Osthoff Guitars '2016 - Page 4

John Osthoff · #46 06-16-2016, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7

The back set is simply stunning John...

. I can't wait to see it under finish!

Kudos

Thanks, The sides are cool too. Right now I have set this one aside to work on some other stuff, and where the body sits on the shelf, it catches my eye as I walk by, thinking I did some really cool sunburst on the sides. Then I realize nature did that, and did it much better than I can do with a spray gun.

j. Kinnaird · #47 06-16-2016, 06:15 PM

I have never heard of katalox. It is pretty stuff for sure. What are its properties?

iim7V7IM7 · #48 06-16-2016, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j. Kinnaird

I have never heard of katalox. It is pretty stuff for sure. What are its properties?

Dense, hard n' stiff (and John's set appears to have interlocking grain).

http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-...woods/katalox/

TomB'sox · #49 06-16-2016, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j. Kinnaird

I have never heard of katalox. It is pretty stuff for sure. What are its properties?

Not to bud in here, but I have a Katalox (aka Mexican royal ebony) guitar which looks a lot different than the Katalox on Mr. Osthoff's beautiful guitar. It is a very heavy wood, dense, more in the rosewood family than not... Mine is a heavy guitar, but very nice overtones....I will try to import a picture here if I can figure that out....

John Osthoff · #50 06-17-2016, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j. Kinnaird

I have never heard of katalox. It is pretty stuff for sure. What are its properties?

John,

I first heard of Katalox from Chris at LMI when I was looking for some substitute for Ebony for fretboards. Here is what LMI had to say:

Katalox (pronounced "cat-ah-losh") is a dense, hard Central American wood that is similar to Ebony. The color is dark brown to nearly black with subtle red/purple highlights. Martin Guitar has used Katalox fingerboards on several of their guitar models. With a bit of oil, we feel that this wood would be very difficult to differentiate from Ebony.

I had not thought to use it except for fretboards until I came across these nice looking sets. I must say I was attracted to them with my eyes, but when I picked them up and started to tap on them they had that glassy sound of Brazilian, with a long sustain. Seemed very promising. Back in the shop, I ran some dynamic testing on the back plates and the ‘numbers’ were between what I have seen for African Blackwood and Macassar Ebony.

This is the first I have built with Katalox for a back and side. I think I mentioned early in the thread that I am extremely lucky to have a customer to that is willing to work outside of the norms a bit and wanted put this OM together with the Katalox and White Spruce for the top. I am excited about this one. It should be great.

John Osthoff · #51 06-17-2016, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Not to bud in here, but I have a Katalox (aka Mexican royal ebony) guitar which looks a lot different than the Katalox on Mr. Osthoff's beautiful guitar. It is a very heavy wood, dense, more in the rosewood family than not... Mine is a heavy guitar, but very nice overtones....I will try to import a picture here if I can figure that out....

That's a great looking guitar, thanks for posting it here.

John Osthoff · #52 06-19-2016, 06:27 AM

Last week was a crazy week full of distractions outside of the shop. (Long story.) However I did manage to make some progress. I started out with 3 bodies without binding and did manage to got the binding/purfling installed on all of them. They need some cleaning up so I will try to snap some photos later. I don't usually build in batches, but these three have been a various stages for a while, so they ended up going down different paths before ending up at the same place in the build cycle. Here is a shot of the 3 bodies from last week:

There is some parallax that makes the Maple GP in the front look (large) compared to the Katalox OM and Cocobolo SJ, but you get the idea.

John Osthoff · #53 06-19-2016, 06:40 AM

I began the build of another (Macassar Ebony) SJ and got the double sides all made up. That will have to be put on hold as there was a problem that occurred when processing the back plate that rendered it unusable. (I won't go into the details of that, let's just say stuff happens. Here is a shot of the one of the sides that will eventually become an SJ when I find new piece for the back.

There was also a bit of design work, (not much to show with photos) but I did come up with a concept for a new fretboard inlay that I planned for the SJ(s.) After the mishap with Ebony, I decided to move ahead on the spec African Blackwood SJ that I am hoping to finish up for the Woodstock invitational Luthiers Showcase. More details on the SJ and Woodstock will be coming.

iim7V7IM7 · #54 06-19-2016, 08:03 AM

Being transparent about the "hiccups" of real-world lutherie is something that should be shared more often around here in my opinion. It helps players and potential clients better understand the process. Many times, I see people wanting to provide luthiers with wood sets. Stuff like this can and does happen.

Thanks again for sharing...

John Osthoff · #55 06-20-2016, 07:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7

Being transparent about the "hiccups" of real-world lutherie is something that should be shared more often around here in my opinion. It helps players and potential clients better understand the process. Many times, I see people wanting to provide luthiers with wood sets. Stuff like this can and does happen.

Thanks again for sharing...

A lot of innovative things have come from these types of hiccups. I saw this really cool "scoop" on the neck heel where it meets the body, a result of an apprentice going too deep with a spokeshave. It is now a feature. One of the coolest cutaways I have seen, was the result of breaking the side when bending for a Venetian, and using the break point to begin a Florentine. Lots of cool inlays are a result of covering a bad rout or the slip of chisel. Sometimes we can capitalize on these mistakes.

John Osthoff · #56 06-20-2016, 11:15 AM

Here is a shot of the Katalox OM with binding. The binding material is also Katalox although sapwood. More shots to come ...

tekaitora · #57 06-20-2016, 09:29 PM

John, the wood figure reminds me of watercolor paintings of the high desert in Wyoming. It will be totally captivating highlighted by your finishing techniques - looking forward to those pictures very much. Thank you for the updates!

D.Kwasnycia · #58 06-20-2016, 09:57 PM

John, that Katalox is stunning!! Great work and always look forward to seeing your stuff.

John Osthoff · #59 06-22-2016, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 8thstring

Man these designs are amazing. Great job on all of them. How long does it take you to do one guitar? Brilliant job!

Sorry, I missed this one from earlier in the thread.

Thanks for the nice comments. I usually tell people it is about a hundred hours in a guitar. Some take more if there are a lot of options such as a bevel, or inlay. Others will take a bit less. I am actually slower than used to be. I am not sure (exactly) why this is the case, but I suspect I am just taking a couple of extra steps of care. There are a lot of hours where I am not actually making sawdust that is part of the process too. All in all, it is a labor of love.

John Osthoff · #60 06-22-2016, 08:43 AM

Here are couple shots of the Katalox OM with the binding installed. I did not really 'clean it up' yet. In the first shot, you can see the rosewood/maple rope purfling. I had this rope set aside to put on the Maple GP that I am making and the customer saw it (and liked it) so we put it on this one too.

The binding is also Katalox, but taken from the sapwood. Here is shot of the tail-wedge.