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Hey all,

I just began building my Koa OM beginning of last week and I have a few low quality pictures of the progress so far. It's a shame all I have to take pictures with right now is my blackberry so this whole build will probably end up being snapped off with my phone. Once it's finished I'll get some high quality pictures to show what it actually looks like.

I got my Lutz spruce top joined and thicknessed with abalone 3 ring rosette installed. Ripped all my bracewood down, and joined my back. The back is still clamped so no pictures of that together yet.

Here's what I got so far: (Excuse the low quality)







I'll keep you guys posted next week what what more I get done.

-Dan

Going to look nice, Dan!

Alright, I haven't had the chance to take pictures in 2 weeks, and it turns out my roommate has an "ok" camera which blows my blackberrys quality out of the water. So I took advantage of that.

My top and back have been thicknessed to the optimal thickness to what felt right when flexed and tapped on. My back still needs some final sanding and shaping done to the braces, but it's basically done. My top is completely done. My braces have been shaped according to how it felt again when flexing and tapping. It's voiced to what I believe to be the optimized sound. When tapping on it, it's not too picky as to where I hold it to ring out, and when tapping on each corner of the bridge plate and behind each tonebar it rings out well all with different pitches.

I've also got my sides bent and my blocks glued up. In the pictures I only have 1 piece of kerfing glued in, but I've got more glued up as we speak. I've got a close up on the inside of the back and inside of the sides to try to show the flames in the Koa. It's all pretty mellow, but the flames are consistantly packed through out the whole back and sides. Once finished they should pop out quite a bit. My top is also very mellow bearclaw, which I definitely prefer to some of the "extreme" figures that look a bit more like worms through out the whole top to me.

Here's the pics:















That's all for now, with in another week or so I'll post more progress.

-Dan

nice work!

Hey thanks fellas! Decent quality pictures makes a world of difference. I'll try to get my hands on this camera for next updates.

-Dan

looking good, Dan. Keep up the good work!

Very Nice.

Where did you get the spruce reverse kerfing? (or is it basswood)

It's bassword kerfing from LMI. I actually like working with it more than Mahogany, it's quite a bit more durable and breaks less.

Last time I worked with mahogany kerfing I broke it a few times. The proper way, at least what I've seen people do alot is mist the kerfing and actually bend tight bends on a bending iron. With the basswood I just got it wet and clamped it with clothes pins to the outside of the mold, so that the bends were a little more mild than the inside of the sides. It gave the wood a little memory so that I would have a problem bending it to the inside.

-Dan

Wow Dan, you've come a long way! Great work.
Nice colors in that Koa too. I go more for the colors, less
infatuated with the curl myself!
Keep the pics coming.

Kevin

Dan, I've used the same process with Mahogany reverse kerfing without breaks, but you do have to be careful with it. (KMG is where i think i first read about that - thanks Ken.)

I might try the basswood. Like the look.