Zircote / Adi Terz

[Allen]

Since Bob posted his latest I thought I should get mine up here as well.

This is a commissioned instrument that is one I would have been building myself if not for someone else wanting to pay me for the pleasure.

Back and sides of Zircote and top is some Adi that I and a few others got during a group buy from Colonial Tonewoods when the forum was just starting up.

This is the first time I've built with an Adi top and it's just so bloody stiff that it was difficult to get it thin enough for a nice response.

As well, shaping the braces was problematic in that I wasn't getting the response that I wanted even when I was carving the valleys lower than I had previously with Sitka braces.

However when pulling of the brown binding tape I managed to snag and pull up some of the top and I just couldn't get it to lay back down and not show up, so the only thing to do was sand the top some more. The lower bout is now at 2.2 mm and it's opened up with a terrific tap tone. Pushing down on the bridge position hardly gets any discernible deflection, so still very stiff.

Body fairly conventional. I'm using a short double action Allied truss rod and a couple CF rods in the neck.

I also wanted to go with a pyramid bridge, so had to wrap my head around making one with the tooling I have on hand. Ended up using my table saw to cut 3 sides of the pyramid and my spindle sander for the last side. It's just sitting roughly on the top to aid in the neck set.

I also finally received my slot head fixture from Chris at Luthier Tools. Been some time waiting with all the bad weather and holiday season. Turns out that it doesn't have enough adjustment to do this size of peghead, nor the ukes that I want to use it on as well, but Chris has told me to return it to him and he'll modify it for my needs. Great guy to deal with.

I managed to get it to work by clamping it tight against each side of the peg head. Drilled and routed that side, then repeated for the other side. Did the job, and I know that I'll really love it when the modifications are done.

[Allen]

And I've just finished my first video. Shot with my iPhone by Karen on a very hot and steamy day a week ago. I've got a fan set up on the table saw behind me, but was making a distracting sound so turned it off during filming. Went back on as soon as we were finished to help keep the amine blush at bay, as well as knock down the sweat.

Anyway, hope it's of interest.


youtu.be/

[Allen]

And the next covers scraping back the epoxy, saving all that sand paper clogging.


youtu.be/

[kiwigeo]

Nice guitar.........the shirt is nice too

[Allen]

I've got a couple of them Martin. Have to swap them out every couple of hours to dry them out this time of year.

[John Maddison]

And I've just finished my first videos.

Excellent demos, Allen; these are worth posting to the Tutorial section ... congrats also to Karen on her cinematography .

[Dominic]

Beautiful wood Allen. I also had problems with a top from the same group buy. It was going to be used on an L-00 but it was so stiff and a little heavy so Idecided to use them on bigger guitars. Keen to see how it ends up.
Cheers
Dom

[Lillian]

Thanks Allen for the footage. Nicely done.

Is you vacuum clamp in a thread somewhere in the archives? I really like it.

[Allen]

I'll post them to the Tutorial section as well John.

The vacuum clamp is one that I set up a group buy with the moderators about a year ago now. It's based on the LMI model. I think that there were some thread that featured them, but might have been lost in the server hack.

[ozziebluesman]

Great tutorials Allen! Thanks for sharing with us.

Man I do like the vacuum vice!

Cheers

Alan

[DarwinStrings]

That zircote is hard to beat for prettiness and I am another one with terz on my mind. Cool vids, look out Robbie. Why the plane blade instead of a scraper Allen, do you find its less aggressive nature better for the epoxy?

Jim

Life is good when you are amongst the wood

[Allen]

Micheal Connor sent me 3 of them. That one is the widest. I just love using it. Very easy to control and it doesn't need to be bent to present a cutting edge. Most importantly is that it doesn't rust on me as you can appreciate is a right pain in the ass especially at this time of year.

[DarwinStrings]

Ahhh rust, I must admit it would be nice just to hang up tools when you finish using them or just pull them off the hook and use them without having to apply or clean off the Inox. I have been using Canola (rape seed oil) as chainsaw bar lubricant so I don't go leaving mineral oil all over the place (also have a friend that uses my saw chainsaw dust for art projects) and have noticed it is also a very effective rust stopper on steel (the bar and blade does not rust even though I never bother cleaning it), I will give it till the end of this wet to make sure and then change to Canola on my tools as a more user friendly oil.

