Gibson 00 Inspired

[RHayes]

Nothing renowned here, just an effort on my part to add back some interest. I've enjoyed going over the threads here, so many thanks to John and all the contributors.

This is my third guitar completed since last October. Birch back, sides, binding, and neck, WRC top, and box elder burl headstock overlay, all locally self harvested over the years. The Indian rosewood fingerboard and bridge are from Bob Gleason, and there is a bit of violin purfling in the rosette and binding. Tuners are cheap vintage style that actually function and hold tune quite well. Bone nut, saddle, and plastic bridge pins. Side markers(not shown) 1/16" aluminum rod. On the headstock is a dyed silhouette of Priest Lake, the main attraction of the area where I live. Weight 3 lbs. 7 oz. with KK mini pure.

C &C always welcome.

IMG_0806 (1).jpg

[tippie53]

purrrdddieeee

[John Reid]

Beautiful! Can you post a close up of the headstock and rosette? What is the rosette wood?

[RHayes]

This is about the best I can come up with as the guitar left a few days ago.

The rosette is box elder burl sections.

[BEJ]

Great build, nice to see you milled up the B/S from scratch, doing that or going to lumber yard and finding a board of whatever that will work is one of the things I really like to do. Enjoy the resaw, plaining, and drum sanding to get workable stock to start a build. I would be happy just building boxes but if I stopped there it wouldn't be much of a guitar.

[Diane Kauffmds]

Beautiful build!

[ruby@magpage.com]

Very lovely - brilliant using the lake on the head. The birch looks quite different from most I have seen - does it have vertical grain? Do you have a shot of the bracing? How about a recording of some sort?

[RHayes]

Thanks so much all. Yes, the lake image has worked well on many of the items I make for the tourist trade here. It is burned in then dyed. An abalone inlay is only in my dreams at this point.

The wood is vertical grain. I have an old band mill and often prepare logs for wood bowls by taking a 1" board from the center of the log. This yields a vertical grain board containing the pith (which always cracks). I've been using the wood for cutting boards, spoons, etc. and now guitar backs and sides.

The bracing, taken from an easy to find drawing on the net of a 1940 L-00, modified slightly to be a 13 fret.
Sorry, no recording of this guitar.

[Diane Kauffmds]

Birch is an unsung hero. It's a great tonewood, but like cherry and walnut, you generally don't see it as much on upscale guitars. I think Americans are just brainwashed into thinking that guitars must have exotic tropical woods to sound good. A couple of the best sounding guitars that I've built were from local woods.

[Stray Feathers]

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.