Well...its been quite a while and quite an experience but its finally done!! WOOHOO!!!
First let me explain why it took so long to get it to this point when you all (both of you) clearly saw that it was fully assembled and playable. Heck, I even posted a video of me playing it on YouTube! Well...it took so long because I had to wait until the weather got warmer so I could lacquer it. Thats pretty much the reason. Once it was lacquered, I had to wait a few days to sand it and then polish it, which also took quite a while, but mostly it was the weather. I noticed in my haste to take these pictures that I left a little wax on it in a couple of little imperfections, but I really don't care. It looks amazing, sounds amazing and simply amazes me that I could build a fricken acoustic guitar in my living room on the floor mostly with hand tools! You should be amazed as well. Both of you. So without further ado, here are some pictures of my creation:
Here is a picture of the side port. I made it bigger
than when you last saw it. It didn't put out much
sound when it was smaller, but now it really lets
the player hear the guitar. Plus, its a real conversation starter.
Or I assume it will be. My wife never asks about it, but
other guitarists might.
This is the peg head. Normally this part of the guitar
has a dark wood like ebony or rosewood. I chose
this kick ass cool spalted, curly maple. The black
squiggly lines are the "spalting" and are the result
of a fungus that grows in the wood when the tree falls.
It makes the wood unstable and crumbly which
in turn makes it a challenge to work with, but I feel it
was worth the effort cuz it looks fricken cool!!
Here is the back stripe and heel cap. The back stripe is
purely aesthetic and was more work for me to add it
but again, I think it looks cool so I added it. The heel cap
actually serves a purpose and that is to protect the exposed
end grain of the heel of the neck. The wood is more likely to split
at the end grain so the heel cap covers and prevents (hopefully) that.
I used the spalted, curly maple here again because it looks cool.
What is end grain you ask? Well, think of the end of a 2 x 4. Thats all end grain
and easily split along the grain lines. The top and sides of the
2 x 4 are not end grain. The wood...she no split there.
Here is a rear view. The wood is ribbon sapele.
Sapele (pronounced suh-pee-lee) is native to Africa and
is sometimes called African mahogany, but it is not a true mahogany.
It was used in furniture making in Europe for many years and
is highly prized for its figure. Cadillac uses it for the wood trim
in its cars. Some people foolishly think sapele is a cheap
wood because the Martin Guitar Co. uses it in its "cheaper" guitars.
Those "cheap" Martins have a sticker price of over $1000
bucks and are not nearly as nice as my guitar. However, I would
consider selling you mine for $1500.
Oh yeah...full frontal baby!! I accidently left one of my golf
clubs on the couch in this picture. I also realized that I
need to take more and better pictures of this guitar. My wife takes
really good photos. Me...not so much.
This is the tail wedge. It serves three functions. It
reinforces the tail block because its grain is perpendicular
to the grain of the tail block. It helps in making a clean joint
where the two sides join. It looks nice. Mine is made out
of curly maple. The same wood as the binding around
the body. Thats it. Nothing funny here.
Please let me know what you think. You can be honest. If your opinion is that its not that nice, it will just let me know that you are legally insane and that I should not bring my children around you. If your opinion is that its beautiful and awesome and totally amazing that I actually built it, I will know that you are one of the following:
a) Not my wife (Ouch)
b) Possibly my mother (Hey mom!!)
c) A good friend who has no problem lying to my face when you know it will
make me feel good (I have no problem with this)
d) Some weirdo blog stalker with a sapele fetish (I have no problem with this either)
e) A generally nice person who is probably really good looking and has tons of friends
and someone who is held in high regard by their peers. People probably want to be like you
and may secretly, or not so secretly be jealous of your good looks and charm. Members of the opposite sex either want to have sex with you or buy you things. You totally rock. (Notice how I have no problem lying to your face when I know it will make you feel good. Take notes
before sharing your opinion of my guitar, K?)
Thanks for looking. I hope this blog was a fraction of as much fun for you to read as building this guitar was for me.
Many thanks to everyone who made it possible:
My wife for her patience (usually) when she needed me to help around the house but I was too busy with glue, a chisel and sawdust. And for putting up with the mess each night while I worked.
Thanks to Ken Cierpilowski of KennethMichaelGuitars.com for his incredible customer support, top notch materials and directions and for creating his "KMG Success Kit" without which this guitar would look much more like a Picasso painting than the beautiful instrument it is.
Ken is a great guy to work with and sells top quality wood with his kits. Not to sound like a commercial for him, but I am already planning my next guitar and I wouldn't think of buying it from anyone else. If there were more people than my wife and brother reading this, I would say anyone who is thinking of building a kit guitar should talk to Ken before going anywhere else. I would say that, but nobody is reading this blog and I don't want to sound like a commercial.
Thanks to Bill Cory and all of the members of the kitguitarforum.com
Bill, thanks for making a place where budding luthiers can go and find out anything they need to know about building kit guitars, and get support from you and the members to successfully build a flat top acoustic guitar to be proud of. Thanks to the awesome members of the Kitguitarforum.com for all of the help and support and the laughs. Go to the site and check out the great guitars being built be its members. Really...go now. Unless.....
....Unless you are interested in a full break down of the materials used for this guitar. If you are, well then read on.
Kit: KMG Success Kit (which includes a body mold, clamps and some essential jigs, fixtures and some other really important and useful things you really need to build a guitar...like the wood.)
Back and side wood: Sapele (still pronounced suh-pee-lee, why would it have changed?)
Sound board: Engelmann Spruce
Brace wood: Engelmann Spruce
Neck: Mahogany
Fingerboard and bridge: African Ebony
Binding and purfling: Curly maple binding with herringbone purfling. The neck is bound with curly maple too.
Rosette: Herringbone with black and white rings(Martin HD-28 style I think)
Back stripe: Martin "zipper" style marquetry stripe
Nut and Saddle: Bone (probably cow bone, but one can not rule out water buffalo, ox, Triceratops or human. OK...maybe Triceratops can be ruled out. And probably human.)
Tail Wedge: Curly Maple
Peg Head Veneer and Heel Cap: Spalted Curly Maple. Yes, it is real wood and is found exactly like this in nature. Well...not exactly like this. Usually in the forest, it does not have a polished lacquer finish on it. Nor is it cut into 1/16th inch thick sheets and glued to a piece of mahogany. Or a guitar. Also, in nature, there are never tuning pegs in it. Ever. Other than that, it is just like Mother Nature made it.
Well thats all folks. Until the next guitar anyway.
~Tony
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