Wilborn Guitar Attempt

[Tomcat]

Your humidity isn't a problem for the finish. I'm talking like 80 to 90 all the time (India) and 80 to 90 or more degrees much of the year, and monsoons. 🤯

Time will tell on the TO. I have 2 classical in India right now with TO. I tell them to store them in dehumidifier cabinet....but do tgey listen to me..... nooo.

I don't finish inside the box. Some folks do. It might help some with the structure.

Thanks again, Kevin! I hope those folks in India figure out how to take care of your babies 👶

[scamp]

Completed the first pass of the nut and glued it in.
Waiting for it to set before putting on the strings and getting my first sounds out of this beast.

While waiting for the glue to set I decided to make some measurements.

Did a top tap test to see where the resonances are and how strong.
Looking reasonably good. Could see strong monopole, cross dipole, long dipole and cross tripole resonances.
See red line in graph below.

Naut 1 tap test.png

Measured the top displacement under 5 lb load and it was about 0.021 inches vs about 0.01 inches for my Martin D28. Also measured uncoupled monopole resonant frequency ( by stuffing cloth into the sound hole and taping the top ). It was about 178 Hz. With these two numbers you can calculate the monopole mobility of the guitar which is a general figure of merit. Basically, the stiffer and lighter the top ( which you can calculate with the top displacement and frequency) the better the guitar. The monopole mobility came out to be about .026. My Martin D28 comes out to about 0.013 so it looks good. We shall see. I know it's all about the sound ( not the numbers ) but hopefully there is correlation.

Monopole Mobility.JPEG

[Kevin Sjostrand]

The string tension will hold that nut in place. Get some strings on that beast and let's make some pretty sounds.
Looking forward to hearing her. She sure turned out nice

[scamp]

OK.... I'm more or less done.
Put on the strings this morning and it has exceeded my expectations.
Very happy with the sound and sensitivity of the instrument.
Ben Wilborn knows what he is doing.

Still need to tweek the saddle to get the correct string height and intonation and adjust the truss rod but thought I would let it sit for a day or two before I do my final tweeks.

Some shots below. Will post some additional photos in the Show it Off section of this forum.

Front .JPEG

Front Full 2.JPEG

Cut Away Side.JPEG

Sound Hole 2.JPEG

Sound Hole 1.JPEG

[Joshyouare]

This has been such an awesome build to follow, and has certainly inspired me to give it a go on my next build. I'll be using a slightly different body shape to try and make it my own but this thread will certainly be used a low to guide me! Thanks dude. Super keen to hear it!

[Tomcat]

I've also found this so very inspiring. It's a beautiful design and beautifully carried out! I have such a long road to be able to pull off anything like this myself.

I hope you can post an audio clip of what it sounds like when your tweaks are all done.

Have you started thinking about your next project yet?

[tippie53]

like the contemporary design and great execution