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Got this lil' feller ready for finish, unless I decide to relocate the 9th fret marker to its proper place.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Good looking uke Brad. I don't think anyone other than maybe Jake Shimabukuro would notice!

They are a lot of fun to build. They sound a lot bigger than they look too. So far I have built 5 of these and each one has really surprised me. And in fact frankly one of them is one of the best guitars I have built to date. It was just a lot of luck but it sounds glorious. I have learned a LOT building these things. It has changed my entire outlook on what 'tonewood' really is. That or oak and pine is just a perfect combination for a small parlor guitar.



Yeah it was the YouTube videos that caught on. I was not at all expecting that. But for the right person these guitars are perfect. It's why I always refer to them as folk art guitars because that is exactly what they are. So far every one I have built one for wants a nice sounding guitar first but second they love the idea of a guitar built from the wood of an old fallen down barn. Problem is I am running out of wood now.

Now that we finally have some rain and burn piles are taken care of, it's time to harvest some boards from some of the Manzanita I found while brush clearing.
Four logs gave me this stack of @ 1/2" X 2"-5" X 36" pieces. Hopefully for binding, fretboards, bridges and other veneer trim.

Here's one of the straightest.

Here's a couple of the pieces. I've used the light outside layer for inlay material.

More to go through.

Some burls too. Makes nice rosettes. The white stuff is snow from yesterday's storm

I've got a lot of other dry standing stuff saved over the years. Hopefully the ants and checking left some intact pieces.

I've been working on this instrument. A little more finessing, final assembly and polishing to do.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

What's the inner ring of the rosette, Jim?

It's a slice of maple burl.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

My latest project is a '73 Martin D-18 that has some poor modifications as you may see. I plan on pulling the pots and plugging the holes along with a needed refret and neck reset. But when I looked inside I discovered the real damage. During installation of the pots the X-brace was completely cut away in a huge notch, then they added a sister brace to try and replace the strength, but they notched it out too. The photo doesn't show the notch very well. They also knocked one of the finger braces out and moved it. I am not sure how I am going to restore the x-brace. I will try to get a better photo when my new boroscope arrives tomorrow.

Doh!

It's amazing how people don't think first before doing something like that LOL.

What a crying shame to see work like this on a nice Martin. Thanks for saving her Barry a very worthy endeavor.

A 73 may be also one of the Martins with a wrongly located saddle/bridge. May be an opportunity to check it and correct if it's one of the ones affected.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I will definitely check that out. Thanks.

I am also looking at that huge honking bridge plate and feeling the desire to rip it out.

Hesh, you are correct. The guitar essentially has zero compensation.

Yeah their are a lot of these out here and many people don't notice the poor intonation if all they do are cowboy chords.

The bridge plates on this era were as you said huge and honking. Since this is a player replacement would likely improve it and that's a good idea Barry. We've replaced these before too just to free up the top more and let her open up.

This is a fun project and if you don't mind me pointing this out to others Barry is refretting it and doing a neck reset. We've come to the conclusion that a neck reset should always, always have at the very least a fret dress afterwards and if there is fret wear it may be even better to refret and level the board and kill any body hump in the process.

So we call this service "The Whole Nine Yards" and won't price a reset alone because it's a poor approach to not address the fret plane when the neck has been off and altered, angle wise. Additionally when they need a reset they often have other issues such as lifting bridge wings, etc. So our Whole Nine Yards often is a $1,200 service but when they get it back it's perfect and ready for many decades to come.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

OK new week so I'll add more progress. My 45 watt Marshall clone is done and rockin!! Just had my brother over to help me flip it and install it in the cab since I can't lift anything now with five identified hernias.....

This was a VERY fun project and a nice diversion from fixing guitars. This is my third amp that I have built in three months and my only regret is that I'm out of amps to build. There were some new things for me on this one such as biasing the power tubes. I now own a bias meter and know how to do it. I love math

StewMac was superb with me and my one glitch that I caused melting a plastic British input jack StewMac promptly sent me a new one complimentary. They also unexpectedly sent me a matched set of high end EL34 power tubes for this amp or as spares. Wow I'm thrilled.

So this is the first time it's been in it's cab and fired up and it works great.

Sweetwater will have the Marshall oversized extension cabs this month they tell me and I have one set aside for me loaded with 4 12" Greenbacks, 25 watt Greenbacks so they break up quicker.

My rendition of Leonard Cohen will sound killer though this rig Kidding of course but The Who, The Stones and Hendrix will be right at home.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Hesh: “cowboy chords” cracked me up!
I reckon that includes using the thumb on a G chord. Haha

Sweet amp you are building!
My favorite amp was the Fender Music Master Bass amp.
I had two. I believe it was about 15 watts, with three tubes, 15” speaker.
I drove mine with a mic preamp, and cranked the volume all the way up.
It had the sweetest clean distortion ever.
My current amp is an Orange 30W 2x12 combo tube amp. No effects: just plug in and go.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Dan the MusicMaster amps were very cool!!! Amps today suck ass and sounds like ****. I was amazed at how good the 5 watt sounded so I built the 15 and that sounds killer so went to the 45

Cowboy Chords you can tell what people play by the fret wear and which position it's in. Shortly after Stairway was written we started seeing 6th, 7th, 8th fret wear on guitars that had been at a G*itar C*nter on a Saturday afternoon when every snot nosed brat in town were all doing their own bad versions of Stairway at the same time and in different tunings..... That must be what hell is like

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Nice looking amp Hesh. I was tempted to build a 45 Plexi but decided to go with the 18 watter. So speaking of amps and in the spirit of what we do in out workshops I had a good hour long session banging on this amp last night and it even inspired a new song for my band

This amp has a 20 watt Greenback in it and it's fantastic.

Side profiles for a 'wedge' bodied OM

If you want to know how to obtain them, it's here:
viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=8117&hilit=+side

Some great looking amps guys! Makes me want to pull my old Mesa Boogie 11C out of storage and shake the wife's dishes. Can't bring myself to sell it but it's inevitable as my gigging days are over.

Here is a better photo of the D-18. The pot's hole that falls right on top of a brace is the lower leg of the original X-brace. The X-brace and the adjacent sister brace were apparently notched out for clearance. The repair plan will be taking a detour.

JF very, very cool and your rig looks fantastic. Thanks for the comment on the Greenback too I have not heard them in person so I am taking a recommendation of another friend who gigs. You comment makes me feel better that I will like them.

I would have gone with the 18 watt too had Stew Mac offered it. Was trying to stick with StewMac at least for a while because of the legendary great documentation and my need for hand holding.

Very cool thanks for posting that and rock on

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Barry you are a braver Luthier than I am that would scare the hell out of me Dave would dive in

This is some of the worse prior work I have ever seen, wow and what a shame too. But with your help this guitar has a bright future once again. Thanks for being there for the guitar and it's steward Barry.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

At this point I will either be retopping the D-18 or pulling the back and rebracing the top. I basically have to decide if the top is worth saving.

Hesh, I don't know if I am brave or foolish.

Is this D-18 a candidate for retopping? Any possibility of sourcing a braced top from Martin's 'Guitarmaker's connection'?'

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Peter Havriluk

Phil, it is definitely a candidate. I doubt Martin would sell me a braced top, but I can check. However, I should have no problems in recreating a new one.