Official Luthiers Forum!

I just finished this one-

This guitar has a 26-1/2" scale length- standard tuning tuned down 4 half steps to C -you can also go down to B.

The string are heavy-.066 (or .070) to .014's

This thing BOOMS!!

I call this model- "The Dyin' Crapshooter" ( AKA The Blind Willie Mctell model)

The last one I made had the tailpiece-otherwise the same basic construction definatley different sound.

I used hide glue for all the braces, and the bridge-Titebond 1 everywhere else.

Bolt on neck-(no tenon,butt joint)
Honduran monogomy body and neck.(Allied truss rod adjusted through soundhole/hole in brace)
Adi top and braces (ladder braced)
Ebony fretboard
Celluloid nitrate tortoise binding, rosette and heel cap
Brazilian rosewood head veneer and bridge
Stew mac vintage tuners
Bone bridge pins (I got from Filippo)
Nitro finish with shaded top

Brad, you nailed that old Stella vibe. Seriously cool.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Tasty indeed, Brad. Nicely done!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Excellent, Brad! Great look.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Beautiful guitar, Brad. I'm glad your Honduran hasn't been sleeping around. Might affect the sound.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Beaut!
Looks far too good to be a Stella "copy", needs lots of abuse!!

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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.

Way to go Brad, these things are a blast aren't they!
What size nut did you go with and what's your string spacing at the saddle?

Could you post a pic of your tailpiece 12 for comparison?
And maybe give us your thoughts on how the two compare, tailpiece vs. pinned bridge.

Thanks,
Joe

Very nice...what did you use for the body outline????!!

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MK5acoustics.com

Love the retro styling for sure. Excellent work!

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Holy shmoly! That is one bad a#$@ cool guitar. Scary cool. I want to build one like that.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Hi Joe,
The nut is 1-7/8" wide.2-3/16 at the 12th fret. On the one before this I used 1-15/16, but I found it a little too wide-I tend to wrap my thumb to fret the low for some of the songs I play.

The string spacing at the saddle is 2-1/2".

The sound on the tailpiece one was a little more"strident" compared to the pin bridge.
I like the bass on this one better.

Here is the picture of the tailpiece one for comparison:

I used a couple of tracings-one that is on the internet that Dan Elwhine traced and one that Tim O'Neil (from this forum) was kind enough to send me. They were both from a 1920's Stella that Paul Geremia owned at one time.

Hi Filippo,
Yes, they are the Vintage stew mac tuners-I really like them for this type of guitar,even though they are not "precision" machines.

I am almost finished with a "regular" type jumbo 14 fret 12 string with a paddle head that I am using the Gotoh "organic" (510?) tuners on.-Now T
they are PRECISION tuners!!

I like that guitar!!

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

Brad, let me add my kudos - lovely guitar with a completly vintage vib. Two years ago I built a "Stella-clone" - the two things that made it possible were the SM slot head tuners and the fact that NRP would sell me one of their twelve string tailpieces. I was interested in your comments about the sound differences between pinned and tailpiece, I had a similar discussion with Todd Cambio since he builds both. It will also be interesting to see how a pinned ladder braced guitar holds up compared to the tailpiece.

I had been stringing mine with 13 to 56 and tuning to C, but I just threw a set of Elderly's "Leadbelly" strings on it - 14 to 64 and tuned to B. I'm not crazy about the double octave 12th string, but I really do like the unison third course, and the thing is a monster tuned open and played with a slide.

Would love to hear some clips

Thanks for the further info and the pic of the tailpiece 12 Brad, they both look great!
These guitars are a blast to play, quiet different than your typical git, I love em.

Joe

I didn't know Elderly was selling a Leadbelly set-I will have to check it out.
I have just been buying individual strings (D'addario).

I will do a clip soon of this one-I already have several youtube videos of me playing the Midnight Special (tailpiece) model.
Just search Brad Goodman guitar.

http://elderly.com/accessories/items/LBGS.htm

I'm probably going to go back to a standard one octave 12th string. I'll check out the vids, thanks, and I would love to hear the two back to back. And no intent to hijack the thread, here is my little Stella clone.

Hi Freeman,
Gorgeous guitar! I saw when you posted it a while ago.
You said you got the tailpiece from National directly?
I bought mine from Elderly-it was $80-seemed a little steep,but it was the only one I could find.

What shape did you use for your 12?

Thank you, this was the result of a lot of research and some blind stupid luck. There are several sets of drawings out there, mostly I think of Stefan Grossman's guitar, plus some information at Todd Cambio's site. I just sort of winged the bracing, top thickness, lots of other things. It is 26.5 scale length, a triple ought body ('cause I had the bending molds). My first attempt at scratch carving a neck - still a little clunkier than I would like. Adi over mahogany, big beefy ladder braces and 0.150 top thickness. I put a fairly large bridge plate in on the off chance I couldn't come up with the tailpiece and would have to pin it.

I happen to work in a metal fab shop and originally planned to try to make my own (Cambio does his) but when NRP came out with their twelve string I gave them a call and one was in the mail. It was similar price, but infinitely cheaper than trying to build the dies to press my own. You know about the tuners, that has been a big bug-a-boo with slothead 12s for quite a while - there is an old trick of cutting up mandolin tuners but fortunately SM came out with theirs (not the smoothest in the world but I guess that makes them more vintage)..

Anyway, you've open Pandora's box, so I have to show off. I'm trying to get some clips up comparing this to my home made OM 12 (D tuned) and my D12-28 (usually D, but I'd tune to E for the comparison). Also thinking of taking it to GAL and letting Mark play it for the Acoustic Listening seminar