Re: #3 is underway, 14 fret OM copy
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 1:05 pm
After more than two years I was relieved and pleased to finally string this guitar up. The ongoing hiccups continued as I learned my way through buffing and polishing with a new home-built buffer (Brian Howard's advice very helpful on prepping the wheels). I bought wheels from Caswell in Canada. They also sent me what they say luthiers use which was Formax polishing compounds but I found them not very easy to use. People on the forum have said good things about Menzerna so I have ordered them to try in future. I already had Menzerna pastes from my first guitars and reverted to that a lot. My slightly oversize bridge worked okay to cover a couple of marks left by an earlier mistake. I was able to re-use a saddle and nut that were too low from an earlier project so it came together quickly in the end. (I will tweak the saddle some when things settle). I found the first fret was a little high, and in an attempt to lower it slightly I (of course) went too far, so had to replace it with a new fret which went okay. The Engelmann/Walnut combination sounds good, a little more broken-in already than I expected, a little less bass response than East Indian Rosewood, but a lovely warm and fulsome midrange. I think it is a little louder than my first two builds (same body size) perhaps because of lighter bracing. It looks pretty good - but from a distance - so, no closeup photos! Bruce W.