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Following in Arnt's recent post of his stunning Redwood/Ziricote guitar, I'll post up my latest. Like Arnt mentioned, posting pics here is sort of like "preaching to the choir" but it's also nice to receive accolades from my peers.

This marks Guitar # 11 for me. The woods (apart from the top and inlay woods) was purchased back in 2007 from an OLF auction to help out our Friend Kevin Gallagher (rip). Most of the woods were donated by Tim Spittle from Australian Tone Woods and Kim Hickey. Here are the details:

Top - Sinker Redwood
Back & Sides - Flamed Tasmanian Blackwood
Neck - Tasmanian Blackwood with lacewood and red laminates
Fretboard - Mulga a desert hardwood bound in tiger myrtle with red purfling
Bridge - Minnerichi
Binding & headplate - Tiger Myrtle
Top purfling - Lacewood with red accents
Inlay wood - pear burl

The rosette is based off Jason Kostal's stained glass design. I really like this look and will certainly use it again.

Finish is nitro lacquer.

Thanks for looking.










This is the owner signature.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

* Drooling *
That's gorgeous!

I'd love to see how you put together that rosette!

Splendor in the grass! Another beauty, Rod!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Nice guitar Rod....

But don't you think it's time to cut the grass?

Dang! That's a fine looking guitar, Rod. Only #11? I'm about halfway there and it looks as though I still have a lot of wood to chop. Well done!

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George :-)

Stunning guitar Rod - I think one of the nicest I've seen

All the best
Dave

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To be someone must be a wonderful thing!

Yes, yes. Woof, woof! That is an exceptionally beautiful combination of woods and curves. I love the purely voluptuous lines of your instrument. Well done!
Patrick

Same thing I said on AGF. I love the use of color in the details. It's a gorgeous guitar!

Absolutely gorgeous, Rod! Amazing work!

At last! I've been waiting (patiently) for that one Rod. I remember the rosette a while back. Looks well worth the wait although I think your wife could make the crappiest of guitars look good. Seriously, that is a beautifully crafted guitar with such a well thought out theme it makes me want to slow down and take a little more time in that department.

Well done my friend and great to see it.

Cheers,
Danny

Absolutely Beautiful Guitar

I love the color combinations of the woods, and elegance of the lines. It's a beautiful shape, it looks somewhat like the OLF MJ to me, or is it your own development?

I'm working on #13, and I don't think any of mine look anywhere near as good as this beauty!

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

Sweet fancy Moses! That lacewood purfling is ridiculous! Fantastic job Rod. I'm one guitar behind you numerically, but much further aesthetically. Outstanding.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

So beautiful. Really elegant.

Wonderful guitar Rod. Love the Australian timbers too.

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Martin Taylor
http://martintaylorguitars.com.au

Wowzer! Beautiful guitar Rod.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Very well done, its the best I've seen in a long time

Thanks folks! I'm super happy with how it all turned out. I was sort of worried that the red accents would be too over bearing but I think they where just enough.

I'm hopeful to get the guitar to the owner today.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Thank you Danny!!! One of these day's we'll have to hook up. If you're ever over here on the mainland let me know.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Really nice job Rod!

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Rod,
I have a couple questions...

What does the inlay say and how did you do it?

and

What are the types wood used in the rosette and was color applied with a dye like transtint?

...again, beautiful guitar...
Steve

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Steve, the inlay is the owners signature. It says e.h. Janzen

I got his signature and scanned it, then had a friend of mine vectorize it and put it in word. I than could scale the image to the size I wanted.
From here, I print off a few copies of the image and cut it out (just rough shape), than CA glue it to the wood I used for the inlay. I cut it out the same way one would for pearl. Takes a long time to get it just right, filing the edges so they look smooth too.
From there, I take another copy of the image and cut it out (just rough shape again), then CA glue it to the fretboard. I than slowly work at removing the wood to make the cavity to inlay the wood. I'm still a total novice at it and I often have gaps to fill, some larger than I'd like, but it's all part of the learning.



The wood I used for the rosette (and the signature inlay as well as the "T" on the headstock) all came from a hunk of pear burl I got from a local wood worker. I sliced it burl up into 3/16" sheets, sanded them to 0.080" than they were ready for what ever inlay I wanted to do.

For the rosette, I knew I needed to dye them but I didn't know how to ensure the dye went all the way through the wood. I did some internet reading and found that I needed to hold the wood in the dye under vacuum for some time, called stabilizing the wood.

More reading lead me to a page like this (couldn't fine the actual one, but this is the idea) where I found a great little (and inexpensive) way of making a vacuum chamber.

I than cut the pieces out to random triangle shapes and added them to some small containers of dye. I used colorFX dye from Wood Essence (same thing as transtint pretty much) and lacquer thinner to get the shading I wanted. That took some time, but well worth the effort.

I held the pieces under vacuum for 48 hours, checking to see if I needed to pump some more to hold it to 25 in/hg and it worked great.

From there, I spent a lot of time figuring out the rosette and random pattern of the triangles, sanding them here or there to make them work with the adjacent piece.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Killer guitar, Rod! Fine work, as expected!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I love this guitar Rod! Beautiful!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Rod, really nicely done. I'm curious about the neck attachment - dovetail?

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Double mortise & tenon Steve.

Thanks folks

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson