It’s a very, very MA-D world—Michel Aboudib MA-D

[sinistral]

Seeing Sam’s crossover build thread prompted me to start one for my MA-D. I think my guitar is perhaps just ahead of Sam’s in Michel’s build queue. It seems that many folks here are familiar with Michel or have met him at B.I.G., so he doesn’t need introduction. For those who are less familiar, doodahdoug provided a great summary in this thread.

I met Michel at the Fretboard Summit in Chicago last year and got to see and play his “apprentice guitar” that he built during his stay at Ervin Somogyi’s. In addition to being a fantastic luthier, Michel is simply a wonderful person—very humble, soft-spoken and fascinating to talk to.

Onto the build. I was originally thinking of pretty standard woods (European spruce over rosewood or perhaps ebony, which Michel uses frequently), but when he got back to France and sent me the link to his wood selection, I went in a completely different direction. I settled on a top of Tunnel 14 redwood:



with koa back and sides:



Michel will use a piece of the spalted koa on the headstock.

The build has been coming along—here are a few shots of the back in progress:




There’s also a cool time-lapse video of Michel carving the back braces that Michel posted on instagram. I’ll see if I can link to it here if this doesn’t work:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrBft...c4MmM1YmI2Ng==

I know Michel is quite busy and hasn’t been taking a ton of progress photos, but I will post more as I get them.

[mountainguitar]

I love these woods and it's looking wonderful! What are the specs for this model? I'm not that familiar with Michel's work so I'm interested in more of the details you selected. Thanks!

beth

[Deliberate1]

Lefty, that is going to be stunning guitar. Your design, with the Florentine cutaway, reminds me of the design I chose (see my Spohn build post, above, if you like). Will look forward to seeing more baby pics.
David

[sinistral]

Originally Posted by mountainguitar

I love these woods and it's looking wonderful! What are the specs for this model? I'm not that familiar with Michel's work so I'm interested in more of the details you selected. Thanks!

beth

In acoustic guitars, Michel builds in pretty standard sizes, but the shapes have a certain consistent style to them. The D (dreadnought) size is the largest, but it doesn’t look like a Martin dreadnought. Shape-wise, perhaps it’s closer to a a Martin J or a Taylor GA? Sizes range from parlor to D, as well as a flamenco/classical for nylon strings. Here is a link to the different sizes. The scale length will be 25”. I didn’t dare ask Michel to make a left-handed fan-fret guitar…

When my build slot came up, Michel gave me the option to have him build a Modified Dreadnought in the Somogyi style, but I actually prefer the shape of the MA-D so I stuck with it. Maybe the next one…

As Deliberate1 (David). noted, the guitar has a florentine cutaway. The neck will be a three-piece neck, mahogany with a center strip of (I believe) wenge. The sides are actually laminated, and the inside wood is padauk. As I understand it, Michel typically laminates his sides, but in this case it also allowed him to make the sides deeper than he otherwise would have been able to with the koa pieces. I can’t recall what we settled on for binding—will need to check.

The rosette is a whole nother project. Carved rosettes have become something of an Aboudib signature, and I am going with a carved rosette, with a few twists.

Originally Posted by Deliberate1

Lefty, that is going to be stunning guitar. Your design, with the Florentine cutaway, reminds me of the design I chose (see my Spohn build post, above, if you like). Will look forward to seeing more baby pics.
David

Thanks! That Spohn is going to be stellar!

[Deliberate1]

Originally Posted by sinistral

I

Thanks! That Spohn is going to be stellar!

Much obliged. Michel was on my very short list (of two...). His builds are a visual treat - from the carved rosette, as you point out, to the svelte headstock. As with Max Spohn's builds, they are unique. I will look forward to see it take form.
Enjoy the ride!
David

[s2y]

Looks stellar so far!

His apprentice 00 was stellar. I played a few 00s at BIG that I would have loved to take home with me.

[sinistral]

A few more progress shots. Some of these photo are from a while ago—I forgot to post them.

In this photo, the back is coming along and are the sides being built:



The kerfing being glued:



The top has been initially voiced and attached to the top. I’m holding off on posting the photo—I’ll ask Michel if he minds me posting it. Let’s just say that the bracing is exquisite.

The back is finished (literally) and ready to attach to the sides:



I believe that the floating brace is a feature that Michel learned from Jeff Traugott, whom he credits. My understanding is that it adds longitudinal stability to the back.

The box is complete and routed for the binding:



The binding is ebony (somewhere under the tape):

[Deliberate1]

Looks like great progress. But I cannot help but consider, after seeing all those clamps and vises and even clothspins (OMG!), how painful it must be for these innocent and unsuspecting pieces of woods to be carved and contorted into a musical instrument soley for our pleasure. Oh, the humanity

David

[s2y]

Looking good. I'm guessing mine will be behind it.

What are your plans with yours? My Aboudib OM typically lives in DADGAD.

[sinistral]

Originally Posted by Deliberate1

Looks like great progress. But I cannot help but consider, after seeing all those clamps and vises and even clothspins (OMG!), how painful it must be for these innocent and unsuspecting pieces of woods to be carved and contorted into a musical instrument soley for our pleasure. Oh, the humanity

David

Seriously. And to make matters worse, Michel frequently goes at the wood with a chisel to carve rosettes, etc.

Originally Posted by s2y

Looking good. I'm guessing mine will be behind it.

What are your plans with yours? My Aboudib OM typically lives in DADGAD.

Probably a mix of standard, drop D and DADGAD tuning, unless I find that the guitar calls out to me to stay in a particular tuning. Right now, I have one guitar that is specifically tuned for some slack key pieces (I forget the exact tuning)—it’s convenient but a bit limiting.

Michel did mention that yours will be finished right after mine.

[Deliberate1]

Originally Posted by sinistral

Seriously. And to make matters worse, Michel frequently goes at the wood with a chisel to carve rosettes, etc.

Monster!

[Guitars44me]

Beautiful woods! Looking forward to more!

Does anyone here know how many former apprentices Ervin S has had now ?

I know Michael caused quite a stir at BIG.

I can begin to see why

Cheers

Paul

[sinistral]

Originally Posted by Guitars44me

Beautiful woods! Looking forward to more!

Does anyone here know how many former apprentices Ervin S has had now ?

I know Michael caused quite a stir at BIG.

I can begin to see why

Cheers

Paul

Hi Paul,

In post #5 in this thread, Jim Magill provides a list that was up-to-date as of 2017. With the pandemic, there probably haven’t been that many since. There are a couple of phenomenal posts by Jason Kostal in that thread that are wikipedia-worthy.

On a unrelated note, Michel didn’t have any concerns with me posting a photo of the bracing of the top, so here it is:



I love how refined the scalloping is—it’s like sculpture.

[s2y]

Looking good. It'll be interesting to hear how redwood and koa behave in Michel's designs.

[sinistral]

Originally Posted by s2y

Looking good. It'll be interesting to hear how redwood and koa behave in Michel's designs.

When I was deciding on the tonewood for the back and sides, Michel commented that the type of wood wouldn’t change the tone materially, given the way he constructs his guitars. I don’t recall the exact explanation. As it is, the sides are a laminate of padauk and koa, so there’s a little padauk thrown in the mix.

I’m just sad that Antoine Aubry can’t play a left-handed guitar, so no demo recording for me!