Official Luthiers Forum!

This one just went to a friend/customer in Illinois. I'm going to let the photos speak for themselves. There's a detailed "build thread" on the AGF here - http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=285710 - which should answer any questions you may have about this guitar's construction. I'm extremely happy with the way it came out. It really sounds amazing. Loud, responsive, well-balanced, and absolutely delicious.



























I'm happy to say it's owner, Dan, is as thrilled with it as I am.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Here's a vid of Dan playing it and singing with his wife, Naomi. Shot with an inexpensive camcorder, it doesn't do justice to the guitar's sound - the camcorder's mic is lacking, especially, in bass response (the guitar is definitely NOT lacking in bass response!) - but it gives you some idea, at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l08q6zR-Eds

(I can't figure out how to embed youtube vids here, but just click on the link, and there you are.)

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Great work Todd! Thanks for sharing.

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Very cool Todd! A very eloquent contemporary guitar - very well done!

Wow! Lot of creativity in that one. The link just opens up a picture for me. What are the specs. Looks like Lutz and some very nice EIR?

Oops, thanks for the heads up, Danny. I copied and pasted the wrong thing there. It should be good now. Here it is again:
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=285710

Yes, Lutz and EIR.

Here's one construction pic. All the rest are in that thread.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Wow Todd! What an original design! I'm interested in the usage of that carbon fiber rod down the center. That must be one solid neck/heel joint.

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Wow!

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Congrats, Todd. Great looking guitar and great sound.

Max

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

Very nice!

I'm interested to know more about the carbon rod too.

You are a Artist Todd.
Great guitar!
Mike

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Mike Collins

Todd,
I just got through your posts on the acoustic guitar forum. Fantastic work! ...and it was very gracious for you to share all of that. I do have a question... How can one screw hold all that pressure? ...and how can a threaded insert not get ripped out?
Thanks again,
Steve

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Thanks, Steve!

The short answer to your question is: it's strong enough, it works. I might not have thought it would unless I'd seen guitars made with very similar neck joints (Rick Turner, Laurent Brondel), also relying on one bolt to keep the neck on. So, I knew it could be done. With my variation of the design, I've done several things that augment the strength of that bolt and insert and the whole structure. First, the grain direction of the heel means the threaded insert goes into solid side-grain, not end grain. Second, I wicked CA in around the threaded insert. I'm not sure what it would take to pull that out, but I'll bet it's several hundred pounds, at least. I would guess it would take even more than that to rip the bolt out of the insert - both are steel, steel is dang strong stuff, and the threads are reasonably coarse (20 tpi, if I recall correctly). The way the neck block is made means that the bolt head bears against end grain, which is a very hard surface, and I've also put a large washer under the bolt head to spread the load, so I don't expect any significant wood-crushing to happen there. Nor will the bolt head rip out a chunk of wood, or otherwise break the wood of the neck block, because that end grain section is backed up by the main section, which is made of birch ply. The whole neck block is also solidly braced in place by the "axial strut" (that ginormous CF-wrapped dowel spanning the two end blocks) and the ipe-capped longitudinal brace going down the center of the back -- note the foot on the neck block that bears on that brace. Bottom line: I think the whole thing is an amply strong structure.

The joint between the heel and the neck shaft would be by far the weakest link if it weren't for the CF-wrapped dowel embedded in there. Take another look at the photos of the heel construction if you're not sure what I'm talking about.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

For those of you wondering about that CF rod (the "axial strut"), I'm not sure what you want to know, but I think you're questions will probably be answered by looking at the build thread on the AGF that I linked to above. As you'll see in the photos there, it's a CF-wrapped hardwood dowel (cherry or mahogany, can't seem to remember which at this moment), made for me by J.B. Allred. The strut itself would have been amply strong if I'd just used a CF tube, but then I would have had to do more engineering of the joints at each end, because the small bearing surface of the edges of the tube would have risked crushing the wood of the end blocks under the load of string tension. Making it a solid wood-filled rod gave me enough bearing surface at each end to feel good about those interfaces, and I figured the added strength of the rod couldn't hurt.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Beautiful. What is the bridge wood?

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
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Thanks, Chris! Honduras rosewood, same as the headplates.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

I've been loving the work you've posted recently. Great aesthetic!

That's really neat, very modern looking and unique.

Everything about that guitar is amazing!

I love guys that live outside of the box. Nice work Todd.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Congrats, another beautiful guitar from you.

Sent fra min SM-G920F via Tapatalk

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

You knocked it out of the park on that one, Todd! Beautiful and skilled results!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Very much appreciating all these comments, everyone!

One little comment of my own: if it had been up to me, I would have put gold Schaller (or Schaller-style Gotoh) mini tuners with ebony knobs on the guitar, and gold strap buttons, too. But Dan (my friend and customer) wanted these chrome Grover tuners (with black plastic knobs) on it -- he provided them -- and chrome strap buttons to match. They look fine, and the Grover tuners do turn with an impressive buttery smoothness, but I would have preferred the look of gold hardware -- would have complimented the warm wood colors better, IMO.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Yeah, but you have such good taste, Todd!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

That's a very cool and beautiful guitar. The build thread over on the AGF is one of the best I've seen for its extensive details and great photos. The guitar has many interesting design/engineering features and the methods you used give me a lot to think about.

The neck joint reminds me of the adjustable cantilevered neck on a 1951 National archtop I used to have. It also used a three-screw tripod adjustment mechanism and a single bolt to hold the neck on. The biggest difference was that it had no heel at all. Just a cover plate over the adjustment mechanism. It looked like this:

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter