1st build - Carpathian/ Mahogany OM

[tippie53]

I am a big fan of Carp. Even with run out the stiffness is often incredible. If the run out is too severe you can always do a sunburst.

[jared]

Looking good so far. As soon as I finish my first I'll be kicking off my second and using Carpathian as well. In fact, I already jumped the gun and shot the edges (if that's the right term) in anticipation of joining the plates but did something dumb and shuffled the two sides so that I think I inverted one of the halves. It's pretty straight grained so it's could go either way. Now that I've read your woes I'm afraid I'll see some runout as well. Is there a way to tell without joining or finishing the top?

How is it to work with? I used cedar on my 1st and it's so soft! I'm hoping that Carpathian is a little more forgiving.

Hey. I suppose with "shot the edges" is planing them... Using a planer and scraping the sides of the top straight for a nice tight fit when joined together.
Have you glued/joined the halves yet? If your halves are wide enough you could separate the glued halves, flip a piece and see if you joined them right or not. Of course you'll have to plain them again and get it correct fairly sooner than later... You don't want to take away too much from planing and then your halves wind up being too small... Suppose your making a dread but you plane too much to get your joint perfect and then you wind up with 000 width when joined.
But if you have straight grain and the grain is the same width no matter which way you flip it... I wouldn't worry with it. My grain is wide on the outside and narrow on the inside of the top... So I couldn't swap mine. But if you have the same width regardless I think you should be fine.
You can tell runout by holding the joined top in front of your face. Begin rotating the bottom up towards your face and watch for color change on a half, normally darker looking. Then go back again with the bottom and this time rotate the top towards your face... The color would then appear darker on the other half. Runout. Every top will have it just about but some are more noticeable than others.
Cedar is the softest of tops. Spruce is still a soft wood but is stronger. You can still get scrapes and scratches on it if you're not careful. But it's way more durable than cedar. You can scratch cedar with barely a fingernail indention... Carp is tougher and is supposed to be like adirondack in a way in grain stiffness and strength. It'll be a big difference than cedar. Enjoy your new build, I'm excited about using carpathian for mine.

[jared]

was free from work past 2 days so spent time working on the guitar. got much done. the body was glued up and clamped. fingerboard shaped, fretted and glued to neck. braz headstock sanded down and attached.
next time out to the shop will be routing off the excess edges of the top and back flush with the sides, routing and attaching celluloid tortoise binding, shaping on the neck.
looking forward to unclamping the body and tapping to see what i'm getting. the Carp top is already down to .094" thick and still felt tight. i may take down a bit more on the top after seeing how its tapping out after its unclamped. gonna be a mighty thin top for sure.

[jared]

just adding another pic..

[tippie53]

It looks good . bet you are looking forward to stringing that up

[jared]

It looks good . bet you are looking forward to stringing that up

i dream about it every nite in my dreams john.
as much as i'd like for it to turn out the way i have envisioned it, i'm afraid i may have disappointment after stringing it up. i'm a fan of straight braced Martins, particularly 18, 28, and the former OM-21 series. so i built mine along the same specs... so if i'm anywhere near the tone of a 21 but with of course the mahogany version of that since mine's mahogany... i'll be one happy guy for my first build.

[Ben-Had]

You're going to shock yourself the first time you hear that guitar, guaranteed. It looks like it's coming along nicely. Did you scallop your braces?

[jared]

You're going to shock yourself the first time you hear that guitar, guaranteed. It looks like it's coming along nicely. Did you scallop your braces?

Hi there. Nope... no scalloping done. I've owned a straight braced D-18 for quite a while now and for me the tone of the straight brace system really works for me and my playing style. Strictly rhythem playing, singer-songwriter stuff.
I've played and always loved the OM-21... the straight braced ones before they changed it over to scalloped this year, and liked how the older 21's responded. I've always wondered how the 21 would sound if it had mahogany back/sides instead of rosewood. So when I was given the opportunity to build my first one using my friend's shop... I didn't hesitate to decide to build my first using straight bracing and mahogany since I prefer a drier woody tone that mahogany usually gives over rosewood.
Not a day goes by that I don't think about my build and wonder how the tone is going to be. I selected great wood for this build, tapping each set and determining what it could turn in to once built into a box. I almost want to just attach the neck and bridge and string it up to see how it sounds before even finishing it and finish it afterwards.... but I know in the long run I just have to wait it out another month as I'll be spending the next few weeks finishing it before gluing on the bridge and neck. It's going to be a long month or two ahead of me. And many, many dreams during sleep of how it'll sound before its ready to be heard when its completed. Hope my dreams don't prove me wrong. hehe.
I'll attach more pics as the build is underway...