Official Luthiers Forum!

A few pictures of my first, a classical based on Brune’s 1937 Hauser plan set. I am greatly appreciative of all the help and support I found here on OLF. Thank you all very much.










Happy new year to all!

Joe

Joe : Congrats, that is one nice looking guitar.Now on to the next one.....!!!
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Well done Joe! That's a beauty. I like toe headstock and very well done too.

All The Best,
Danny

Looking good! Is the the one and only or first of many?

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

Wow, looks amazing.

That looks REALLY nice Joe.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Wow! That is a VERY nice number one! Is that french polished?

A fine looking guitar!

Nice looking guitar. I hope mine looks as good when it is finally finished.

Outstanding, Joe. Great job!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Congratulations Joe!

Very nice, will there be more to come

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

What a great feelin? To make an instrument that you an others can enjoy for many years to come! Very nice job!....Congrats!

Jeff

Thank you all for the kind words. James, yes it's French polished. To others wondering if there will be a next one, well I don’t see why not. I’ll probably start another in a few months, as soon as time and funds permit. Thanks again to everyone here on OLF.

Joe

Man that's a pro quality axe from what I can tell. Great job

yeah, that's gorgeous. Great job on number 1. Congratulations!

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I like everything about that, Joe. Well done!
Are you pleased with the sound?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice job, I love the purfling lines matching the backstrip. Not to bold just accenting it.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

That looks absolutely unbelievable for a first!

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Build log

I am impressed, very good craftmanship and this is your first one ?

Maybe some sound samples ?

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Don't worry be happy.

Looks fantastic!
Your on your way into the dark & dusty guitarmakers world.

Mike

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Mike Collins

Beautiful job Joe! What are the wood specs?

Rick

Very elegant, Joe. A beautiful instrument. I love it when fair curves and good wood choices come together with good craftsmanship, without a lot of fancy-shmansy ornamentation to distract from the elegance of the design. As for me....I usually resort to a few fancy-shmansy ornaments, because my craftsmanship isn't this flawless. Congratulations!
Patrick

Thanks everyone for the gracious compliments.

Wood specs: Engelmann spruce soundboard and top braces, EIR back and sides, Spanish cedar neck, rosewood bindings with maple and maple/black purflings, pre-slotted 650mm ebony fingerboard, EIR bridge. Guitar is French polished.

Build timeline: I started researching the possibility of building a guitar on my own in January 2010. I read several books by the end of April including: Courtnall, Doubtfire, Middleton, Cumpiano, Bogdanovich, and later Sloane. I decided that I would give it a go and ordered a serviced kit from LMI in April. I started building the solera and other jigs and fixtures in June. I began work on the actual guitar in late August and put strings on it 4 months later on Christmas Eve.

I think my biggest anxiety during the build was that I wasn’t sure that I would end up with a playable guitar considering all the various elements that affect playability. Up until the end I wasn’t really sure if I had selected a workable geometry of neck angle and doming, or put in the correct amount of fingerboard relief, or if the action would change significantly when the neck and soundboard were under the pull of the strings, or if the guitar would even play in tune. As it turned out I needed almost no fingerboard taper to get the proper action. And I was relieved when the action didn’t change measurably after putting strings on, and when all the notes on the fingerboard played in tune, and without any buzzing.

As far as tone, I like it… trebles seem a bit closed but overall it sounds pretty good to my ears. And it plays like a dream. As for sound clips – I did record a few minutes initially to get a baseline of the sound when I first put strings on but then noticed that one of the bone strips on the tieblock had pulled loose. It has since been fixed (thanks to lots of helpful advice I got here).
Here are a couple more pics I tried to include with the original set but they wouldn’t go through.




Again, thank you all for the support and encouragement.

Joe