Something a little Different

[ozwood]

I Love a Challenge, so when Tony asked me to make him something that felt the same as his National resonator in terms of neck feel , scale length and Body size/shape, I said sure why not , granted it looks a little different, But after a long play this arvo , he smiled and said "I love it" so mission accomplished , he left me his resonator for a week so I could take some measurements, his only real criteria was make it feel the same , and keep it simple . he doesn't like MOP or anything to fancy , I hate inlaying so that worked for me . I made it pretty stiff because he wanted to Run 13 - 56 strings , and I made it with a dead back because he sometimes lays it on his lap , he also requested a longer fretboard to slide up high on but still wanted a 12th fret join , hence the sound hole being a little lower than usual , it has Falcate bracing and was brought into spec using side weight. I started with some Backwood that I had from Steve Gibson , matched it with a NG rosewood neck , some nice Sitka from Brent Cole , a bridge from Tim and a Fretboard of Ringed Gidgee and has some K&k's Fitted . Combined that with all the good stuff I had learned at Trevors Cousre and away I went , it went toghether really well , with a few Hickups at the Final Stage ( Jeff Highland knows my pain) but with a bit of help from Jeff it all came together in the end .

I decided to try the Target Coatings System , and I was happy with the Final result and most of the problems I had were my own fault , But I'll share my lessons with you in case any of you want to try it .
1. two sessions of grain filling with the target grain filler are enough , and only dry sand it !
2. seal with the end grain really well with Shelac before grain filling ( on NGR at least) cause I hade a bit of an opaque thing going on around the end grain , just slightly but
noticeable.
3 . leave a Minimum of two hours between coats . ( don't be tempted to empty the gun with just one more quick coat ) it will blush!.
4. lots of thin coats are the go , and don't lay it on till it's wet and glossy like nitro, cause that's too thick!
5. if it looks a little orange peelish , that's OK it self levels.
6. It dries just fine in cool weather , in fact it does better.
7. dry sand only.
8. it really does 100% burn in .
9. leave it a week or two to harden up before final sand and polish.
10. it was really easy to use , very forgiving , and much more pleasant to use .
11. in certain lights it looks a little opaque at certain angles.
12. shelite its the best cleaner to use , Metho not so much !

Would I use the target coating Again ? well yes, cause I'm pretty sure most of it's shortcomings were more to do with incorrect application than the Product , so I will give it another few goes.

Cheers,

[68matts]

Very nice Paul, the lack of adornment really suits that body shape IMO, looks like a real working musos instrument.

[ckngumbo]

Very nice Paul, the lack of adornment really suits that body shape IMO, looks like a real working musos instrument.

I agree. Nice handsom piece of work!

[Tod Gilding]

Yes Handsome it is Paul

But I have no idea how you manage to work in a such a tidy environment mate

[ozwood]

Thanks Tod and Matt ,

the workshop is relativly samll so I need to keep it tidy or I run out of bench , Oh and theres the neat freak thing as well

I did enjoy making this one , even though it looks a little odd at some angles !

Cheers,

[nnickusa]

I will say the execution is beautiful. The end result, as long as the customer is happy, takes a bit of getting used to the new dimensions. You created an instrument to specifications, and ended up with a beautiful piece.


Can't fault that.....

[christian]

I really like this one Paul, lovely shape and theres a real warmth to the instrument looks like a hard to put down
strummer for sure. Congrats!!
scatter some dust around please, so it at least looks like you have been making something !!! hahaha
man, you can barely walk into my workshop for the ridiculous level of dust in there.

Christian.