First Build - 12 Fret

[turnertj]

Getting close now....

I finished the French Polish, or at least good enough for me! It's shiny, not perfect, but shiny! I glued on the bridge, and installed the tuners. I need to learn how to setup the guitar now...

[Ben-Had]

Looking Goooood! There should be plenty of setup info here in the forum we've discussed it several times. Good info and several similar but different approaches.

[turnertj]

Well, I strung her up tonight and let her sing for the first time. It sounds like a guitar! I'm pretty impressed with that point alone. I'm curious about how much the tone will change over the next few days, or longer. It's by far the second best guitar I own, which is pretty good considering the best is a nice Taylor--it'd be hard to beat that guitar on my 20th build! I don't have great strings on it right now, just some junk ones lying around in order to set up the action, and I left the action pretty high for now. I figure I'll get the hang of working out the setup over the next few days. I'm hoping the treble comes out a little less muddy when I have the action dialed in and new strings on. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

What a process...after so many months to finally hear the music! But I think I learned one lesson from almost the first chord...I'm not sure I'd ever do a sound port again. Really not sure I like it. Maybe that will grow on me.

[Ben-Had]

What is it that you don't like about the sound port?

[turnertj]

I may grow to love it, but my initital opinion was that it made the guitar a little too loud, almost with two sources of sound and I could hear them both mixing...but the sustain is pretty amazing on this thing! I may start really liking the sound port, for one thing, it makes it SUPER easy to get the Allen key into the truss rod! I'm sure it will grow on me.

Do you have them on your guitars Tim?

[Ben-Had]

No, but I plan on putting one on my next one.

[johnnparchem]

Congratulations! It is a great looking guitar. It is fun to play them for the first time.

[RnB]

Very nice & well done...!

[turnertj]

Just a final update...

I was kind of disappointed about the tone of the guitar. I think overall that I braced it too heavily, and left the soundboard too thick. So, I was going to chalk it up to experience, but then decided to throw on heavier strings for the fun of it. I figured if I blew up the top, oh well. I switched from extra lights to mediums (13's) and it sounds SO MUCH BETTER! Little harder to play, but much much much better tone. Maybe I'll try to find how to record it and post a link, although I'm about as new to playing as I am to building, so I don't think I could do it justice.

[johnnparchem]

Thanks for the update. Maybe lights will be just right; keeping the sound but easy to play. You might also check the setup especially at the nut end to make the guitar easier to play. If you fret the third fret the gap at the first fret should be paper thin.