Delilah is my second guitar. She's built from pre WWII cherry, that I found at a local lumber yard. The lumber that this yard gets, is already planed and thicknessed to the standard 3/4" = 1". Delilah's wood was a smidgen over 1" thick, and 12 1/2" wide. The lumber yard didn't even know that this wood existed, until we climbed the steps to the rafter storage area. There is a treasure trove of cherry and walnut that was cut long long ago. The stuff isn't even priced out in their computer, so when I find it, they charge for the 8" wide lumber, which is $5.36 per linear foot.
Delilah's sides and back cost me ~$22.
She had a white spruce top. I've had issues with her top. It developed several stress cracks on the left side. When I removed the top, I found that the sides were being held unnaturally. I noticed that she wasn't exactly symmetrical when I built her. Interestingly, the left lower bout is now symmetrical.
Her name is Delilah, because I had a horrible time building her. I swear that her wood wanted to be a tree, not a guitar. She tested my strength, both mental and physical, for the entire build. But even with these problems, she has one heck of a beautiful voice. 2 people have offered to buy her. I won't sell. She holds a special place in my heart.
Fast forward to the present. The stress cracks bothered me, so I decided to replace her top. I'm replacing the excellent white spruce, with West Virginia red spruce from the Pocahontas Forest. It's fitting that Delilah should have Appalachian red spruce, to compliment her WV cherry.
Here is the new top. I've already installed it on her. I'll post more photos tomorrow. The rosette is wenge with 2mm wide abalone, with outer purfling of bwbwb.
Delilah gets a facelift
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Diane Kauffmds
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Delilah gets a facelift
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Kbore
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- Location: St. Louis area
Re: Delilah gets a facelift
I do wish I would have been reading this site BEFORE I started #1. The cherry side looks spectacular. Can you show the back and more of the sides? Truly magical!!
Measure Twice,
Karl B
Karl B
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MaineGeezer
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Re: Delilah gets a facelift
That cherry is AMAZING.....
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
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
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Diane Kauffmds
- Posts: 3293
- Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:13 pm
Re: Delilah gets a facelift
Sure. The back is from a piece of cherry that was 12" wide. The sides came from a section of a 12 foot long board, that started at 8" wide, then went down to 5" wide. Both were a bit more than 1" thick, and lost back in the rafters, behide a bunch of lumber. Here are more pics.Kbore wrote:I do wish I would have been reading this site BEFORE I started #1. The cherry side looks spectacular. Can you show the back and more of the sides? Truly magical!!
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