Jim

[kiwinoz62]

Allen,
Great build & excellent tute, how about giving us one on spraying lacquer, please.

[Kamusur]

Allen could you please tell me is the inner body "wetted up" for the photos or surface finished?

Steve

[Allen]

It's got 3 coats of garnet shellac on the inside.

[seeaxe]

Love the zircote, Allen and the tutorials.

can I ask why you seal the inside of the guitar? I've seen a few people do this but not nearly as many as do not seal.

What are your thoughts on the pros and cons of this?

Do you seal the inside of all your guitars or just some?

Cheers

Richard

[Allen]

Seal all of them.

Rule of working wood. What you do on one side, do on the other. Helps with buffering humidity swings.

Does not stop the effects of very low or high RH, just gives the instruments a chance if sudden changes take place while it's out of it's case.

Up here in Cairns we get the very steamy tropical humidity, but you can go for a 2 hour drive and be up on the tablelands and get blasts of hot dry air from out of the south wast. I wanted a way of giving my instruments just a little bit of insurance for that. As well most of my work now is going interstate and overseas, and I really have to do everything I can to mitigate problems that I have little control over.

And with using shellac it's easy enough to use metho to clean up a spot should it be required for a repair on the inside.

And as a way of distinguishing yourself from the mass's, it's the little things that do get you noticed. I get comments from nearly everyone that buys an instrument that they really like the finish inside. Never had one say "what's with that?".

[Kamusur]

Thanks Allen never seen that before but often thought about 'oilng' the inside, they just always look so dry!

Steve

[Kamusur]

Also forgot to mention even in the unfinished state that headstock is to die for.

Steve

[Allen]

I wouldn't do anything other than shellac inside in case you or someone else need to get inside for repair purposes. There isn't going to many kind words for you if there is oil contaminating glueing surfaces.

[Allen]

I was just looking around at string gauges for Terz guitars and came across this letter on the Acoustic Guitar Forum. You can view the discussion here.

Dear Martin Enthusiasts,

The fact that you are reading this letter means you are probably one of a select group to have in your possession one of the Size 5 “Mini-Martin” guitars. These little instruments are very close to my heart and I am proud to have played a part in reviving them for this special Martin edition. As many of you know, Size 5 Martin models came to be known as “terz” guitars because the instrument was invariably tuned to a minor third (3 half notes) above standard guitar tuning or G, C, F, Bb, d, g.

The Mini-Martin is equipped from the factory with Martin MSP-4050 Custom Light “SP” Phosphor Bronze strings. I recommend that you first tune your Mini-Martin to standard pitch (E, A, D, G, b, e). You’ll see that the strings are not stretched quite tight enough. Play the bass “G” note at the third fret, then tune the low “E” string up to that note. Accordingly, tune all of the remaining strings up three half steps to achieve the terz tuning: G, C, F, Bb, d, g. Now the strings will feel more correctly tensioned.

I personally prefer to string my personal Size 5 instrument with a customized “high string” or “Nashville tuning” set. This is similar to using the high strings only from a 12-string set. The first four (bass) strings are thus an octave higher while the two treble strings remain unchanged. I first saw such as string set when I visited Paul Simon. I was so impressed, I came back and experimented with a variety of gauges. My clear preference is:

Standard Pitch Gauge Terz Tuning Bb Tuning
E .025” wound G (one octave higher) F
A .017” plain C (one octave higher) Bb
D .013” plain F (one octave higher) F
G .008” plain Bb (one octave higher) Bb
B .012” plain d d
e .010” plain g f

I have enclosed a customized set of these “high” strings. They have an extremely sweet, almost “piano-like” tone. I encourage you to experiment with both standard and alternate tunings using these strings. For example, tuning the two G strings down a full step to F and the C string down to a Bb, yields an open Bb tuning. These string sets are not yet available in stores, so if you fall in love with this tuning, you might want to pick up individual string gauges to make up your own sets. I hope you enjoy the Mini-Martin as much as I do!

Sincerely,


dick boak
C. F. Martin & Co., Inc.

----------------------------

NOTE:

High string standard pitch for mini
E .032
A .023
D .016
G .011
b .017
e .013