#13 Just in Time for Christmas (Almost)

Just putting the finishing touches on #13. This is another “landmark” guitar in a several ways. First and foremost, this one is going to my first and first repeat customer!

My buddy Stephen - who was my first customer with #3 - wanted a larger body guitar and so this is my design for something in the Dreadnaught range.

We had discussed doing a cutaway, but then decided to do something a little more experimental - a scoop cutaway. In the next pic, you can see the block installed by the neck area ready to be shaped. Then you can see the progress from carving in the bevel and applying the veneer.

You can also see the fingerboard in the pic above. This is a new wood to me: macassar ebony. So far, digin’ the way it looks:

On my last couple of guitars, I have been working with a “radial” bracing pattern. This architecture makes it easier for me to dial in the tone I want to hear. I could nerd out on this for while so ….

For the top and back, Stephen picked some typical woods: sitka spruce and sapele. Both have very interesting grain and silking patterns due to the fact that both are almost perfectly quarter sawn.

I just completed finishing the guitar with my “super satin” finish and I will string it up tomorrow. We have more “bells and whistles” on this one and I will save those for the final pics.

#13 will be finished in time for Christmas, but Stephen won’t pick it up till the first week of January. I guess that will be “Second Christmas.”