1st build - Carpathian/ Mahogany OM

[jared]

This is my first ever build. My luthier has allowed me to use his shop and tools to build my first. And while there I get tips and advice along the way. It's a slow process, only able to be there a few hours each week due to family life and all but the ball is rolling.

Specs are as follows:

- Carpathian top
- Honduran Mahogany back/sides
- Braz rw, rw or ebony fingerboard/bridge (I'm still deciding which to use since I have all three in hand to choose from)
- Huss&Dalton shaped bridge
- Braz rw head plate/ heel cap
- no fretboard markers
- pearl inlay logo on head plate
- bone nut/saddle
- 1 3/4" nut, 2 1/4" spacing
- open gear tuners
- forward-shift bracing (tapered non-scalloped)
- celluloid tortoise binding
- tortoloid pickguard or delmar tortoise (both in hand to choose from, will see which looks best when comes to that point of the build of which to choose)
- oil varnish finish
- simple herringbone rosette
- no perfling

This guitar is pretty much going to be kept clean and simple with vintage appointments- along the lines of early Martin 000 and OM 18s. The idea is to make this a strummer for use at home on the couch, etc... And also at times when I'd rather play a smaller guitar than my D-18 dread. I'm wanting to achieve a very woody, responsive lightweight guitar, with punch and growl. My '07 D-18 sounds superb and balanced with oomph, but with the standard x bracing it has a bit of a tight sound, therefore I use light strings to counteract that. My plan with the OM is shifting the x bracing up towards the soundhole to allow it to possibly have a bit more vibration since it will be a smaller box with less air movement. Also tapering the bracing somewhat to still give it plenty of support for the top and keeping the tone still somewhat balanced and not over-bassy. The anticipation is killing me on how it's going to sound.

I will post pics tomorrow as they are on my other comp. Right now I'm finishing up the bracing for both top and back. Sides are bent and finished with kerfing. Blocks attached. So after the bracing is done will be time to make the box. Should have that by end of next week... fingers crossed. Stinks only being able to work on it so little during the week... If my choice it would be every day but those of us who are married, it's nice to have a happy wife in the house.
I have found out already this is very addictive and I doubt this will be my only build. I am from Alabama and a few years back moved to Norway for a Norwegian gal, got married and had a kid. Back in the states I played much out and did quite well with it. After moving here my priorities changed up and no more traveling and playing, just staying in town playing at church. So since I wasn't out playing I began to buy and sell guitars to make extra money to fix the void of not getting out anymore. During this time I began learning/studying all the components about acoustics. Now I feel that I know enough to begin making my own guitar, and would one day possibly be able to do this on the side as a hobby and sell them.
Anyway, enough of the long spill. I'll keep posting back as things progress. If things go as planned, I'm looking to have this completed early spring... March-ish? Possibly before..

[tippie53]

looking forward to the pics

[jared]

here's a few phone pics to get started..

[jared]

... few more...

[jared]

looking forward to the pics

hey john. question for you... i'm having a hard time deciding what to use for the bridge/fingerboard. on hand i have ebony, rw, and brw. all high quality grading.
my idea all along was for the end result of my 1st build to be very lightweight, responsive, classic woody tone of a Martin, with superb balance.
all 3 materials i have all have a nice tap to them, which of course all having a different tone with each.
since my top is Carptathian, i've heard it to have the headroom of Adi, clarity in the highs, deep lows but a faster break in time than Adi. i've never played a Carpathian guitar before. perhaps Carp has more highs than Sitka?
so i'm needing to decide which bridge material will react best with the woods i'm using... carp/mahogany.

will the ebony being denser dampen the tone a bit to where the guitar won't sound so bright?
will the rosewood give it a lighter feel, more airy, woodier, but add more brightness to the high end?
will brw give it the best of both worlds... resonating ringing lows with crisp zingy highs?

sigh.... too much for my brain to handle. my luthier said any of the three are fine to use, its all down to my liking. but all seem like great options.

