00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce

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Danl8
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Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 7:50 am
Location: Chadds Ford, PA

00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce

Post by Danl8 »

During my final day at Blues Creek we bent a set of sapele sides for a 00-12 fret for my first project after the BCG experience. (BTW, highly recommended for anyone who can take a week or two for some excellent training and good company.)

The top is red spruce/Adirondack, I think it's from LMII, second grade, but to my eye as nice as much of what I've seen at the local factory. The sapele is reject wood from the local factory. The rosette was going to be a nice old vintage piece, but was too small when I got around to the routing setup. So I made up one and threw in some pearl, too.

The top bracing is std 00 pattern, although due to comments made here in the forum, I contemplated a single tone bar and side bars. I decided to go std, but lighter than the measured thicknesses on typical 00's. I am going to do some slight shading on the box, something like 0.017" off the bass side, etc. Whether tapping or hole-humming the box is really lively. We shall see...

The box is HHG assembled. I can't believe I still don't have a go-bar deck yet. Not having one is a unmitigated PIA. Two unresolved issues -- I have a K&K pure mini to maybe install and decoration for the head and fboard. I'm making a 1.875x2.3125" board for finger-style playing. The tuners are vintage brass from Stewmac (complete with a factory-buggered screw for an old timey effect). Pictures follow. Second post will have two more pics.
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Danl8
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Location: Chadds Ford, PA

Re: 00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce

Post by Danl8 »

More pics.
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Diane Kauffmds
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Re: 00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

I like wood seconds. They usually have more character and sound just as good, if not better than first quality. The box is beautiful.
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Danl8
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Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 7:50 am
Location: Chadds Ford, PA

Re: 00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce

Post by Danl8 »

Finally an update. This is the guitar build from hell. After cracking the sides coming home from Blues Creek, I managed to crack em agin when screwing the blocks to the form. Then I managed to gouge the sapele with the new fangled palm sander. If that wasn't bad enough, the router platform slipped because I failed to tighten it sufficiently. Ignoring that lesson, next I routed very big binding because the bit worked loose and took a good chunk of the sides, a few inches. The next indignation was realizing my bus driving was too vigorous so my top has a two degree angle towards the neck -- yes, a real neck fitting challenge. So now my sapele/ady box has two-ply sides and plenty of zpoxy.

Good news? Yeah, the box is really lively acoustically and the bindings look good. :-) And the four others I'm building now haven't suffered any of my foibles.
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thronson
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Location: Napa, CA

Re: 00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce

Post by thronson »

ya, the bindings do look great. what wood did u use 4 the bindings? .... t
Danl8
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Re: 00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce

Post by Danl8 »

thronson wrote:ya, the bindings do look great. what wood did u use 4 the bindings? .... t
Thanks. Bloodwood with maple/ebonized maple purfling. I would definitely use it on mahogany again.
MaineGeezer
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Re: 00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce

Post by MaineGeezer »

It looks very good. You're doing a nice job.
Don't believe everything you know.
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
When things are bad, try not to make them any worse, because it is quite likely they are bad enough already. - French Foreign Legion
Danl8
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Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 7:50 am
Location: Chadds Ford, PA

Re: 00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce —The Guitar of Constant Sorrow.

Post by Danl8 »

Finally done. This poor thing (now named The Guitar of Constant Sorrow) has suffered almost every possible indignity. Strung it yesterday and voila it sings. (Yes, the tuners are upside down, intentionally—why not experiment at this point?) Compared to the little parlors I just finished, it has a more balanced response thru low to high registers.
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Diane Kauffmds
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Re: 00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

It looks great!

I have the same type of guitar. She gave me grief and sapped my strength. That's why I named her Delilah, because just like the bad girl who cut Sampson's hair, she continues to test me. But, even with all of her problems, she has a beautiful voice.
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Danl8
Posts: 733
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 7:50 am
Location: Chadds Ford, PA

Re: 00-12 Sapele/Red Spruce

Post by Danl8 »

I probably should add one (of many) of the issues I created was a vigorous bus driving on the 28' dish. That upset the neck/body geometry that bedeviled me for months. Then on one of my many pilgrimages to the Martin factory, I saw a rack of bodies all with ramps routed in the area of the fingerboard extension to the sound-hole. I took a bunch of photos and went home with a solution. So the guitar of constant sorrow has the same ramp cut in under the extension. Inelegant, but it works.
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