Little Standards
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Little Standards
I've been busy working on a pair of standard (parlour?) sized guitars one in rosewood and another in mahogany both with euro spruce. The spruce is part of a 100 set lot I got from Jim Sherry in 1977 that he had been holding for the supply of the USA Jose Ramirez shop that never got built. The backs & sides are $5 seconds, but are great for small guitars. I'm thinking about doing a half-top binding like a baroque lute. The channel is half the thickness of the top and bound using ebony or some type of hard wood and then I'm thinking of leaving the back unbound. Total wood cost layout is $35 plus the front block that John made. It's smaller in all dimensions than a classical guitar. Hope the sound is not too small...
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Re: Little Standards
Wow, it looks great. I built a 00 out of cherry that I found at my local lumber yard and white spruce. I think I paid $2.35 per board foot for the cherry. It rings like a bell. I'm sure your pair of guitars will sound great.
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Re: Little Standards
For the rosewood parlor guitar, I did an ebony binding that is one half the depth of the top probably ~1x1mm. The ebony was really nice and black. I bent it at 350 degrees on the electric pipe and cut the channel with the aid of the stewmac edge guide. This little guitar is now ready for nitro. The other one in mahogany is ready for the top and will get ivoroid bindings (unless I change my mind).
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Re: Little Standards
Wow, it turned out great! How hard was it to bend the ebony?
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Re: Little Standards
Easy. The one thing I did differently this time was to use a thermocouple to measure actual temp. By waiting until it reached 350, the ebony (using a spritz of water) bent without a single fracture.
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Re: Little Standards
Dan
Lovely guitar. I really like smaller guitars better as I get older. And thanks for the tip on ebony binding- I will be using it on my next one.
Ed
Lovely guitar. I really like smaller guitars better as I get older. And thanks for the tip on ebony binding- I will be using it on my next one.
Ed
Ed M
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Re: Little Standards
Both guitars are coming along, now in the finishing stage. On the mahogany one, I had a pre-slotted macassar ebony fingerboard too narrow for the neck, so I added binding which solved the problem and created de facto blind fret slots. The binding had BW purfling. Looks pleasant enough.
I'm using a new synthetic ivory product on both guitars as well, pix coming later.
I'm using a new synthetic ivory product on both guitars as well, pix coming later.
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Re: Little Standards
Going thru setup and last finishing touches. Can't decide about the pick guard (paper template in pic). I have ivoroid sheet stock matching the bindings and ubiquitous tortoise-shell style. The fraternal twin of this one is at the same stage. Strings on in a few days.
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Re: Little Standards
"Nemo" is done. (nemo because it's struck together entirely with fish glue.) I've got it tuned up to one step low and it sounds great. At pitch it should be just fine. This guitar and its fraternal twin were made to use up some parts I had and to be as inexpensive as possible. Tuners (stewmac vintage $55) were a couple of dollars more than all of the wood.
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Re: Little Standards
After taking about three years to finish my two first builds, it is amazing - and encouraging - to see beautiful work happening a lot more quickly.