i know ebony is harder and can last somewhat longer without getting grooves in the fingerboard and all, but looks wise i actually prefer a nice piece of rosewood, to me it just looks more like.... wood. with grain lines showing and all, whereas ebony is just mainly black... as the ebony i have is pretty much solid black on its own.
if i'm wanting my guitar to be pretty much having that classic Martin woody tone... mentally i feel that rw would fit that would help tie that in with it all. a nice dark brown rw with some subtle black lines showing here and there is ideal to me. of course the way it looks doesnt cause it to sound better.... but i sure wont be putting an ugly piece of rw on my guitar. :)

need some input from you veteran and skilled people!

i must add.... that i'm leaning NOT to go with brw, basically if i'm ever to move back to the USA i'd have problems traveling with it. i dont want any confiscation, especially being my first build there will be a great attachment to it.... that is if it actually turns out well and sounds good. :)
so i think the braz just won't cut it for me. i chose a braz headplate for this guitar but i think that will be so small and not so noticeable to affect things with travel.

[tippie53]

I like BRW and ebony they are both great materials for this . Also Texas ebony is fine. So keep it simple go with the Ebony for now. I don't think you will be disappointed. Carp is also a great top. I really like it
john

[jared]

I like BRW and ebony they are both great materials for this . Also Texas ebony is fine. So keep it simple go with the Ebony for now. I don't think you will be disappointed. Carp is also a great top. I really like it
john

thanks for the response john.
though i'm a little disappointed as the Carp i have does have runout. this topic has been beat down so much on the AGF forum. this piece i have is exceptionally stiff. i have it sanded down to .098 and its still crazy stiff. i chose not to go any thinner. after i'm finished with the bracing i'll then see if its needed to do any scraping on the top to go thinner depending on how it taps. i just dont want it to collapse on me and have some sturdiness. the other two tops i was choosing up against the Carp was Port Orford and Sitka,, both of those were wobbly and done sanding at around .118. so i had this idea that Carp would just be more of a beast and plus when tapping the gonging sound i was getting from the Carp gave me the impression it could handle some really nice lows, depening on i do the bracing right. which i'm basically using pre-carved bracing from Martin... i'll just have to do a small little bit of sanding and shaping in some areas.
but back to my point... i'm worried the look of the runout will bother me aesthetically. i've heard runout affects tone, and others say its just cosmetic. personally i've played and heard runout tops that sounded phenomenal. the supplier i bought my Carp from said it had little to no runout and that looked so until after i joined the two pieces together, and there it was.
i've been working on an oil finish on the soundhole cutout, one side is near completed and the other half is two layers. i'll see if i can take a good shot of the runout with my phone cam and add the pic here to see if i need to be all that worried.
in the pics, you can see i took them at different angles in which causes darker on one side then when turned its darker on the other. its a really beatiful grained wood... its just going to be two-toned its whole life! :)

[Darryl Young]

Looking good! Keep the pics coming.

I like the mahogany/carpatian choice you made.

[jared]

some new pics today. soon finished with the final shaping/sanding of both top and back braces.

tonite i'll be gluing in leftover wood from my Carpathian top, making strips for a few side braces for added strength.

later this week i'll be radiusing the kerfing on both top/back, and hoping...fingers crossed... to have the box together as well.

sorry if the pics load in sideways...i don't know whats going on. they are the right way on my comp but for some reason they show up sideways on here.

some help maybe from someone??

[nkwak]

Looking good so far. As soon as I finish my first I'll be kicking off my second and using Carpathian as well. In fact, I already jumped the gun and shot the edges (if that's the right term) in anticipation of joining the plates but did something dumb and shuffled the two sides so that I think I inverted one of the halves. It's pretty straight grained so it's could go either way. Now that I've read your woes I'm afraid I'll see some runout as well. Is there a way to tell without joining or finishing the top?

How is it to work with? I used cedar on my 1st and it's so soft! I'm hoping that Carpathian is a little more forgiving.