It took a bit of time but the guitar is finished....
It took a bit of time but the guitar is finished....
Great sound, and a tremendous bass response from this creation of yours. A real labour of love with all the woods you have incorporated, and the experimental carbon fibre strengthening too.
I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOldBores
Totally cool!
Charley
A bunch of stuff with four strings
Very nice instrument. And a lovely rendition of "Angeline the Baker".
Can you give us some specifics on the instrument -- scale length, how you did the carbon fiber, etc. What is camilla?
The sun shines in Guernsey this time of year? I didn't know that.
Thanks,
Bill
IM(NS)HO
the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world
Ha Ha yes well Guernsey is quite mild, 12-14c at the moment. We get snow about once every 10 years & when that happens it is like a huge island festival! We are just a little rock in the sea & the sea rarely goes below 10c so the rock stays warm (ish)
Nice!
I made the sides by building a compression mould, two half's lined with polished stainless steel sheet.
It was not easy to get the end grain squares all lined up but basically I applied two layers of carbon weave & clear epoxy with a bit of added thickening agent onto one half of the mould. I then laid in the little squares on top of the carbon & clamped down the other half of the mould to make a highly compressed sandwich.
The initial problem was I could not get the pieces to fit tightly together, so it took a few goes & a bit of ingenuity.
Because the body is not symmetrical I had to make two sets of moulds, one set for each side.
There is no adjustable truss rod but I used another carbon rod instead, the rod is described as 'square tube' 10mm square on the outside and 8mm round on the inside = very stiff.
The neck is a V profile & I let in a little relief on the fret board due to the 23" scale and relatively light strings.
The woods I used, were all free, the camellia wood came from a 200 year old tree or some might say 'shrub', that had been growing in the grounds of a stately home. It is truly spectacular wood with amazing colours & rock hard!
The sound board is Monterey cypress, from the same estate & the same age.
The mahogany is from a 1950s stair case, I have lots of it left but I used the best bits I had for this guitar.
This is the 7th instrument I have built using the Cypress, I have enough left for one or maybe two more small soundboards. What I have found is the wood works better finished slightly thicker than spruce.
I thinned this one down to 3mm in the centre to 1.7mm around the edges.
I find it almost heart breaking that, virtually all the huge tree, was cut up for fire wood! I was lucky to get what I did.
I shaped the arch back & top with a 4" grinder with a sanding disc fitted, I trained as a boat builder (over 40 years ago now) & the sanding grinder was a much used tool of the trade. After so many years, the grinder just feels like an extension to my arm & I can shape & rough sand an archtop in an hour or less.
Here is a picture of a didge I built using the main Camellia trunk, beautiful wood indeed...
And the Cypress when I got it 4 years ago.
Thanks for the details on the construction. Carbon work is difficult, isn't it?
I haven't seen a guitar built on a frame like this with a smaller soundboard contained in the frame. Seems to work quite well and this one is very nice sounding.
Bill
IM(NS)HO
Camellia is the tea tree, correct? Or perhaps another member of that genus?
I am no tree expert but, where I live, we have an unusually large amount of impressive homes that were built during the 1700s.
This was due to the legalised pirate business that existed right up to the 1800s http://guernseydonkey.com/?p=10524
There was extreme wealth generated during this period & many exotic trees were imported & planted in the luxurious gardens that complemented the big houses.
So a lot of these trees are now over 250 years old and reaching the end of their lives, Camellias are quite common and unusually large for the species.
Unfortunately most of the trees that are cut down (for whatever reason) are tuned into wood chips or fire wood!
Bill, yes it has great tone & is really load compared to the average tenor guitar, I will miss it when it goes to its new owner! Yes it is quite difficult using carbon fibre especially for me as I don't have huge amounts of experience using it.
As it happens we might get to see the guitar again as it is going to a really high profile player.....
The Guernsey Donkey is a fascinating website, by the way.
Bill
IM(NS)HO
I live in the Monterrey area of California and have never heard of the cypress being used as a tonewood, wow. What is the neck made of? Nice work.
Yes Monterey Cypress but I don’t know if it would make any difference growing in a different climate like California?
I have made two full size six strings useing single piece tops too, both sound fantastic.
The neck is laminated quarter sawn mahogany wth a strip of Cypress & a highly figgered rosewood fretboard.
As I only work from a little garden shed, I don’t have much in the way of machinery so virtually everything I build is done with hand held tools. Cutting out the soundboards is my least favourite job!
Last edited by fox; Jan-10-2018 at 4:35am.
Thanks, impressive and innovative
I would think that Birdy is one of the more famous tenor guitar players https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdy_(singer)
She is now the proud ( hopefully proud at least.) owner of my creation ….
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