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All this public dreaming about what we want has got me wondering. Surely you've got some wood stashed aside for your own guitar. You know: when the schedule permits, and you get around to building one for yourself...what are you going to build?
Shape/size?
Wood combo?
It's so much fun to fantasize about this. I'm gonna build a 000 12 fret Cuban mahogany box w/ Kingwood bindings and maybe a Port Orford cedar top.
How about the rest of you?

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Well, since you asked, when I get "round tuit", there will be two...first will be a Tuolumne model with Brazilian rosewood and a wavvy flamed (VERY subtle) Englemann top. The Braz is 40+ years old and I have all the pieces cut from the same billet...back, sides, fingerboard, headstock and bridge. Then, a baritone built on my Rubicon body style...Madagascar rosewood, Italian spruce top.
Now, who's the odds-maker in the group that will bet on when these will get done?

Meanwhile, I will have to get by with my own OOO-12 fret
(Trinity model) with 30+ year old mahogany AND bearclaw sitka top.

Steve,

I love to dream about it too!

Me, a classical, Brazilian back and sides, european spruce top, snakewood or curly koa bindings, and headplate, Sloan tuners. Or, maybe a flemenco type with super thin plates and bracing, just on the verge of folding up on itself. Just to see what would happen. Now I just need to buy the Brazilian and european spruce!   

Jeff

Well I had a piece of curly Koa that I was saving for myself but I made it into a guitar last year and now it's sold. I'm just getting the neck finished on it so I have to find another piece O wood for my guitar. If I had a 50 year old piece of BR I'd make myself a guitar too but I'd put it with some nice carpatian or addy spruce I think.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

A bluegrass monster(hopefully). Drednaught. Probably a mahagony with an addy top, but I have a real soft spot for curly walnut. In fact, that's the first wood I look for when I visit wood dealers sites.

A double neck 12/6 string Modafied Jumbo with quilted Sapele b&S with curly Koa binding /Addie Spruce top

Right now I'm making myself one with an Italian Spruce top and Euro Maple back/sides, handmade interwoven rosette. Its a small bodied classical on the 1860 Torres plantilla, this one without a tornavoz. I've been working on it for over a year, and it still is only a braced top, braced back, and unbent sides. Orders take precedent of course, and its really only a way to preserve the first rosette of this style I made.

I've also just barely started a guitar with cardboard for the back and sides, replicating the Torres experiment. Beyond that I'm planning a copy of the most elaborate guitar Torres ever made (catalog # FE08), which should be very difficult, and a La Leona (1856 Torres, he kept all his life) copy out of Cypress.

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
Web: https://www.jfrenchguitars.com/

I am going to do once back from Maine a 000-12fret cutaway brazilian and addy with snakewood trim.

When I get around to it -Its going to by my L1 Grand Parlor, Quilted mahogany back and sides - Addy top, both gifts from Brian Hawkins, Snakewood bindings, ebony fretboard and bridge, Red abalone heart purfling, back strip and rosette, inlaid in to a snakewood ring. This will be a praise and worship guitar to play at church. I’m trying to work up a nice inlay for Craig Lavin to do on it as well.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I build almost exclusively classicals so I have been playing with the idea that if I get the time I want to build something that is inlike anything I would normally tackle, something that is so completely "out of bounds" like a Fred Carlson creation or a Manzer harp guitar (being able to play like Pat Metheny would help). Something that would be so different that it would scare me to have to do it for a commission but I have the feeling it would be a freeing and learning experience.

Sounds like you guys have a healthy fantasy life!
Me, I'm still hoping to find some Port Orford Cedar like Les Stansell used in this guitar:




Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I am planning two for myself. Both will be from that 200 year old hotel bar koa. It is the same wood that Cumpiano did a build with and so far the few that have built with it talk about it as if it carries an island demon around with it......one that knows good music I guess . The Tap isn't like anything I have ever heard.....highs, mids and lows are all vibrant and they seem to swell after you tap this stuff. I will definately use some bearclaw red spruce on these!!

Mine was going to be Maple that I got from Bob C, but then I saw the quilted Sapele! So, Sapele, an Engleman top I've been hiding for a while, SJ body, florentine cutaway, abalone top border, probably ebony bindings with b/w/b lines, 1 7/8" nut width, K&K electronics, and the f/b inlay is still up for grabs. Should string 'er up in about 10 years...

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

I built one for myself one time that I ended up selling. I kicked myself
100 times over for selling it. It was a very special guitar. It was LS
Redwood/Quilted Mahogany Parlor with abalone top and back trim,
brazilian rosewood binding, ect.. here is a pic.

When I build another for myself I already have a LS Top waiting for it. It
will be another parlor, but maybe african blackwood back and sides.. I
think it and the LS would suit each other well.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Man, that one would be hard to part with.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Wow John, she was a beauty...

I guess my dream guitar would be a brazilian/addy dreadnaught, or a mahogany/addy dreadnaught. I'm not sure I'll ever build that for myself. I have the wood but would it ever amount to my hopes and desires? I'm unsure. I hear it in my mind, but whether or not I can coax that particular sound from the wood or not is an unknown. With my luck, it would sound and play great, and then someone would offer me too much money for it to turn down, and I would be in the same situation as you. But my tastes vary so much, I'm always wanting something different. Just yesterday I ordered all the parts to make a square-neck resonator. I've been wanting one of those for awhile. Too many desired guitars, not enough time.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=John Mayes] I built one for myself one time that I ended up selling. I kicked myself
100 times over for selling it. It was a very special guitar. It was LS
Redwood/Quilted Mahogany Parlor with abalone top and back trim,
brazilian rosewood binding, ect.. here is a pic.

[/QUOTE]

Holy cow, John! That thing is beautiful.
Maybe we should all help kick you some more for selling it! Can you do another? And keep it this time?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Steve, I agree, we should get a few kicks!      John, that is one beautiful guitar. Can't get much better than that.

Jeff

When I dream about the guitar that I want to build, I dream that I also have the skills to accomplish it. At the moment I don't, but someday......

It would be a Benneddetto style 17" archtop w/cutaway. Koa back and sides, Italian spruce top. BR fretboard with MOP dots. A Fishman archtop bridge would be the only pickup. Shell inlay around the rim, just inside the binding. The headstock would be bound, but not the fretboard. I would also use shell to hightlight the F holes. Some kind of bone nut. I prefer the Gibson style trapeze tail piece to the heavy ebony that Benneddetto normally uses, but I have seen some variations on that theme that I like.

Guitar Ed