Stephen Kinnaird OM build - LS Redwood on Ziricote

[Cincy2]

That Ziricote should be hanging in an art gallery!

Cincy

[cigarfan]

The inside back is quite colorful. Should be fun to look at through the soundhole!

[vanceen]

Originally Posted by cigarfan

The inside back is quite colorful. Should be fun to look at through the soundhole!

That's funny. The last two posts echo some comments I made to Steve. I said the inside of the back ought to be hanging in the Louvre. And when he was regretting losing some of the figuring that's where the sound port will be, I said I'd have to learn to play left handed and upside down like Hendrix to look at that grain.

At least it'll be easy to look inside the port!

[vanceen]

OK, some less glamorous but still essential steps.

Here's the neck block and end block:



And here's a couple of angles of them being glued in with plenty of clamps:

[TomB'sox]

Wait until you get the Kinnaird tone bars put in and they give you instructions, just amazing. But you have to own the guitar first.

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Wait until you get the Kinnaird tone bars put in and they give you instructions, just amazing. But you have to own the guitar first.

Let's leave him hanging till....

[vanceen]

Hanging I'm used to. It's part of the fun.

Here's the horn block being glued in, if you can spot it:



And the sides now taken shape, looking something like a guitar!

[vanceen]

OK, time for putting together the neck. Here's the layers. It's an internal piece of Santo Domingo mahogany, flanked by a couple of pieces of that beautiful ziricote, and then the bulk of it is Honduran Mahogany.



A couple of angles of the glued, clamped pieces:





That's going to be a nice stripe on the back of the neck.

[cigarfan]

I always like looking at the part that peeks out of that beautiful Kinnaird headstock shape as well! Gonna be special!

[doodahdoug]

Just a beautiful choice of woods and Steve's deep body OM was a great choice too! Look forward to seeing this one progress.

[vanceen]

The neck is out of its clamps:



Steve told me the story of how he and his brother came into possession of the Santo Domingo mahogany which forms the central stripe. It was from a fine furniture maker in Atlanta who had these beautiful pieces of Santo Domingo (Cuban apparently) which had been cut in the old fashioned way, with circular saws. He was kind enough to share a stack of these with the Kinnairds, and I'm glad he did.

The finished neck in the picture is for comparison, and it also has a strip of Santo Domingo mahogany down the center.

And now for the arm bevel. The block for the bevel is made out of seven alternating layers of western cedar and redwood, for long term stability. Here are the layers being glued together in the form:



The bevel block being marked for shaping cut, and shaped:






And the finished bevel block:



And finally for today, the bevel block and the reverse kerfed Honduran mahogany lining glued onto the sides. Steve tells me that the reversed kerfing gives significantly more stiffness to the sides than conventional kerfing.

[cigarfan]

Coming along swimmingly! First I've heard of reversed kerfing (I think). Leave it to Steve and Ryan to think outside the box.

[TomB'sox]

Stiff sides seem to be the ticket these days, whether it is this method or double and triple sides that some folks are doing. The stiffer the sides allows more vibration to occur in the top and back.

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by cigarfan

Coming along swimmingly! First I've heard of reversed kerfing (I think). Leave it to Steve and Ryan to think outside the box.

And here we were, trying think inside "the box"
Dennis, we are not the first to adopt this style of linings by a long stretch. I was semi-resistant at first, but their usefulness proved itself to me and now this is all we do. Look inside the guitars we made you, and there you'll see them.

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Stiff sides seem to be the ticket these days, whether it is this method or double and triple sides that some folks are doing. The stiffer the sides allows more vibration to occur in the top and back.

Tom, this--like everything in lutherie--is one of those debated topics.
But it makes sense to me, if one is thinking that string energy can be dissipated ineffectively. For instance a flexible neck/head stock that wastes energy, robbing it from the top.
But I will have to admit that some of my early thinking about sound production in a guitar came from Art Overholtzer's book. Who kept stressing his ideas on reducing stresses in the instrument. Much of my thoughts about these linings are along the lines of stabilizing the sides as much as possible, so that there is a stress-free platform (as much as I can do) for the top to rest upon.

Hope that makes sense...

[vanceen]

Time to decide on the wood for the headstock overlay. We had decided on ziricote at the beginning, and Steve offered three samples, each with its own appeal. The one on the left is from the ziricote slices that went into the neck.



I decided on the middle piece, since more of the figuring was in the center and would be more visible. The symmetrical piece on the right (above) is really nice, but not so obviously ziricote.

Here's the selected piece together with the fretboard, the bridge blank, and the neck.



Back to the sides. Here the rim is getting some fine shaping. I love the curls of ziricote. It's my thing for wood curls.



The reverse-kerfed lining going on to the top rim. It's hard to see, but Steve put a thin piece of black wood (probably dyed poplar) inside the horn, glued at cross grain for extra reinforcement at that sharp curve.



And the best for last. Here's a glamor shot of the sides. Just few details are left before the sides are finished (sound port, side bracing...). But I think it looks pretty good.