KB Pine/Blackwood OOO

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Liam, Bill, thanks mates.
Liam, the neck will be finished with traditional nitro lacquer. Your concern is a valid one.
There must be some barrier coat between the oil and the lacquer. I use a product from Behlen called "Qualasole". (Can you guys get that in Oz?) It's basically a padding lacquer, which is designed to be compatible with nearly any finishing material. It dries beautifully over the Danish oil, and then forms a nice base for the lacquer to adhere to.
And actually, I start the lacquering with a vinyl sealer, so you could say there's 4 finishing products on there (!)
The Qualasole, being padded on, is also how I fill the pores. It goes on quick, fills and builds easily. I wonder if your Ubeaut (sp?) hard shellac would work just as well--if not even better?

Cheers,

Steve

[P Bill]

It's been almost 30 years but I rember Qualasole is your danish oil Watco?


This is off topic. Next year I'm going to Arizona and would like bring back a used Guitarron. Any guesses as to a price ?

[Kim]

Hey Steve,

Just wanted to say thank you for documenting this build here.

It seems to me that anyone who joins a stringed instrument 'building' forums, would enjoy this kind of thread above all else. With this in mind I think I speak for the majority when I say that we feel privileged you have taken the time to share your excellent work with us and I hope we see much more from you posted in this vein at the ANZLF.

Cheers mate.

Kim

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Bill, the brand of oil was sold by Woodworker's Supply of New Mexico...at the moment I'm having a brain freeze as to the name on the can. I only know it doesn't say Watco. (But it's probably the same stuff.) As for the $$ of a guitarron, don't know that for sure. Just fly a big plane.

Kim--whoa, bud, much appreciated! But you must have me confused with someone else.
Nonetheless, I will try not to embarrass meself, or disappoint the faithful.

Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

A few more shots--

These first two show the Blackwood coming to life with the thin wipe coat of Danish oil:

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Here's the back/side view with the Danish oil treatment complete:

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And the side/top view:

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Finally, a view of the peghead with our logo installed.
Ryan went in a bold direction and cut the logo out of highly curled green ab-- it's a busy peg head:

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That's enough for now--thanks again for watching along,

Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Fitting the bridge to the dome of the top.
The bulk is removed with a scraper, then a bit of back & forth on this sand paper reveals what little bit more needs to be removed for a tight fit:

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Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

They say that misery loves company. If so, you'll love this installment.
So the finish prep was going along just fine. Actually starting to spray lacquer on the body.
Started spraying first top coat on the KB Pine, when my handle (that holds the body) broke.

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So while I'm taking the body off to dry, that thing snaps, and the guitar flies downward, bouncing off the steps into the garage. Of course, top first.

I feared the worst, like cracked top, broken *anything*--but this is all that happened:

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It's just a dent I tell myself, and wonder if a drop fill will fix it. However, we all know better--a drop fill here will just advertise the problem. So, sand down to bare wood and steam it out:

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This is how it looked after steaming--dent is gone.

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Then the thought that I'll only have to refinish that small stripe on the right side. But I've found that finish blending or repair--on tops--is the most unforgiving problem in lutherie.
Eventually just stripped all the finish off.

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So here we are, all the top resanded, and ready for the (new) sealer coat.
Which I'm happy to report looks good, and we're ready to start where we were yesterday.

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Oh, and the handles are also repaired, as well as strengthened against similar disasters.
I feel as if I got off rather lightly, and didn't--am I saying this correctly?--stuff it too badly.

Cheers,

Steve

[sebastiaan56]

Thanks for the tute Steve Good looking recovery from "sh!t happens"

[Dennis Leahy]

Oooooooooh! I bet you couldn't breathe for a while there - until you picked up the body and examined the damage. It must have hit in such a way, like a karate fall to the mat, where lots of places hit nearly simultaneously, and dissipated most of the energy. Either that, or the Blackwood is stronger than the stairs. Any dents in the stair treads?

You'll never know, but it is possible that your luthier muse was trying to tell you to thin the top down right there by a few thousandths. This will probably be your best sounding guitar to date!

Dennis

[John Steele]

Good save on the dent Steve. Man, that has got to be one of the worst feelings to have something like that when you're that far along.
Guitar is looking great.
J

[Dave Anderson]

Dang,a scarey moment there!! Steve,Have you seen this guitar holder from Stew Mac ? I got
one and I'm just about ready to give it a try. Some others have used it and are giving it
high marks. I think I'm going to like this thing!


youtu.be/

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. Not to mention the condolences.
So Dave, is marketing going to buy me one of those handles for Christmas???

Funny, Dennis! But remember it was the KB Pine that hit first!
So I reflexively grab the guitar, and of course grab wet lacquer.
Failed to mention that....
Should I leave the fingerprints in the early layers of lacquer?

