Well - Le top is finally on la guitar.
It took a few weeks 'cause we were waiting for some down-cut dremel bits from Stewmac for the rosettes(can't seem to find any in Oz) and ended up starting another dread which is also nearly finished. Pictures of that one follow.
So - here we go.
Braced top - the finger braces are sort of parabolic. the intention here is to keep mass in the centre of the soundboard. There's also a little "Mario" brace behind the bridge plate.
Le top avec paua rosette - bearclaw sitka
Le rosette
The Padauk Dread
- this one is a bit of an experiment. The top is very thin (.083") and don't even ask what the black laminations in the neck are
We strung this up before finishing it and it sounds great. Very loud with a tight bottom end and rich through the mids.(it makes my D18 sound a bit flat)
We wait with baited breath to see how it develops but it initially seems like a very nice weapon.
(also notice a little cameo appearance from le fridge.)
Body with Z-poxy
Padauk neck
Fingerboard - with Padauk bindings and inlays of course.
You can't see it in the photo but the fretwire is that gold stuff from LMI. Looks super with the Padauk bindings.
Bindings - what else would we use - Padauk
They'll both be finished with Ubeaut Hard Shellac the week after next so will post the finished product when they cure. We were going to nitro them but after seeing PaulB's parlour and after having played around with the
the Ubeaut stuff we're sold on it.
And there's less likelihood of us blowing up the shed.
BTW Ubeaut products are made in Geelong (where I live)
They do have distributors in Canada (Lee Valley) and in the States (Penn State Industries). I was talking to my retailer here last week who suggested that if anyone is interested in trying the hard shellac, a mass emailing from the Canadian and American forumites might convince them to import it. (at the mo I think it is mainly their Shellawax products)
Thanks for having a squiz.
Cheers
Bob
