#16 Historic
Last year, my buddy Daniel Hight, the Executive Director for Forever Young , asked if I would build a guitar to be sold at their auction which would help to support their ministry to our veterans. Using sand from Normandy and Iwo Jima and some Teak from the USS Missouri, we came up with a pretty unique guitar. Just finished up a “brother” guitar to that one for Daniel. After the technical difficulty of #15, it felt good to build a “normal” guitar and just up the game on the fundamentals.
The woods for this build were some standard fare: Walnut back and sides, Lutz Spruce top, Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. We’ll talk about the unique stuff in a minute. I love laying out all the materials at the beginning of a build a looking at them before they are all transformed.
We used the sands from Normandy and Iwo Jima again in the rosette on this one. I found it very difficult to get a good pic of the rosette and the dimensional look of the sand inlay.
We used Teak from the USS Missouri on the fret markers.
I also incorporated some of the Teak into the truss rod cover. The tuning machines are Gotoh 510’s - some of the best tuners on the market. If you need a tuner upgrade, get some of these - you won’t be disappointed.
On #14, I made solid linings instead of using pre-fab kerfed linings. While I was in the middle of that process, I was thinking, “I’ll never do this again….” After I heard the results, I thought, “That is definitely worth the trouble.” The solid linings really make a significant impact on the “power” of the instrument. But they are somewhat difficult to make.
First, I cut four strips of Spanish cedar and thickness them to 1.2mm thin.
Next, I take those and cut them down to four sets to glue together inside the sides to set their form.
The moisture in the glue makes them just pliable enough to bend around the sides for perfect fit to each side. I clamp these in place, let them cure for 12 hours, then take them back out, sand and shape, then glue them back in place. This whole process takes a two full days of work. The old way took about an hour. I think the difference it makes worth the effort, however.
Coupled with my beefier side struts, the sides are very firm, keeping the energy of the top more focused in the top. These side struts are made of Walnut. Again, one of the real shames is that some of coolest looking parts of the guitar are hidden on the inside.
For the last several builds, I have been perfecting my radial bracing design. This design makes it far easier to get the tone that I am chasing: strong bass and sweet, thick trebles. I think this pattern also makes the guitar incredibly responsive.
This pattern also concentrates the strength in a few key places (at the bridge and along the string path) so the rest of the top can be braced more lightly.
This guitar also has my adjustable action neck design and on this one I think I finally got the inner architecture worked out the way I want. All the pieces lock together to give support at all the key pressure points. In the pic below, you can see the end of two 3/16” maple dowels. Starting using this doweling method in several places to hold things in place and proved more structural support.
When it gets hand-did, it needs to be did right. I seal the inside of the box by airbrushing with shellac. Tasty.
A few more glam shots. The Walnut is a very unique looking piece, with light browns, dark brown streaks, and some greys. This one turned out to be a real bobby dazzler. Such a cool honor to be able to use these unique, historic materials.