L-00 Deep Body (Nick Lucas Model)

[DaveH]

Just finishing up the build of a L-00 Deep body. I still need to complete the final rubbing and buffing, as well as finishing the set-up. Using Cherry for the S&B I did not know exactly what to expect relative to sound character. While some say Cherry can sound like Mahogany, others say more Maple like. As I got closer to completion I suspected more Maple like, and was correct. It's more on the bright side. Who knows what it will sound like when it matures. I really like the combination of Tortise Binding with the light colored woods. The cherry was easy to work with, but was a little stiffer when bending when compared to EIR and Black Walnut. On the plus side, the Cherry is tight grained and does not require filling.

Sorry for the thumbnail pictures and they are rotated. They should appear correct when linking to Photobucket.

Guitar Specifics:

Top: Fine grained Sitka Spruce, supplied by Ken @ KMG
Back & Sides: Quarter Sawn Cherry
Neck: Hard Maple with Cherry and Black Walnut
Binding & Purling: Tortise (Martin) and BWB
Fingerboard: Short Scale Martin (24.9), Rosewood
Bridge: Rosewood (Martin)
Finish: Behlens Instrument Lacquer
Rosetter: Basic BWB Combinations (Martin)

Again, sorry for the rotated thumbnails.

[mytch]

Great! I love the "large" sides. What size are they?
Beautiful and elegant job anyway.

Best regards.
Mytch

[DaveH]

The Side Depth is approximately 4 1/2", tapering slightly to 4 1/4". If I remember correctly, Gibson's Nick Lucas model had depth dimensions of 4 5/8", tapering to 4 3/8". Much deeper than the standard L-00, and with less taper.

[darren]

Looking good DaveH,


What are the sonic advantages to the added depth? I'm about to profile my sides for an L-OO build and was thinking of going standard depth. My two previous OM's have been 'over-depth' so i kind of wanted to do one 'standard' and hear the difference.

[naccoachbob]

Really nice job, Dave. That cherry looks really good.
Bob

[Woody OKeefe]

That looks great Dave.
I just received some curly sherry from Bob the Zoot Man. I'm looking forward to the next project.
I do like the Tortis bindings really cool!!!!

[Tony_in_NYC]

Very nice! The cherry looks great and that top is beautiful. Where did you get the neck? Its also very nice and matches well with the rest of the guitar!

[Snaglpuss]

Nice!
Did you use an available plan or draw up your own?

[DaveH]

Thank you for the feedback. I picked the Cherry from a local distributor and resawed the wood for the Back, Sides, and Neck Center Strip from the same board. They previously did not have much pre-milled Quartersawn Cherry on display. On a recent visit I found that they had milled up quite a lot of material. This allowed me to carefully select the board(s) I wanted to work with.

I prefer to build my own necks. It was built up from 7 pieces.

I used a 1937 L-00 plan. I believe it is the same one that is distributed by LMII. I altered the depth of the sides based on my research of the Nick Lucas model.

[kencierp]

The L00 plan actually came from the GAL website -- Their stuff is pretty cool in that they usually document the dimensions while doing a restoration of the actual instrument, as opposed to the shadow and trace process.