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  #1  
Old 04-21-2022, 12:10 PM
Howard Emerson Howard Emerson is offline
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Default All cedar Monteleone archtop-more pictures added

Here's something John Monteleone started a very long time ago, as an experiment. He finally got around to finishing it, and it really works!

Cedar back, sides and top, from a regular old red cedar plank. The neck is maple, and of course the trim pieces are ebony. The body has a satin finish on it, which really looks perfect on cedar!











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Howard Emerson
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Last edited by Howard Emerson; 10-21-2022 at 04:44 AM. Reason: Additional pictures
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Old 04-21-2022, 08:02 PM
Sage Runner Sage Runner is offline
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Love his simple small shop. That’s a beautiful Guitar. No doubt light as a feather. I am sure has a unique tone. Thanks for sharing
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Old 04-22-2022, 08:08 PM
Richard Mott Richard Mott is offline
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Howard, such a beautiful guitar! Clean lines and lovely color to the wood. Is there anything you can say about how the choice of cedar may affect the tone?
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Old 04-23-2022, 06:04 AM
Howard Emerson Howard Emerson is offline
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Originally Posted by Richard Mott View Post
Howard, such a beautiful guitar! Clean lines and lovely color to the wood. Is there anything you can say about how the choice of cedar may affect the tone?
Hi Richard,
Because the entire body of the instrument is made from red cedar, there's no way that I could have any ideas about the interaction between the parts; there's no baseline to work from.

I think John got an idea he wanted to experiment with, and he's proven that it 'works'. I believe the string type selection and tailpiece height can be changed to lessen the loading/downward pressure on the top, and I think this will help the instrument achieve a much fuller voice.

It's certainly going to be a lighter guitar than you'd ever get from a typical maple & spruce build. Imagine if he'd stuck with a cedar neck too? For the decades that it's been hanging on the wall it did have a cedar neck, held on by a wing nut for angle/height adjustment.

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Howard
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Old 04-23-2022, 10:49 AM
MC5C MC5C is offline
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How interesting! I had a wild hair idea to make a mando-cello out of all redwood, since I don't have a mando cello and have enough redwood. Consensus was it wouldn't work, which I didn't understand. I also like his idea to build a tailpiece that could experiment with string down-pressure, since I did the same thing in 2017 or so. My impression was the less down-pressure, the better, up to when the strings fall off the bridge. My idea is that down-pressure pre-loads the top and makes it far less sensitive to string vibration. I went down to around 4 degrees, while a typical archtop break angle is 10 - 12 degrees. The Benedetto style of tailpiece, with the Sacconi gut, has a pivot over the tail block, and normally rests on a piece of hard stuff. The height of that pivot is critical to break angle - the string pull vector goes through the Sacconi cable, over the top of that pivot block, and so is completely adjustable.
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Around 15 archtops, electrics, resonators, a lap steel, a uke, a mandolin, some I made, some I bought, some kinda showed up and wouldn't leave. Tatamagouche Nova Scotia.
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Old 04-23-2022, 02:34 PM
Howard Emerson Howard Emerson is offline
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Brian,
I think that the top pressure issue is not about the strings falling off the bridge, but the bridge itself moving.

There’s probably a point of diminishing returns in either direction. A tailpiece anchor with a vertical-adjustment-crank would allow real-time experimentation with only retuning being necessary between tests.

Howard Emerson
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Old 04-30-2022, 07:22 PM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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Man, Howard!

What a great looking guitar!

- Glenn
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Old 10-21-2022, 04:43 AM
Howard Emerson Howard Emerson is offline
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Besides having added more pictures to the original post, I've been experimenting with different strings.

When I picked up the guitar from John, he'd strung it with D'Addario Silk & Steel .011-.047, but it was a bit too rubber-bandy sounding, especially with my habit of tuning down, and even more so in open C tuning.

I got some GHS Silk & Bronze .012-.054, and while they had the tension, the tone was just not happening in this combination. The silk seemed to have muted the highs too much, and the vibration of the strings felt/sounded restricted.

I then decided to put on a set of D'Addario J-21 .012-.052 nickel wounds and THAT woke the guitar up for my particular set of needs.

It's a nice chase to take part in!



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Old 10-21-2022, 09:32 AM
DavidE DavidE is offline
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I stopped into Rudy’s in Scarsdale last weekend and drooled over John’s guitars. Works of art.
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Old 10-21-2022, 11:50 AM
jim1960 jim1960 is online now
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That's a beautiful guitar, Howard.
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2023 Iris ND-200 maple/adi
2017 Circle Strings 00 bastogne walnut/sinker redwood
2015 Circle Strings Parlor shedua/western red cedar
2009 Bamburg JSB Signature Baritone macassar ebony/carpathian spruce
2004 Taylor XXX-RS indian rosewood/sitka spruce
1988 Martin D-16 mahogany/sitka spruce

along with some electrics, zouks, dulcimers, and banjos.

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Old 10-31-2022, 06:34 PM
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StringMeUp StringMeUp is offline
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Those Monteleones are so beautiful!! 😍😍😍. If you have not seen this movie, don’t miss it!

https://youtu.be/QWx6OWN4wyI
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Old 11-05-2022, 05:07 AM
Howard Emerson Howard Emerson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by StringMeUp View Post
Those Monteleones are so beautiful!! ������. If you have not seen this movie, don’t miss it!

https://youtu.be/QWx6OWN4wyI
I'll be performing tonight, Saturday Nov.5 in Sag Harbor at The Church after the showing of The Chisels Are Calling and the Q&A with Trevor Laurence & John Monteleone.

I'll be playing my 00 12fret LaCorsa, and one of John's Radio Flyer Electric archtops.

The weather couldn't be better!

Here's the link to venue: https://www.thechurchsagharbor.org

And here's the cedar archtop if you haven't heard it in the other thread. This is before I changed the silk & steel strings that John strung it with. A bit on the rubber-bandy side, but it's still got the goods because it's just so lightly built!



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Howard Emerson
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Last edited by Howard Emerson; 11-05-2022 at 07:07 AM.
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Old 11-06-2022, 02:50 PM
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StringMeUp StringMeUp is offline
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Howard, I would have loved to have be able to attend! Your cedar archtop is simply amazing.

I really enjoyed The Chisels Are Calling.
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Old 11-06-2022, 04:24 PM
Howard Emerson Howard Emerson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by StringMeUp View Post
Howard, I would have loved to have be able to attend! Your cedar archtop is simply amazing.

I really enjoyed The Chisels Are Calling.
Well this'll have to do:


Not the cedar, but one of John's Radio Flyer Electrics through my Princeton Reverb with a JBL D123. I hope you enjoy it!

HE
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Old 11-16-2022, 08:06 AM
Richard Mott Richard Mott is offline
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Howard, great arrangement and such beautiful playing! Of course, we’d love to hear that guitar purely acoustically, but given the venue the Princeton was called for. Great stuff!
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