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Well, it took a while but the cherry Dread is almost a thing. Neck to be attached tomorrow.

I love the look of the wood, but not sure the final product is still going to be all that exciting in 20 years. I have an old cherry/spruce guitar already and the top and sides on that don't really produce much contrast once the top ages a bit.

Finish-wise, this is wipe-on poly, wet-sanded to 2000 between coats, finished with a final rub at 3000 and hand polished with Meguir's auto polishing compound. It looks pretty good. Not 'pro', but I don't either have a buffer or have access to one, so I have to settle for brute force attempts at achieving a decent finish, lol. Of note, I'm not using any sealer or pore filler, just poly from the start.

Construction is better than either of my other two, but I wonder what it sounds like. I will report again when I finally know. :-)

Neck is on. Looks like a guitar now!

Great looking guitar. How does it sound?

warren47 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 9:01 am And?
Sound?

Still gotta mount the bridge, nut, saddle and do a set-up... so opinions on the sound are probably a couple of weeks away at best.

I have no idea what to expect, but I would not be disappointed if it turned out a little like this other Cherry/Spruce guitar that I own. It has laminate Cherry back and sides, but has a nice solid spruce top. When played, it sounds more... I don't know how to describe it, chimey?... to my ears than that first StewMac dread that I built. Less volume, and less low-end 'boom' for sure. But only time will tell.

That photo of the back a couple of posts previous is gorgeous!

As far as what do you do about too many guitars: You need just one more than what you have.

More seriously, I don't know. I've somehow ended up with eight guitars, plus a cittern. Four of them I bought. I've built six, plus the cittern, of which two have gone to other people.
I don't need eight guitars. Due to Parkinson's disease, I've gotten to the point I can barely play them. But I like having them around. I guess it's better than collecting pianos or pipe organs.

MaineGeezer wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 12:14 pm That photo of the back a couple of posts previous is gorgeous!

As far as what do you do about too many guitars: You need just one more than what you have.

More seriously, I don't know. I've somehow ended up with eight guitars, plus a cittern. Four of them I bought. I've built six, plus the cittern, of which two have gone to other people.
I don't need eight guitars. Due to Parkinson's disease, I've gotten to the point I can barely play them. But I like having them around. I guess it's better than collecting pianos or pipe organs.

DSC05003.JPG

Hehe... Thanks for that! I don't have 8 guitars yet, but am getting close. Glad I'm not the only one who hangs on to these things for sentimental reasons. They're like pets!

And thank you for the comment on the guitar back. None of my doing, but it's appearance varies quite wildly with viewing angle and lighting. From what I've read that characteristic of cherry, but it was not one I was expecting. My other mass-produced cherry guitar doesn't do that.

This kit also has quite a tight grain pattern on the top. Don't know if grain density has any effect on tone, but it does sorta look cool.

That looks like an excellent top. The small horizontal ripples are, I think, called "beeswing" and are considered desirable.

That guitar is absolutely gorgeous!

koolimy wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 8:30 am That guitar is absolutely gorgeous!

Thank you! I'll gratefully accept the compliment, even though I had very little to do with the deciding how it looks.

It's now complete, although still needs to 'settle' a bit before I try doing a proper set-up. Sound is different than the rosewood dread that I built earlier, but really nice (to my ears, at least). A few pics of the finished item: