Guitar #18 - Purpleheart: As with all but a few of the guitars I've made, this guitar has a Korina neck and body. The top is purpleheart. I used some new methods for the neck and headstock on this guitar. The headstock is tapered in thickness and there's no volute at all which I have learned is completely unnecessary. This method looks and feels much better. I also used a new binding method which came from the binding method on my archtop. It looks pretty sharp I think. The bridge is a Schaller Hannes bridge which I still find to be the most comfortable, accurate, best looking bridge on the market. This guitar has a couple of Lollar pickups, Gotoh-mini 510 tuners in 'Cosmo Black'...my favorite tuners. I've become more fond of the minimalist look of the inlay-free fretboard. When I first started building guitars I kind of went inlay crazy. The inlay-free fretboard has such a classic look. As with all my guitars this is a neck-thru construction so the neck piece extends through the body/top to just beyond where the bridge sits. I've also become a fan of building my guitars with no pickup cover. This means the pickup cavity has to be flawless and at exact dimensions to precisely fit the pickup. But here again, the minimalist look (no pickup cover) looks so much better I think. Most importantly, the guitar plays great and sounds great. Not too shabby looking either if I may say.
This next guitar #19 is without doubt the most unique owing to the top-wood used. A friend brought a piece of burl from a chestnut oak from his farm (see pic below). It was just big enough to get a nice thick slice for the top. I planed the book-matched pieces to approx. 1" and put them in clamps for about a year to ensure the moisture content was ok. I planed the pieces to 15.6 mm and glued them together. There were some significant voids in the burl and areas of hard, not-so-hard and pretty soft wood so I was concerned whether it was going to hold up to cutting, shaping etc. I put a very thin coat of West Epoxy on both sides and that made all the difference. After shaping the top, I filled the voids with more West Epoxy until I had a smooth surface on both sides. I put the guitar together, sanded to 800 grit and started clear coating w nitro-cellulose. I have probably one more coat to put on but this guitar is gorgeous. The burl looks like marble. The closer you look, the more intricate the burl is. Can't wait to string this one up.
This guitar is #16. Korina neck and body, ebony fret board bound with ebony strips. The top is camphor burl. The grain of the camphor burl is amazing! I ordered another piece of camphor burl after finishing this guitar because this came out so well. This guitar has a Schaller Hannes bridge, Lollar pickups (note- no pickup rings) and Gotoh 510 mini tuners. Here again I went for the minimalist approach on the fret board...no inlay. This has been my latest favorite to play until I finished the purpleheart topped guitar above. Just put the last coat of nitro-cellulose on guitar 19 this am so after a couple weeks of cure, buffing, hardware install and final setup, I may have a new, new favorite. Just keeps getting better.
Camphor burl top after re-sawing/bookmatching the wood blank