Blackwood 12 string progress

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Bob Connor
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Blackwood 12 string progress

Post by Bob Connor » Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:11 pm

Here's the fruits of my labours for the past few days.

This is the Nano-jumbo, Barge-arse model. I think we'll call them " Fat Bottomed Girls".

I'm sort of hoping this shape works 'cause there's 3 of them in various stages of construction at present. :?


Tassie Blackwood back
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Some of Shane Neifer's Lutz via Tim Spittle
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End Graft and bindings - Bloodwood - horrible stuff to sand, very oily and clogs sandpaper like nobody's business.

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Purfling W/B/W - Blackwood - W/B/W

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Couple of pics with the first coat of z-poxy

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Sam Price
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Post by Sam Price » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:48 am

Bob this is indeed, beautiful wood. I guess you are up there with my favourite builders on the web- your guitars are so unique.

The bloodwood seems to compete for attention along with the blackwood- and both combine beautifully.

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Bob Connor
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Post by Bob Connor » Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:02 am

Thanks very much Sam. I'm all embarrassed after such a nice complement. :oops:

I'm trying to find bindings that complement the back and side woods whilst not getting too much contrast between them.

The last one we did, the Myrtle OM was an example of this. A few people turned their noses up at it when the guitar was in the white but changed their tune once the finish went on. It ended up with nice earthy tones.

Indian Rosewood and Maple look great together, but tone down the bindings with Blackwood or Koa and you have a much subtler effect which I think looks very elegant.

Mind you some instruments need the contrast particularly if you are after a vintage look.

Cheers

Bob

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Craig
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Post by Craig » Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:05 am

Looking good Bob. The Blackwood sure is a pretty wood ,and the purpleheart goes with it well. I like the purfling combination also

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Lillian
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Post by Lillian » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:57 am

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

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Kim
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Post by Kim » Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:28 pm

Very nice as per usual Bob,

I really like the shape, it looks voluptuous and that nice low centre of gravity will help it from tipping off the front of the amp :D

The blood wood looks great with the blackwood but if it is such a bugger to sand, you might try Jarrah next time, cheap, available, sands real well and comes in the same red if you look around.

Cheers

Kim

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Dennis Leahy
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Post by Dennis Leahy » Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:00 pm

Bob, your Fat Bottomed Girl is a beauty! I'll bet that she is going to have some serious bass.

Is that particular set of Blackwood really that dark, or is it the lighting? It looks rich, dark, and chocolaty.

Someone mentioned that putting a white purfling strip against the Spruce is a gutsy move, because any glue line gap really shows up. How did this one go? And, would you do it again?

Dennis
Another damn Yank!

Hesh1956
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Fat Bottomed Girl

Post by Hesh1956 » Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:33 am

I love fat bottomed girls! :D

Bob she looks killer and that nara has some very nice figure to it.

Is this something like #10 now in 10 months????? :cl :cl :cl :cl :f00

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BillyT
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Post by BillyT » Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:58 am

That really stands out nice! I like it! :cl :cl :cl
I'm gonna have to look into blackwood!

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Bob Connor
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Post by Bob Connor » Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:32 am

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

Kim - I've got some Jarrah here but it just doesn't seem to have that same intensity under finish that the Bloodwod does. If I could find some a bit more vivid I'd give it a go.

I found that a light touch works better with sanding the bloodwood and using the rubbery thing for cleaning the belt sander helped a lot.

That's about the colour of it under finish Dennis. The photos may have darkened it up a bit. I'll get some pics under natural light.

Blackwood comes in all different colourings from chocolate through to a lighter brown with gold overtones. If you talk some of the older craftsmen here they will tell you that old growth is the best stuff and by old growth they mean the really dark chocolatey blackwood. So the darker it is, the more highly sought after. (by cabinet makers anyway)

There are a couple of tiny gaps in the top around the purfling.

The next test is to see how I can invisibly fill them :?

I wasn't sure how it was going to look but I'd used the W/B/W purfling on the rest of the guitar so it seemed like the right thing to do, but yes I'd do it again.

The serial number on this one is #13 Hesh. There's a couple more instruments that are being finished at the same time.(two more Fat Bottomed Girls, an OM and 4 x 0-18's) We started in November last year so I reckon that output for the year will work out at one a month.

There's a huge music festival here at Port Fairy each year that has an instrument makers section so we're trying to get a heap finished specifically for that, specifically the 4 x 0-18's and 4 more Dre@dnoughts before March :shock:

Dave and I reckon the only way to get this luthiery stuff perfected is build, build, build so we can streamline things, get a better feel for the wood, hone skills etc. So there's alway a few guitars on the bench.

Oh well, it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble :lol:

Cheers

Bob

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