Gibson 00 Inspired

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ruby@magpage.com
Posts: 1564
Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
Location: Chestertown Maryland

Re: Gibson 00 Inspired

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Great way to get wood - cut it yourself. That model of guitar is the second Gibson L body. The first one is a version of their typical round bout shape from about 1924 to 1929, then they switched to your shape until about 1944 (IIRC). In that time, you could get 12, 13 and 14 fret versions of either shape. I made my #3, a 12 fret Nick Lucas Special for my daughter a few years back using the old shape and mahogany and red spruce, and am working on my next one which will be 13 fret version of your body, also mahogany and red spruce. I would try a different wood, but a friend gave me some 1/4" thick lightly figured mahogany that is perfect for a guitar. I have an original 1933 14 fret and it is so light I have to tie it down to keep it off the ceiling. Here is a shot of 3 NLS guitars - read the text below. It was a time of experimentation by Gibson

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 130471994/

And here is my recent #8 that I made to the older shape completely out of Alaskan Yellow Cedar, back sides top and neck, at 13 frets

flickr (dot) com/photos/ruby1638/30816154577/in/album-72157688488198220/

This new website keeps telling me there is a maximum of 2 URL's, then not sending those that have 2, so piece together the second one. Keep up the good work
Ed M
ruby@magpage.com
Posts: 1564
Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
Location: Chestertown Maryland

Re: Gibson 00 Inspired

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Sorry about this one - I forgot if I had pushed submit and the website allowed me to submit again
Ed M
RHayes
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2020 8:06 pm

Re: Gibson 00 Inspired

Post by RHayes »

Stray Feathers wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:53 am A very interesting project. Like you and Diane I like local woods, and cherry in particular. My guitar number 01 is western bitter cherry, and it just keeps getting better. I also have access to cedar and am working on a top much like yours, RHayes, with a hand-me-down bubinga back, so I'm interested to know how yours turns out. I would also be interested to learn more about milling wood, perhaps in another thread? We removed an aggressive volunteer wild cherry tree (Prunus avium from Europe) and I kept a log over four feet long and 12" thick at the small end. My brother-in-law has a wood-miser type of mill and offered to help cut it. I don't know what I am doing but had thought of cutting a one-inch board from the middle, as you did, and then again from each half, edge grain. So I am interested to learn that is what you do. I will not get large enough pieces for a guitar back (perhaps a three-piece back) but maybe for ukuleles, and possibly neck material. Bruce W.
I think you know what to do. Shim the log so the pith is parallel to the bed of the mill. You cant get any more vertical grain than that. You can do that with the two slabs as well but once you end up with quarter sections, the only practical thing to do is "quarter saw". I suppose you could shim the quarters somehow and take a board out that is radially sawn but its not usually done and the grain in quarter sawn wood is slanted about 45 deg. Splitting wood radially can work for spruce and cedar but hard to do with hardwood and any figure just makes it impossible. By the way, I added some wings to the lower bout on this guitar to get enough width.
Stray Feathers
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Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 11:39 pm
Location: Ladysmith, BC

Re: Gibson 00 Inspired

Post by Stray Feathers »

That's great information - thanks. I had not considered "wings" for a back. Did you put grafts on the back of those seams? Also, you mentioned cutting one inch boards; have you found that thickness works for getting the most back or side pieces out? If they were 1/4" think, you would only get three from a board (or two? depending on your resaw setup). I can see in my mind that, done right, you could cut bookmatched (or almost so) wings from the boards on either side of the board you cut two back pieces from. I see too that you are probably right that trying to radially saw it all could be tricky.
RHayes
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2020 8:06 pm

Re: Gibson 00 Inspired

Post by RHayes »

Bruce, I didn't put grafts on those.

One inch thick boards works. Maybe not optimal but if you go thinner and get some warpage, your yield might be zero. Thicker wood takes longer to season and has a greater chance for degrade. I go 1" on the mills scale so wind up with less than 1' due to saw kerf. My past experience has not been specifically tone wood so ymmv.
RHayes
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2020 8:06 pm

Re: Gibson 00 Inspired

Post by RHayes »

ruby@magpage.com wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 12:13 pm Great way to get wood - cut it yourself. That model of guitar is the second Gibson L body. The first one is a version of their typical round bout shape from about 1924 to 1929, then they switched to your shape until about 1944 (IIRC). In that time, you could get 12, 13 and 14 fret versions of either shape. I made my #3, a 12 fret Nick Lucas Special for my daughter a few years back using the old shape and mahogany and red spruce, and am working on my next one which will be 13 fret version of your body, also mahogany and red spruce. I would try a different wood, but a friend gave me some 1/4" thick lightly figured mahogany that is perfect for a guitar. I have an original 1933 14 fret and it is so light I have to tie it down to keep it off the ceiling. Here is a shot of 3 NLS guitars - read the text below. It was a time of experimentation by Gibson

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 130471994/

And here is my recent #8 that I made to the older shape completely out of Alaskan Yellow Cedar, back sides top and neck, at 13 frets

flickr (dot) com/photos/ruby1638/30816154577/in/album-72157688488198220/

This new website keeps telling me there is a maximum of 2 URL's, then not sending those that have 2, so piece together the second one. Keep up the good work
Thats some nice work you have going on. Wish I had a 30's L-00 on hand when I was making my 1st guitar.
RHayes
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2020 8:06 pm

Re: Gibson 00 Inspired

Post by RHayes »

This is my next project. When working on the few split billets of Engleman spruce I've collected, I ended up with two orphan pieces where the blue staining was off center so my plan is to paint it black in the spirit of the "tuxedo model" with white pick guard and binding. Unlike Ed's NLS model, no back binding. There is an old Gibson ad floating around stating these guitars sold for 25.00 back in the day.

Not sure if I should just paint and scrape the binding, or mask it off. The WBW rosette will be the biggest problem as it has been sanded pretty flush when fitting the neck. ( Johns video-thanks John) The top binding is installed, it is close to flush but a bit of room to scrape away some material. Any suggestions on this subject appreciated.
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ruby@magpage.com
Posts: 1564
Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
Location: Chestertown Maryland

Re: Gibson 00 Inspired

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Scraping the binding is quite easy and as long as the binding is plastic you will have no absorption worries. I have seen pros use a little scraper on an adjustable stick to scrape a rosette. My 1933 L-00 came to me in pieces and I had to repaint the body black - here are some taping and scraping techniques for your consideration. Click left and tight, text below

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 344222304/

Ed M
Ed M
RHayes
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2020 8:06 pm

Re: Gibson 00 Inspired

Post by RHayes »

Ed, thanks for the pics. Would love to find an original. Nice job by the way.

A closer view with fingerboard. ( from Bob Gleason Big Island) I have the neck carved now (no photos yet) so its about time to get after it with some Mohawk Black nitro but gardening and equipment repair getting in the way. Meanwhile, milling over what to do about sealer.
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jread
Posts: 560
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:52 am
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Re: Gibson 00 Inspired

Post by jread »

Beautiful guitar!

Birch for sure is a great tone wood. Harmony Stella's were solid birch. My 1st project was a Stella repair and I replaced the top and back w/ birch and kept the sides and reused all the ladder bracing. It's a really great sounding instrument. It's written up here on the forum.

I'm wanting to try local walnut for a build and am not sure if I'll try to source from purchased planks or perhaps try to see if I can mill some of the logs myself. Prob not. haha.
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