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  #46  
Old 09-20-2017, 01:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CE Sobel View Post
Hi Tom,

I would be happy to send you a shop demo guitar for a week that you can check out, once I build a couple to keep in inventory next year. No pressure at all to buy anything; I do it from time to time if someone wants to check out an instrument. I'm going to build one 00.5 and one 000.5 but the same overall bracing and design. I'll hopefully do another build thread for them so you should reach out to me at that time.

Cheers,

Chris
Wow, thanks, I will definitely follow along and keep that in mind. The bracing was very unique from what I have seen in the past.
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  #47  
Old 09-21-2017, 07:19 AM
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Very rich work. Both in materials and craftsmanship.
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  #48  
Old 09-22-2017, 12:26 AM
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Originally Posted by maurerfan View Post
Chris .. you may have already seen this .. if not, its a good read about the early fan-braced Martins.

http://www.earlymartin.com/fanbraces.html
Hey there... no I had not read it but found it very interesting in the connection to the 19th century Spanish classical guitars!

Thanks for sharing.

Chris
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  #49  
Old 10-14-2017, 04:52 PM
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Hello,

It's been a couple weeks that I had to detour to fix some tools and make some long needed workshop improvements!

I've made the bridges and took a few pictures of a stress test on my prototype bridge, as well as showing the various steps of making them.

First up, a couple nice Brazilian blanks from old pool cue stock...
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  #50  
Old 10-14-2017, 05:01 PM
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First the strings are marked and the steel piano wire holes are drilled out. The tops of the holes are then widened for the string wells.
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  #51  
Old 10-14-2017, 05:05 PM
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Cutting out the steel piano wire rods and brass rings...
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  #52  
Old 10-14-2017, 05:10 PM
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Brass rings are then cut and glued in... the piano wire will be inserted once the bridge is installed on the guitar.
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  #53  
Old 10-14-2017, 05:17 PM
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Now the test rig... I knew I would find a good use for those olympic lifting plates... The steel wire isn't glued in but extends into the workbench. In reality the package will be much stronger once the rods are actually glued into the blackwood insert under the bridge. Regardless this is 55lbs hanging off one bridge post, and that with barely any movement in the piano wire.

Cheers,

Chris
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  #54  
Old 11-02-2017, 12:42 AM
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Sorry for the fast forward here... I'm doing the last few items on the Redwood/Cocobolo before polishing. I love the veins in that Cocobolo!

I need to drill for the tuners after this, the endpin, and refine the headstock a little bit. The Macassar ebony fretboard is bound in the same ebony/birdseye maple that the rest of the guitar has... the fret markers are abalone embedded in brass with EVO gold frets, which still need a final level and polish.
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  #55  
Old 11-02-2017, 08:39 AM
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That Cocobolo is unreal!

Beautiful headstock overlay...
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  #56  
Old 01-07-2018, 03:48 AM
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The Redwood/Cocobolo has been picked up by its owner... we both really liked how it turned out. The sound was grand and cathedral-like with a very nice clarity and depth.
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  #57  
Old 01-07-2018, 09:36 AM
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Beautiful guitar. Could we get a close up of your bridge? And really pushing my luck, a recording? I am really curious how it sounds.
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  #58  
Old 01-07-2018, 11:07 AM
GeoffStGermaine GeoffStGermaine is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CE Sobel View Post
The black insert in the middle of the top is a small section of Blackwood that goes through the top and most of the bridge patch to house the piano wire that the strings will hook onto.
Thanks for posting! A couple of very cool guitars you've got going right here.

Neat concept with that block running through the top into the bridge patch. I've read Mike Doolin's description of Jeff's pinless bridge design and this block seems like a nice addition to move some of the shear force through the top and into the bridge patch. I've been planning to use piano wire as anchors on a pinless bridge I'm working on for a guitar. I've previously adapted it for an archtop guitar tailpiece for the anchors and it worked quite well there.
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  #59  
Old 01-07-2018, 11:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by printer2 View Post
Beautiful guitar. Could we get a close up of your bridge? And really pushing my luck, a recording? I am really curious how it sounds.
No not pushing your luck at all... I am probably going to do a recording when I put in the pickup next month but I don't have the guitar right now. Here is a closeup of the bridge; sorry I had some difficulty focusing that close but you get the idea. The saddle is swapped in favor of small brass posts which makes string to string intonation really easy. The hardest part I found about doing this is getting the 2mm piano wire holes to match up perfectly with the 5mm holes that get the brass tube inlay. The holes have to be centered within .004 inches of each other or the string end won't fit in the bridge. I went through more than a few prototypes to figure it out.
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  #60  
Old 01-08-2018, 09:56 AM
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So the saddle posts are set in the wood is there any adjustability to them? Hard to tell from this view.
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