Spruce/Indian acoustic guitar
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:23 am
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...
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...