Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Tonight I finally finished my 4th build (2nd steel string). This one has a euro spruce soundboard (with a touch of bear claw) and indian rosewood back and sides. The mosaic rosette is Australian red cedar. The finish is shellac over superglue. The neck is new guinea rosewood with a 14 fret body join. The tuners are gotohs and the strings are Elixir bronze.

I'm quite happy with how it sounds - clean, loud and even right across the fretboard and quite a bright sounding guitar. I still need to intonate it at the saddle a touch as it is a touch sharp at the 12th.

I did have several muck ups on this one... more so than my first 3 guitars for whatever reason. I'll probably build a new neck sometime (with an elevated FB) as I got the angle wrong even after measuring twice (bugger!). To get the action to 2.2mm I had to take the top of the saddle to just 11.5mm and there's only a couple of mm clearance left above the bridge. I also made my support block under the fingerboard too large, hence the decorative inlay on the neck after I sanded through (the hoop pine should not be showing! oh well... after scratching my head a bit I tried to hide it by creating a feature). But for now it plays ok, so I'll move on to the next build and park it as a "someday" project. It's just for the living room anyway...

There is plenty to smile about there. Looks like a great instrument. Especially like the mosaic rosette. I tried one of those on my last build but it ended up a bit "rustic" - yours is very elegant. I think it is important to be able to live with imperfections that do not matter in a functional sense. I am up to guitar number 6 and have certainly not produced one yet which is free of stuff-ups - but at least I make a new mistake each time. This week I discovered that the bridge is lifting off my number 3, so that one is going to require some more adjustments.

Enjoy your new creation - it is a great achievement.

Very nice . I think the decorative neck feature is a very clever way of hiding the sand through. I had to look and read your description a couple of times before I understood what had happened.

Hi Pete
Looks great from here and sounds ok. You worry too much.
We must get together one day and compare "muck ups".
I'll show you mine if you show me yours

Thats a classy looking instrument!

Thanks all!

An aircraft landing is technically a "controlled stall"....likewise a guitar build is technically a "controlled muck up"

Nice work on that guitar.