#1 in the books!

[tjp]

Finished up new years day. Sort of. Waiting for a pin reamer to show up, at which time I'll ream the bridge, finish buffing the top, and nail down the action at the nut - still need to go down a touch, maybe a 64th or so. Looks funny with the pins sticking half an inch or more out of the bridge, so I spared you that angle. As I posted on another forum, this guitar is sort of what happens when a Blues Creek (thanks John!) 00-18 kit has a love child with a modern fingersyle guitar. I converted the neck to a butt joint bolt-on, used really light parabolic/tapered bracing, an a-frame instead of a popsicle brace, reverse kerfing, and curly maple binding and such instead of plastic. The pattern and inspiration are all Martin. It is a monster, louder and crunchier than my dread, which I thought was loud. So much fun to play, sustain for days and tons of character. What has struck me the most is that it has another gear - just dig into it and it responds like it wants to jump out of my hands, then I can settle it back down. Best analogy I can think of is a really responsive two-stroke dirt bike...

Mistakes. Neck block slipped. Don't let that happen. You can see where the neck attaches about 1/8 in behind the 12th fret. I don't know that I could have pulled that off with a dovetail. Happy accident that I used the bolt-on neck, but it cost a lot of time in cussing to get the neck angle right. I could have been fussier - I look at the braces now and wish I had spent some more time sanding them. I rebraced it once after an experiment I could not find confidence in. Top finish is spotty, but it'll get used and scratched and I'll never know any better. Neck joint is good but less than perfect. Oh, and I really wish I would have used some herringbone purfling. I think it would have looked great. Routing that little channel just seemed intimidating...

Next project: take a factory second Breedlove Retro dread apart, retop and rebrace it while fixing the crappy neck joint that made it a second, to hear what it'll sound like with two different tops. After that, I think it'll be a slothead, Walnut 12 fret dread built on a 14 fret body...this is a lot of fun.

[tippie53]

thanks for signing up . That mahogany sure looks nice. Hope you have fun here . So what is your next one going t be ?

[Ken Hundley]

Great looking guitar! I would guess the sound port has a pretty large impact on the huge sound you are getting, as well as some of the other mods you made. Great first effort, keep em coming!

[Darryl Young]

Mahogany and the cream binding sure look nice together.

Great job and welcome to the forum!

[tjp]

Thanks guys. I had a really good time building it. I'm thinking Sitka/Walnut next time. 12 fret, slothead dread, maybe OM/000 size. Are there any disadvantages to doing that on a 14 fret body? I'd chop the last few frets off the fretboard to keep the soundhole where it's supposed to go, and move the bridge back.

I also have some really great, dense sinker redwood tops that came from a log that washed up on a friends property, but I think those will be some small bodies down the line. Not perfect quarter, but some good figure, grain almost too dense to count and stunning purple streaks from minerals, I would guess.

First things first though. Bookshelves in the office before I have clearance to start a new guit.

[johnnparchem]

Great job on this guitar and welcome to forum. On your #2 you are going to have pictures of your work in progress :)

[SKBarbour]

looks great!