I've had a few questions on this project so I thought I'd just post a bit on it. I am converting a new The Loar LH-350 arch top guitar into a 5 course cittern (or lutio) -- tuned CGDAE.
The project was inspired by Pete Braccio's early effort detailed in
this string in the CBOM section of the forum.
I bought a new The Loar LH-350 for cheap -- too cheap as it turned out. The seller knew it was "a second" but he did not know why and even after a lot of questions I didn't either.
He said if it turned out to be a bid deal he'd send me a hard shell case to compensate. Well he was good for his word and I now have a new Guardian HSC for it when I'm done.
It turned out once I had it in hand that problem was cosmetic. The fluer on the headstock was off center. With three tuners on a side it did not jump out at me --at first. But when I took the guitar tuners off as started measuring for the fie-on-a-side cittern tuners I soon found there was no "middle in the middle" of the inlay.
A few pics of the starter guitar. The pic of the headstock shows the flaw very clearly -- it looks even worse once you notice it! LOL!
So I decided to cover the head stock with 0.6mm ebony veneer and then add some new inlay. Which I did. I bought a simple MOP and abalone diamond which I inlaid then made a mask out of the ebony veneer allowing the diamond and the inlay "The Loar" to be exposed.
I'll post a few images of the process when I have time to get them off the camera but here are a few pics of what it looks like now with the ebony veneer the tuners in place but before I have done any finishing.
All I have done at this point is to stain the ebony with "ebony black" water based aniline dye. Also a pic of the tuners from the back and the front of the instrument now. I need to do some more scraping around the diamond and the script. I will probably sand a bit more with P2000 paper and then if it looks nice and uniform (no blotches) I will seal the ebony with clear shellac and then fill the depressions (the diamond and the script) with nitrocellulose until if is flush with the veneer.
The whole top will be sanded flush and then coated with 6 coats of clear nitrocellulose using a little touch up sprayer.
I have the new bridge and saddle carved and also a new bone nut. I am replacing the trapeze TP with an identical gold plated one that I have modified to accept 10 strings. I'll show some pics of that stuff too soon.
I expect when I done I'll keep it for a few weeks then sell it in the classifieds and move on I guess....people should probably not let me borrow their arch top guitar ever.
I need to move the fret marker from fret #9 to fret #10 yet too!!!
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