The J45 (underneath) is the largest guitar I’ve ever built. The soundboard on top is for a grand concert, which is not exactly a small guitar.
I’m currently building a pair of commissioned guitars and having a great time because the two instruments have such different goals.
The first is a jazz machine: I’m shooting for the strong, independent voicings and fat, certain trebles I’ve seen in several of my previous builds. This one is a Grand Concert size 12-fret with a red spruce top over a double-wall sugar maple rim and back, one of my all-time favorite combinations.
The other is a street fighter, with plenty of confidence and swagger, lots of low-end thump and a devil-may-care attitude about clean trebles. It is inspired by the best J45 I have ever played, a maple-or-maybe-birch-backed “Banner era” belonging to one of the best old-time guitarists around. My build is a red spruce top over a red maple rim and back.
Serial Number 26, a grand concert in sugar maple
The rosette features African blackwood and sugar maple.
This guitar uses the fan/X hybrid bracing that I’ve found produces a very balanced sounding guitar.
Using this style of bracing makes it easier to control the pitch of the back.
The red spruce bracing material I use is very stiff and requires a light touch.
Laminated braces add a great deal of stiffness to the rim.
Number 26 uses a laminated rim with laminated solid linings. The neck will be adjustable.
Maple sides, basswood linings and a red spruce top make a striking set.
I use go-bars to glue the plates to the rim.
Serial Number 27, a J45-style guitar in red maple
The rosette features Honduran rosewood and red maple.
I used a pretty traditional X brace with belly bars on this guitar, to get more of that characteristic J45 sound.
I chose to brace the back like my other guitars because it gives me more control over the end result.
Number 27 uses a single-ply rim with laminated solid linings. The neck will be adjustable.
In addition to being stiff, laminated solid linings look quite elegant.
Here I’m gluing the top on, though the visible pressure is on the back, which is up.
Like all interesting things, this repair started out simply enough. I saw my friend Bill down at the North Arkansas Fiddlers’ Convention, and he said, “The bridge is just starting to pull up on this old guitar,” as he handed me his 1944 D-18. I didn’t think regluing the bridge would be any big deal, then Bill said, “The bridge has been off before. And there’s a hole through the top underneath it that you could put your little finger in.” Continue reading “Interesting Repair: Putting a new top on a 1940s D-18”→
Here’s a sneak peek of a not-quite-finished guitar. Number 22 is a 12-fret grand concert guitar with a red spruce soundboard, sugar maple sides, back and neck, an African blackwood fingerboard and bridge, and gold Evo frets with matching, smooth-running Gotoh brushed gold X-finish high-ratio sealed tuning machines. It uses a 24.9″ scale and the nut is about 1-3/4″ wide. The neck profile was suggested to me by the commissioner, and it feels great! It’s got just a hint of a V to it and is very comfortable to play. This guitar uses doubled sides and an adjustable neck. It both feels and sounds great. This guitar will be for sale for $2750 once I’ve finished it. Contact me if you’re interested.
Front view of no22, a grand concert in red spruce and sugar maple with a toned finish.
Rear view of no22, a grand concert in red spruce and sugar maple with a toned finish.
The wood dyes bring out the figure in this red spruce soundboard. The bridge is African blackwood.
I hand-applied a sunburst finish to this sugar maple body using water-soluble wood dyes.
I added thin brass rings to the white pearl dots inlayed in the African blackwood fingerboard at the 12th fret.
I slipped a piece of birdseye maple into the headstock. The tuners are Gotoh sealed 510s with the gold “X” finish.
Here’s a quick sound sample recorded on a little Zoom audio recorder:
See photos of the build process in these galleries:
An auditorium guitar in red spruce and American sycamore was strung up for the first time today. Right away, I noticed how even the notes across the bass strings are, from open low E well up onto the G string. When playing bass runs or lines, it’s hard to tell when I’m switching or alternating strings because they all have a similar body and brilliance (listen for the bass notes in the waltz snippet in the following sample). Also, there’s great texture to closed chords, with the chord voicing coming through nicely. One thing you can’t tell from the audio is how great the neck shape chosen by the guitar’s commissioner feels; it’s a vintage-inspired soft V contour, and I’m a fan after just a few minutes.
Cleaning the finish off the bridge location.
Fitting bridge pins individually–they’re all slightly different!
Number 23 has her first set of strings!
There will be some adjustments to be made as the body and neck settle in to having string tension applied, but the adjustable neck makes relief fixes much simpler. Once I’ve let the finish harden a bit more, this guitar will be on its way to its new home in the Pacific Northwest.
This American sycamore and red spruce guitar is rounding third base headed for home. The finish has been built up and now I’m on to compacting and burnishing the French polish finish. I still love the sycamore!
The Adirondack spruce tops shows virtually no run out and beautiful silking.
Rosewood binding forms the edges of this American sycamore guitar.
A view of the rosewood end graft.
The mostly finished maple neck.
The mostly finished maple headstock.
Between coats, I’m working the last piece to shape for this guitar: the pyramid-style bridge made of African blackwood.
To make a bridge, I first dimension the block, then drill the pin holes and route the saddle slot.
I shape the notch between the pyramid and the center bar then start chiseling to create the pyramid.
Once the chisel has formed the faces of the pyramid, out come the rasps and files to refine the shape.
This American sycamore and red spruce guitar is coming right along. I’ve completed the woodworking and am deep into the finishing. The box sounds and looks wonderful–sycamore has almost unbelievable figure naturally and my previous sycamore guitars have given me some good practice on getting the most out of this wood. The adjustable neck joint front loads a lot of what is typically final setup work, so this guitar will be playable very soon!
The top and back plate are braced and ready for assembly.
The sycamore back is attached to the rim assembly first.
The channel for the back binding has been routed.
The binding and purfling need to be bent before attempting to install them.
I work the neck with a spokeshave, forming facets that echo the general profile to be refined later by rasp.
Binding and purfling have been installed and scraped flush. I’ve also cut the neck pocket.
The neck has been fretted–I love the all-black look on this guitar..
I’ve slotted the headstock and shaped and sanded the transtions and overall shape.
All profiled and ready for finishing!
With a porous wood like sycamore, the first finishing step is filling the pores.
Pore filled applied and mostly sanded back to wood.
Next, the body is dyed and then sealed with shellac. The figure comes to life!
I’ve just begun work on a new 12-fret auditorium in American sycamore (from Callaway County, Missouri) and red (Adirondack) spruce. This guitar will feature laminated sides, an adjustable neck joint (adjustable from the inside of the guitar) and that wonderful snappy sound that sycamore provides. The aesthetic will be pure classic on this one: clean and simple rosette, binding, a slotted headstock, an African blackwood fingerboard and bridge and a warm brown finish.
The laminated sides are glued together in a vacuum bag.
Once the sides are laminated, they fit the form perfectly and show no springback.
The tail block is fitted to the inside of the rim.
This neck block allows adjustment of the neck’s angle.
I’ve started using solid linings (basswood in this case). Two layers are bent to shape then glued in place.
The American sycamore back shows off its quarter sawn flecking.
The back braces are radiused then glued in place in the go-bar deck.
These are the component parts of the rosette all bent into rings to be inlaid in the top.
