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267001 | Ed Minch <ruby1638@a...> | 2018‑11‑09 | New guitar |
Hey all (or GGGG, whichever fits) I just finished my next guitar. I tried something new and made the entire body and neck out of Alaskan Yellow Cedar (a cypress), a lightweight conifer. Normally, steel string guitars (as opposed to classical guitars which have used gut, now nylon strings) have always been made with hardwoods, with some of the favorites having higher density and harder surfaces, woods like rosewood, oak, hard maple. I have seen a couple of Flamenco guitars that were made of this wood. So I was expecting this instrument to be more quiet and refined than voluminous and brash. The bracing inside under the top is a very important part of the sound. The Larson Brothers built guitars in the first few decades of the 20th c, and they used laminated braces - 3 layers, spruce on the outside and rosewood on the inside. They were thin, but strong, so they did not cover as much surface area but still had desirable combinations of rigidity and flex. I did this, but used Osage Orange in the middle with Alaskan Yellow Cedar on the outside. And since I was using a longer scale (string length) I had to re-engineer the location of the bracing because the bridge (big block with little round pins) had to move a little on the top. There is no real formula for this, just rule of thumb, so I made my best guess and moved along. It turned out very cool indeed. The first day I put the strings on it was quiet for the three bass strings, put loud and clear for the three higher strings. This is called “balance” and my guitar was not balanced. You should be able to play on various strings without a listener being able to tell which string you are on, and this did not have any of that. By day 5, it had evened out considerably, the tone was very bright and clear, and the volume was WAY more than I was anticipating. The balance was much improved, and it had developed a crispness that seems almost jangly. My fantastic guitarist daughter was here from day 2 to day 5, and as she played it each day I could here a difference. It is common knowledge that instruments have a break-in period where something happens and their tone changes. Some say that with age, resins in the wood crystallize (whatever that means), some say that the stresses from the strings trying to fold the instrument in half change the internal structure of the fibers a bit. People put a large speaker on the top and play loud music to get the wood to vibrate, and they even make machines that does this specifically. But it usually takes a long time, like months or years. All I know is that over 5 days, this thing matured amazingly. Here are 2 short iPhone (sorry) videos of my daughter playing it on day 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCEMYpr8Vpc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NUD-bdNR0g Here are some pictures of it. Click left and right, text below: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/30816154577/in/album-72157688488198220/ And I took some pictures (over 200 of them - Holy Crap) of the construction, so If you have half a mind, as I am sure that most of you do, take a look here. In the upper left you can click “back to album” to get a thumbnail version, then click on anything you find interesting: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/26765749748/in/album-72157688488198220/ The playability of this one is great - it is supposed to be easy to play, but they don’t always come out that way. Today is day 8 and the tone continues to change a little, the balance is very good, and it about the loudest guitar I have. The tone is remarkable to my aging ears and I love it - very crisp and clear. It will be interesting to hear what happens over the next year or so. thanks for looking Ed Minch The back yard is full of goldfinches - 20 of them |
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267002 | Bill Ghio | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
Very pretty guitar Ed. |
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267004 | Chuck Taylor | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
Very nice Ed! I'm used to thinking about yellow cedar as a wood for planking boats! I don't think I had ever seen it finished so nicely! Chuck Taylornorth of Seattle |
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267005 | Scott Garrison <sbg2008@c...> | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
> > Ed says: > > > Hey all (or GGGG, whichever fits) > > > > I just finished my next guitar. > > > Ed, since I can't play one of them (and likely wouldn't do it justice if I could) second best thing is that I always love spending time watching the build through your pics. I always learn a lot. Great looking guitar and it sounds fantastic Scott G in Duluth GA |
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267006 | Dragon List <dragon01list@g...> | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
ed, do you rive your osage orange, or cut and plane? have you ever thought to try persimmon in the same location? bill felton, ca |
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267007 | Ed Minch <ruby1638@a...> | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
Bill I cut and surface sand, but I am very careful for this purpose to get little or no runout In boatbuilding, I was taught a rule that runout should be no less than 24” in a 1” board, and I try for much better than that for tone wood. I would love to try some Persimmon, but it is not readily available here. The Osage Orange is called “poor man’s Brazilian Rosewood” because of it’s density and surface hardness, so I tried that as I have a bunch of it. The amazing thing here is that guitar changed so much over such a short time - never heard of that before. Even my terrible hearing could hear it. Ed Minch |
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267008 | Bill Ghio | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
Riving Osage would be a lot like riving concrete. |
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267010 | Charles Driggs | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
Well, Ed … this tin earred and half blind guy watched your videos. Mamie didn’t show any signs of being in pain to be playing it. I could hear it well enough (without an amp, thank you), and it sounds good to me. Well done. Cute looking little thing too. Charlie |
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267013 | John Leyden <leydenjl@g...> | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
Wow, Ed. That’s a beauty. Well done! John |
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267015 | scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
This is a darling little parlor Ed!! Wow You did a really beautiful job. Love in inlay too!! I will be curious to see how the softwood neck holds over time. Completely darling model you found to show it off too. ;) Love those sox Mames! yours Scott -- ******************************* Scott Grandstaff Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca 96039 scottg@s... http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/ http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html |
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267016 | Brent Beach <brent.beach@g...> | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
Hi Ed once again gets more done in a month than I get done in a year. How many guitars has he built this year? On 2018-11-09 07:55, Ed Minch wrote: > I tried something new and made the entire body and neck out of Alaskan Yellow Cedar (a cypress), a lightweight conifer. We have yellow cedar on Vancouver Island. It is a favourite on local Indian carvers. It is also occasionally used for boat building. A problem with our yellow cedar is getting a finish to stick. How did you apply the finish? What finish did you use? Brent -- Brent Beach Victoria, BC, Canada |
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267018 | Timothy J Pendleton <tpendleton@g...> | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
Ed, That is some seriously fine craftsmanship and guitar playing. Congrats! Tim p.s. - I have often suspected that purple socks were the key to agile guitar playing. :) Ed Minch |
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267021 | Ed Minch <ruby1638@a...> | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
More than that, purple sox make any guitar sound great Ed Minch |
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267022 | Ed Minch <ruby1638@a...> | 2018‑11‑09 | Re: New guitar |
Brent The usual procedure with any kind of varnish or lacquer is to build up, say, 10 coats, level it, then polish by going through the grits up to about 2000 - 2500, with a final rub of some fine polish like a Meguire’s car polish. I don't have spray equipment. It is not a mirror like you get with power equipment, but one of my guitar heroes, Nick Lucas (he wrote "tiptoe through the tulips") said he didn't want the finish to reflect into his audience’s eyes. Not that I have an audience other than my grandkids. On this one I used Min-Wax wipe on poly. After I leveled it I had enough witness lines that I tried another couple of coats with more leveling. I couldn't get rid of them, so I finished with 1500 grit and wiped on a very thin, even coat, and called it quits. Not perfect, but OK by me We also used a good grade of marine spar varnish on interior AYC on a boat we launched in 1980, it just completed its 39th sailing season and the varnish still looks great. Ed Minch |
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267026 | Matt Cooper <MaNoCooper@l...> | 2018‑11‑10 | Re: New guitar |
Wow, very nice. I loved the sound. My wife is the musical one in the family, and her ears perked up when I was playing the videos.0 Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S8. -------- Original message -------- From: Ed Minch |
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