to see that I have run further with the interesting graphic treatment I came up with for him. I will use the dark/oily looking Schertlers to complete the graphic statement.

This is the head for the current build with sealer coat on:


I play violin in a local amateur orchestra, and we are performing for free tonight (Thursday 4/23/13) at the Bennett Valley Senior Center (not for the seniors, we rented the hall) in Santa Rosa, CA at 7:30 if anyone is interested.

[Berf]

Celtic cross???

Lovely looking guitars as usual Bruce. Is the sunbaking a method to try and speed up the colour change process on the pernambuco? There's something alluring to the term "fluorescent" particularly contrasted against brick-like!!!

Fiddle-on. Cheers, berf

[CoolerKing]

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer

Welcome to AGF, Matthew. I read your thread yesterday. I wish I was as comfortable with showing my work in UMGF as I am here. They are polite, but I feel like a bit of an interloper with my relatively progressive thinking.

Breaking the mold (pun intended) is a good thing!

[Tone Gopher]