Kid in a candy shop...?

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tippie53
Posts: 7011
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:09 pm
Location: Hegins, Pa
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Re: Kid in a candy shop...?

Post by tippie53 »

finding quility tops you better expect to pay in at least the $50 range the bargain tops often have a lot of run out and to the untrained eye look fine
I use RC Tonewoods and a few suppliers but they require larger quantity orders. ebay is a dangerous place to buy without a good deal of experience
also Carpathian tops are a great deal
John Hall
Blues Creek Guitars Inc
Authorized CF Martin Repair Center
president of Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com
MaineGeezer
Posts: 1711
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2014 12:14 pm

Re: Kid in a candy shop...?

Post by MaineGeezer »

As another data point, I've got a guitar with a white pine top that sounds just fine. Our church burned in 2011, and Carter Ruff built the guitar as a fundraiser using wood from one of the church pews. The wood was probably over a hundred years old, which may have helped, but it is still white pine, not typically found on a list of preferred tonewoods.

From this I infer that skill in building probably has way more effect on the sound than the kind of wood.
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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
Stray Feathers
Posts: 677
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 11:39 pm
Location: Ladysmith, BC

Re: Kid in a candy shop...?

Post by Stray Feathers »

Welcome to the forum. Like you, I am a new builder, too, and am in my eighth decade as I work on number three. When I discovered this forum, it was one of the things that gave me enough confidence to start building. Another thing was a gift of a few tools, and a form for an OM type guitar made from plans in Jonathan Kinkead's book (widely available). I, like many, don't agree with everything he says or does, and I think his plans will help you build an overbuilt guitar, but I have found it very useful and it was another confidence builder. Finally, I have a luthier friend who has been unfailingly positive and encouraging. He told me from the beginning that my guitars would sound better than any guitar off the shelf. Was he right? Well, I play my own two guitars more than I play my expensive lovely old L'arrivée. If you don't yet know a local luthier, you will get the same encouragement here on the forum. So, go for it, and keep us posted!
Morecowbell
Posts: 280
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2019 10:51 am
Location: Fishers, IN

Re: Kid in a candy shop...?

Post by Morecowbell »

Great stuff! Love hearing about the "pine-top" guitar and also that Stray Feather's sound better than his L'arivee - this is what I need! I also have just found John's extensive videos on youtube so I'm getting sucked further into the vortex. So now its not a question of if, but when...

Keep it coming - thanks again!
"Facts seldom sway an opinion." - John Hall
"The difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference." - Van de Snepscheut
Diane Kauffmds
Posts: 3246
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:13 pm

Re: Kid in a candy shop...?

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

Meet Delilah. She's made from West Virginia wild cherry, which I found in the rafters of a local lumberyard, where they store the wood. The wood, which was more than 12" wide, and not in their modern inventory, was a smidgen over 1" thick and laying up there since before WWII. Her top is West Virginia red spruce.

I have $35 invested in the cherry wood. They charged me $4.35 per board foot, which is what they charge for 6" wide cherry. I told them where to cut, and they cut the lengths that i wanted. Since this wood wasn't in inventory, they simply charged me for what is in current inventory. I also have a bunch of black walnut from the same place, and with the same story as the cherry.

She has an outstanding voice.

The wood wasn't resawed very well; I didn't own the right equipment. But, she turned out okay for my #2.

The point is that you can build a nice guitar without investing a lot in exotic woods.
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Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Kbore
Posts: 299
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2017 3:58 pm
Location: St. Louis area

Re: Kid in a candy shop...?

Post by Kbore »

Welcome to the group!
I built my first guitar with the support and guidance of the great people in this forum.

There I was in a thrift store on the day I bought the vintage sears Silvertone acoustic, with a truss rod, for $35. When I got it home, replaced the missing pegs and strung it up, it was unplayable, strings laying on the 12 fret, needed fret work, bridge was cracked. I had kept a library of guitar building and repair books and articles for 35 years, I had dozukis, block planes, band and table saws, routers, bits, squares, calipers, scrapers, burnishers, files and such, but never owned a specialty guitar tool. I had to repair the Silvertone, rescue it from indifference. Reluctantly, I laid out some good money for my first guitar tools.

All that pent-up intention and dreaming just busted loose when I placed that first tool order; Fret nippers, fretting hammer, fret and nut files, straight edge, little saddle vise and a sanding bar. I accumulated other tools like radius gauges and wood radius blocks from Ebay. I fixed the Silvertone and its playability and sound exceeded my wildest expectations, I got REALLY lucky. I made bone saddles and nuts for all my guitars, replaced plastic pins with wood ones and re-crowned the frets on all of them and did a proper, calculated setups, with amazing results in sound and playability.

About six months later, I bought a kit. I took 1 1/2 years to build it, no rushing.
Its the only rosewood guitar I own, and it sounds just short of amazing.
After I was half way through, I bought two more kits rosewood kits for later, I enjoyed the build so much. The additional kits will help amortize the cost of tools; that's how I justified more tools : )
I've spent $$$ on tools, but after the first guitar was finished, I still have the tools!
I am making and modifying my own tools now and making fixtures as I need them, very few store bought tools. I also bought a 120V buffer and a $35 spray gun, neither do I regret buying.

Im building my second dreadnaught style, thin pearl strips line all the purfling and binding.
That created a mountain of NEW issues to learn to deal with, its very satisfying.

If you can be patient, impeccable, and are good at fixing "issues", then building a guitar may be a great choice for you. I have created a lot of dum-dum issues, and now know how to fix them, also very satisfying.

If I regret anything in life, its that I waited so long to peruse guitar making.

Enjoy your journey, come back often, and buy a few tools to make a nut and saddle and set the action on your player. After that, you will know better what to do.

Lastly, thanks to all the great builders and members of this forum for helping me build my first (but not last) acoustic guitar.
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Measure Twice,

Karl B
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