Steve

[Dave Anderson]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. Not to mention the condolences.
So Dave, is marketing going to buy me one of those handles for Christmas???

Steve

We'll try Steve,We will try, keep them
fingers crossed!

[DarwinStrings]

Looking pretty damn good Stephen I especially like your use of that pearl shell. Every time I look at my concrete floor I tell myself to get some carpet, I guess I'll have to drop something before I finally get around to it though

Jim

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Jim, I'd wait on the carpet.
If you prepare for an accident, it surely will follow.

Or just get it over with--go throw something on the floor, break it, and say to yourself that lightning never strikes twice (in the same place).

And then see if you believe that!

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Hey--you guys remember this project?
(Do you remember me? )
Hope so to both accounts.
(I only had to scroll down to page 7 to retrieve this!)
A happy event occurred this afternoon: got the neck on this KB Pine/Blackwood 000.
Always a nice moment.
What took so long? Finish glitches, then more of the same. Just thought it would be easier to do the touch-up sans neck.
So here it sits, with the neck newly attached. We use two bolts in the heel, and glue down the fretboard extension:

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Thanks for your patience,

Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Another nice couple of days:

Gluing on the bridge:

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Routing the fretboard for inlays. We went traditional, as there seemed too many overtones to inlay the Southern Cross. So, the old "Diamond and Squares" inlay it will be:

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Ane here is Ryan rapping in the frets:

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Thanks mates,

Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Ooooh, how did that ^ sneak in? Not sure, but there it is-- reaming out the pin holes.

Steve

[Bob Connor]

Not too far away from getting strings on Steve.

I'm keen to hear what it sounds like.

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Indeed, I know Bob! (So am I...)
Your patience is particularly appreciated!

Steve

[charangohabsburg]

Hey--you guys remember this project?
(Do you remember me? )

Although I never commented here I remember (2x). It's one of those treads I really enjoy. There is at least one reason (other than just "enjoying it" ) why I have it in my personal bookmarks collection.

I also remember the design question and some answers to it

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Initial sound report (strung it up this afternoon, pics to follow)...

King Billy Pine is an amazing top wood. This is a smallish (000) guitar, shallow depth, with a short 24.9" scale. The first thing we noticed was a rich bass. Like it had already been played in for weeks. The trebles are there, just not as 3D as in good stiff spruce. Usually when we string up a guitar, it's the bass that has to catch up to the midrange and treble, but on this one we're waiting for the trebles to really exert themselves as the top begins to open up.
Also--it's sweet. Is this a function of the shorter scale? Not sure, though the general buzz is that a shorter scale yields a sweeter voice.

Another note--the bridge. I was worried about this, as I've really not seen Tiger Myrtle used this way. But there is an immediacy in the attack. It has a very quick voice, and that will take some adjustment on my part, technique-wise in playing. Will probably force me to play more cleanly.

Sustain--very good, almost as good as a rosewood guitar with a heavy bridge.

All in all, I am reminded of Western red cedar when I play this guitar. But, there is something not quite cedar-like as well, and I'm gonna have to listen more critically tomorrow to be able to put that in useful words.

So first impression is--use it, it works. It yields really nice results almost immediately.

Steve

[Bob Connor]

Great to here you got a good result from it Steve.

I think you will find that the mids and highs will open up with a couple of months of playing. To me King Billy screams fingerstyle.

I agree that is a very sweet sounding top wood.

Regards

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Great to here you got a good result from it Steve.
I think you will find that the mids and highs will open up with a couple of months of playing.

Good to hear!

To me King Billy screams fingerstyle.

I totally agree. I tried strumming it, of course, and realized that it was not too difficult to overdrive. But fingerstyle was most rewarding.

We did an A-B-C test today, with Ryan turning his back and listening to the guitars "blind".
We had two Om's: a Honduran Rosewood/Adirondack spruce, and a Sycamore/Sitka spruce, and this latest 000 in Tassie Blackwood and KB Pine. A fairly eclectic group to say the least.
But they all shared the same body size, and of course the same builder.
1st blush--it was amazing how similar they all sounded.
The differences were subtle, and followed what one might think of as the usual stereotypes.
The rosewood guitar sounded like rosewood, and the others didn't. However, the Blackwood guitar sounded more like the rosewood than did the Sycamore.
And, the KB Pine sounded more like the Adirondack than Sitka.

I kept thinking about Alan Carruth's point, namely that treble frequencies are unidirectional, they tend to fly "straight off" the top, and thus sound ports tend to maximize treble response-- to the player.
Note to self: next KB Pine guitar gets a sound port.

More musings to come,

Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Hi guys...only had to ga back 5 pages this time!
So, here's the final wrap-up.
Final report on sound: Bob was right (no surprise there, huh?), the trebles and mids came up to match the bass. The sweetness remained, only everything sounds better!

Pics:

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