Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everybody,

my name is Quentin, I live in France near Paris, where I am a piano rebuilder (I often rebuild your american steinways, mind you ), and as a hobby I build guitars.

First I would like to thank you all (forum staff and members) because this is a real goldmine here, I found information on every topic I had answers about!

Here is what I did in one year:

I started in august 2010, with a first OM model made in local lacewood and european spruce:






and for my 2nd guitar, I chose to make an OM again (I love this shape), but with a forward bracing, and some fingerbraces near the neck block.
Bearclaw Sitka spruce, indian rosewood, walnut neck and curly maple bindings:






I work in my appartment, I hope someday I will have a room dedicated to building guitars, because moving the tools in and out from the tool box all the time is really time consuming, and makes me make some mistakes (a lot ..)

Now the second OM is ready for finish, I will use spray cans of nitro finish, it is not as good as with a spray gun, but it is the only solution I have to make it finish right now.

I hope you like it,

Best regards,

Quentin

Welcome to the OLF Quentin. Good to have you aboard!
Your work looks fantastic, as one would expect from a piano technician.
I love the "Q" inlay. Tres cool.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

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Nice looking guitars!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Nice guitars, Quentin! Thanks for sharing them with us.

That lacewood is beautiful! For a moment I thought there was something wrong with my computer monitor since it was so blurry in the middle of the back of the guitar.

Charlie

ha ha, we have so bad reputation in the US?


Thank you for your comments!

This lacewood is really a common tree here in France, you can find these on all the country roads.
I think that to get this figured lacewood it has to be almost flatsawn though..
But I braced the back quite high with quartersawn braces, so it should not move.

Q.

Both guitars look great. The lacewood is beautiful with such nice color.
Chuck

Hi and welcome! Your guitars look lovely!

cheers,
miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

NIce work. I love lacewood, I've got a set waiting to be turned into a guitar right now. You can get a really good finish with rattle can Nitro.

I love this wood too, I will find another sets, I really want to make other guitars with lacewood!
On this guitar the finish has a bit of amber color (it was sprayed and finished by a pro in a spray room, but I sanded the finish on the soundboard and sprayed nitro with a can because I was not happy with the color of the spruce), next time I will make a really clear finish, this wood is so beautiful with its natural color.

I recently bought two sets of tasmanian black heart sassafras, which have an astonishing look too!

Beautiful guitars, Quentin - well done!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Beautifull work ! Welcome to OLF Q ! I look forward to seeing more of your work

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Thank you very much,
I will keep you updated, I have some other projects in mind (jumbo cutaway in sassafras, amongst others..)

Today, I started the finish of the 2nd OM:



This is not nitro finish yet, it is "fond dur" in french, I don't know the term in english , it is like an undercoat for the glossy finish which will be applied in the next days, after some sanding.

Here is the soundboard, 6 thin coats of nitro (it is lightly sanded on this picture to prepare for the final coats).

Love that bear claw top!

Bienvenue! C'est chouette!

The "Lacewood" would actually be Plane trees, rather than the other Lacewood.

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Beautiful work!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Now I have to wait..before water sanding and polishing!

Bravo!

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Thanks!
How much time do you wait for the finish to be completely dry before last sanding with water, and final polishing?

Guitars are looking good!

Where did you purchase the purfling and centerstripe you used on the second guitar?

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Hello Darryl,

it is the arrow purfling and back strip sold by Lmii

Hi,

this is the end of the story, the guitare has its strings since Wednesday, I've just sticked the pickguard, and did some intonation on the saddle, here is the result:









I'm really happy about the tone, it is brighter than the 1st one, so I have 2 completely different OMs at home.
The sustain is really improved on the 2nd one too, maybe an effect of the sitka+rosewood combination?
On this 2nd guitar, the bracing is different too.

Cheers

Q.

Très belle guitare!



That's the problem when you change too many things from one to another (woods, bracings, etc). There is no way to know what affected the sound, and how. To really learn to control the variables, thy should change only little things each time, in the same direction.

But well, that said, I'm still on my first instruments (#1, 2 and 3 on the go), and they're all completely different!

Bonne chance!
Francis

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Merci Ti roux

Indeed, it is difficult to know what affects the tone compared to another guitar, but on this 2nd OM this was my goal: changing everything but keeping the same model.

Very nice

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