Sunday, June 6, 2010

Works in progress

I have three guitars in progress. One "serious", one "semi-serious", and one just plain hack.


The "serious" guitar is flamed Myrtlewood back/sides, Engelmann Spruce top, Honduras Mahogany neck, and Indian Rosewood fingerboard & bridge. This is bright, clear guitar designed for finger picking. It has been strung up for about 2 weeks and is starting to settle in.





The not-so-serious guitar was done as a test. First, the sides are tapered, they are significantly thinner at the neck than they are at the back. Second, I wanted to try to use oak as much as possible. The neck, fingerboard, bridge, back, and sides are 100% oak. The top is Home Depot "white pine", whatever that is, that was left over from a shelf I had made. The top bracing is Douglas Fir, from an old floor board from the attic of my house. This one has only been strung up for a couple of days, but so far it is a pretty good flat picker. It might be a nice guitar once it settles in, especially once I get around to finishing the neck & frets.





Lastly we have the hack. This my first attempt at building a classical style guitar. I didn't put too much effort into it, using just scrap wood and not bothering with aesthetics in any way shape or form. Still, it sounds and plays pretty good. Now that I have some idea of what I'm doing, the next one should be sweet.





Portrait


A portrait of yours truly playing guitar, drawn by the lovely and talented Lula