Official Luthiers Forum!

Major rework, I'm glad I got to play the the first edition, be interesting to try the second . Lets see some of that J-45 restoration.

It won't be ready this week but I'll bring it to the May meeting and you can check it out. I'd love to get back on the J-45 just don't have that much time; work really gets in the way of doing the stuff I like

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Got it level sanded and sprayed the finish coats. Forgot to reset the gun before I shot it so I didn't get the smoothest coat but it will do. Now it gets to set for two weeks so the finish can harden up before I finish sand and polish.


Test fit of the replacement Gotoh mini 510's in Cosmo Black. I really like the tuners but not sure I'll like them on this guitar. If not I'll replace them with the same tuner in a different finish. As expected, the screw holes from the last set of tuners are pretty easy to see but this is a testbed so I'm not concerned about that.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Wonder if you checked resonant frequencies again after making the sound hole smaller?
Tom

_________________
A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Haven't put it back together yet, the finish needs to cure for another week. Was wondering if I can check just the box but kind of figured the tension from the strings might factor in.

edit - I think I'll check the box anyway, would be nice to know how the numbers compare before and after the guitar is strung up.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Tom,

I finally got around to checking some frequencies. The original numbers are the ones Trevor took off of my challenge recording and those were Main Air = 88 Hz and Main top = 165 Hz.

I rechecked the numbers today with just the body before final leveling and polish (bridge is on) and got
Air = 93 Hz
Top = 162 Hz
Back = 200 Hz

I'll recheck after I get it strung back up.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I've got the guitar finished and the strings back on. I also added a pick guard. The sound has definitely changed but part of that is likely due to the pick guard. The sound is still balanced but is less "chimey", i.e. I'm not hearing some of the high order harmonics I was hearing before. I'm going to use this as my regular player for a while so I'll give it some time before I make a final decision.

The response frequencies have dropped a bit from what I measured with just the body alone. I'm thinking some of that may be from leveling and polishing the finish on the top (I did not refinish the back or sides. Now I need to go back into the books to see what I may need to tune.

air = 89 Hz
top = 156 Hz
back = 199 Hz

I've got a few photos but didn't get them downloaded yet. I'll add them later.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Now that this one's done I can finish up the size O I've been working on. Well, almost done. I still may want to loosen up the back a bit but I am going to wait a bit and study the "books" some more

Ok, here's the pics:

Overall the guitar is fine but I don't like the big rosette and won't be doing any more of them. I have two boxes that have medium sized wood rosettes and for now I'll probably go smaller and simpler.


I'm very happy with the sound hole fix - the only way you can tell it wasn't there to begin with is by looking at the grain lines.


A bigger shot of the sound hole.


A boring shot of the neck which is no longer a baseball bat


The new tuners. One of the holes from the old tuners still shows (as expected) but isn't too obvious so I'm happy with it.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I've been playing this one now for several weeks. The sound is very nice with good balance and lots of headroom if you want to dig in. I tried several design features I won't use again; I don't like the big rosette and I don't like the mustache-like bridge shape - seemed like a good idea at the time. Otherwise it has turned out to be a nice guitar. I'm not at all fond of the way the pickguard looks on this - I'll probably pull it off and put on a clear one. It has been a worthwhile experiment and I have learned a bunch.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

So do you mind comparing the before and after doing? How did it change? I would guess it lost some "cut" and a bit more mellow.

_________________
Formerly known as Adaboy.......

You're right, it did, it was too much "cut" for my taste. Previously it had a lot of higher-order harmonics to the point where it sounded a bit "jangley?" Now those are gone - it's to the point where I'm ready to change to a type of strings that have more punch (I've got the D'Addario med flat top PBs on it right now) as it's almost too mellow now. However I've gotten good comments on balance and tone through the K&K mini when playing through the sound board.

A big part or even the biggest part (I just don't know for sure) may be the pick guard I added. That's a fair amount of mass and I don't like the pick guard anyway as I think the rosette is too big for it to look right. I'll probably pull it off pretty soon and play it bare - it's going to end up being a shop guitar anyway. Then I can get an idea how much that affects it.

I've found that things added to the soundboard can make a big difference. I was at a Muriel Anderson concert a few months ago; her tuner broke on the low E string on her classical (she changes tunings a lot) so I helped her with a temporary fix. While doing that I noticed she had a piece of scotch tape about 3" long taped next to the treble part of the bridge. I asked her why that was there and she said to balance out the sound. She pulled it off and showed me there was a noticeable increase in the treble just from that small mass of tape. So, no telling how much difference that mass on the pick guard might make.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

So I thought I'd give an update on this one since it has worked out to be a test bed kind of thing. I pulled the pick guard which improved the looks but still didn't help the sound. I went to a brighter string (D'Addario Phosphor Bronze med) and that helped a bit. After talking to John Arnold I think I need to open the sound hole back up a bit. I'm think of starting off by opening the diameter up 0.1".

It appears to me that sound hole size may be more critical on a responsive guitar and this is definitely the most responsive one I've made so far.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Ha! you need to bring two guitars to the next meeting. Looking forward to getting my hands on these two

I suppose fair is fair. I'll bring em

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"