Oregon myrtle and Italian spruce J45-ish build

[TomBicknell]

I'm a little nervous about posting progress photos of my current, and very first, acoustic build, given my very beginner skill level, but here goes. I'm building this at Jim Cargill's workshop with his guidance.

It's a lefty J45-ish body, but with a 25.4" scale length. The back and sides is spalted Oregon myrtle (AKA Californian laurel), and the top is Italian spruce with a bit of bearclaw figuring.

I just closed the box on it, and this past weekend trimmed the soundboard, got the tail wedge in and made the bindings, which are ebony with WB purfling like the backstrip.

I felt like my bracing wasn't as exact as I'd like, but it's got a pretty good, loud tap tone now that the top is on, so fingers crossed.

[Joshyouare]

Good work mate! Shaping up nicely.

[kiwigeo]

Anyone with the balls to post up warts and all photos of his very first gets my full respect.

You're doing fine for a first build.....looking good.

[TomBicknell]

Thanks very much guys!

[Mark McLean]

That does look beautiful. I love how you numbered it #0001, meaning that you expect to make enough guitars in your lifetime to need a four digit numbering system.
Did you pay attention to the ambient humidity when you were at the stage of gluing braces, and closing the box? If so, you are on your way to a gorgeous instrument.

[TomBicknell]

Thanks Mark! Yeah, I thought #0001 might be a bit ambitious .

Re the humidity, I’ve been building it in Jim Cargill’s very nicely set up workshop, which is well insulated and (reasonably) climate controlled. The timber has mostly come from his stash stored in the workshop, so it’s about as acclimatised as it’s going to get.

[TomBicknell]

A couple more progress shots. I spent all day Saturday working on the body bindings, and I still didn’t get them finished.

I’m continuing the back strip and tail wedge around into the binding, which is ebony with white and black purfling. Getting the white purfling to line up perfectly where it joined the wedge was a big faff, partly because I routed off the ends of the wedge, instead of just trimming off the purfling so I could mitre in the binding to join it. Lots of lessons learned for next time, and there’s a few little gaps I’ll have to fill with the old glue and ebony dust trick.

But I got the binding bent and cut decently, and I got the inner purfling strips glued on, so next time I’m in the workshop I can get the binding on.

In hindsight, I probably should have tried some simpler binding for my first attempt.

Dry fitting the binding.

Gluing on the purfling.

More tape now than guitar, twisted and evil…

[TomBicknell]

Some more progress shots. Spent a good chunk of the day getting sore hands from scraping ebony bindings, and thanking the gods for ebony dust and superglue.

Started work on the neck, which is laminated Fijian mahogany with an ebony strip.

I also sliced off a bit of what I think is macadamia to use as fret markers. It’s hard and heavy, with gorgeous medullary rays.

[Dave M]

As others have said it is coming along fine.

Also I love the seriously messy workshop! Just like ours before we tidy up for the photos.

[TomBicknell]

It’s ‘lived in’, Dave! This is Jim Cargill’s home workshop, where he runs luthiery classes on Saturdays, after working eight days a week in the storied Cargill Guitars shop in Seaford. It’s had years of numpties like me making a mess of it, so I’m amazed it’s as organised as it is.