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I recently completed my eighth guitar. The top is Lutz spruce that I bought from Shane a few years ago. The back, sides and rosette are Liquidamber styraciflua (sweet gum, red gum--all kinds of common names) that I got off the Classifieds here. The neck is maple, which was also purchased here on the OLF. Bindings, fingerboard and bridge are EI rosewood. Finish is wiped on Pratt & Lambert #38 gloss varnish, hand buffed.

I think I've finally settled on a kind of signature headstock treatment. both in the shape and the collage effect I created using pieces of scrap wood for the veneer. At this point pretty much everything has been done by someone so it probably isn't unique, but I have no recollection of seeing this anywhere else and I'm really pleased with it. You'll notice that I've echoed the shape in the end of the fingerboard extension and let the asymmetry influence the bridge a bit as well.

I feel like I may have turned a corner with this instrument. The craftsmanship is approaching excellent, the playability is superb and it sounds wonderful--at least I think so. Maybe, just maybe, I'm finally starting to figure things out. (Probably just jinxed myself.) I made this guitar for an old friend who lives in LA and I keep telling him he'd better get up here to pick it up or I'm going to keep it!

Thanks to all for your participation, guidance and support,

George :-)

Beautiful!

Very nice work.

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Blue Ring Acoustics
blueringacoustics.ca

That's beautiful! I'd love to see it in person...

That's a good looking guitar.

That's really quite nice and my kind of guitar

Very nicely done! Nice design and fit and finish...

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

George, Good job on there! I like you head stock treatment BTW.
I've never thought of using liquid amber as a tone wood. What would you compare it to?

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Really nice

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Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

Very nice. Count me as another who likes the headstock treatment. I'm wondering how big it is. What's the lower bout width? Is the pickguard made of a tortoise shell type material? I haven't seen tortoise shell with large swirls like that before.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

That looks great, George. I've seen liquidamber in wood piles here and there and often wondered what it would be like as a tonewood. I like your choice of rosewood for the binding. It goes well with the liquidamber.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Hey, that back looks familiar

Excellent work! And glad to hear it sounds great, too. I'd love to hear a sound clip. What do you think after working with red gum, would it make a good soundboard wood as well? I still have a couple sets that I'm debating between using separately or together.

Bet that one was pleasant to finish, with no pores anywhere

Very, very well done George!!!

Great looking guitar!

A few tidbits on sweet gum. The name "redgum" is generally applied to heartwood lumber from the species, while "sapgum" refers to lumber from the light-coloured sapwood. The tree itself is virtually always called "sweet gum". It is tricky to dry and tends to twist and warp. Once dry, it is quite stable.

Homeowners in its range (southeastern US) generally hate it because of the hard spiky fruits that fall on your lawn and hurt like hell when you step on them with bare feet -- painful wounds that tend to get infected (I speak from personal experience.)

BTW, just to make sure this guitar gets found in future searches, the correct spelling of the genus name is "Liquidambar".



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Beautiful guitar, George! Is that a MOP dot at the intersection on the head stock veneer?


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Very nice!
I think the peghead and end of the fingerboard design work very well together. I see the asymmetry in the bridge, but it is less prominent, and hard to tell if intentional. On your next bridge maybe you could add a "jog" similar to the end of the fingerboard. A small criticism of a beautiful guitar. Well done!

Thanks for your comments and questions. With bout widths of 10.5" and 14.5", this guitar is a little smaller than the standard OM-size it was originally intended to be. I don't have a great deal of experience bending sides and this wood didn't seem to want to accept the exact shape I was asking it to take. (Perhaps that's the potential for warping Tim referred to above.) I thought it was "close enough" but when I pulled the box from my mold it had a bit of a twist. Luckily I had another set of sides that allowed me to start over again. Removing the plates cost me a bit of real estate.

It's a little embarrassing to admit, but I'm simply terrible at describing tone. The best I can do here is say that I have paired Lutz tops from this same batch with both mahogany and EI rosewood. On that spectrum, I would say the liquidambar is closer to the rosewood. If I get a chance to record something before the guitar goes away I'll post a clip.

Thanks for the lovely wood, Dennis! Yes, finishing was a dream. For those with skills that are less than expert in that department (like mine) not having to deal with pores is a truly wonderful thing. Would this work as soundboard? I have zero idea. It seems a little dense and hard to me and doesn't have a particularly musical tap, but it sure would look cool!

The pickguard is Tor-Tis material purchased from LMI. I hadn't seen such large swirls before either and at first I wasn't sure I liked them, but I think they look fine installed.

Tim - Thanks for the correction of the spelling and background info on the wood. I knew it was "ambar" and not "amber," but can't seem to get my fingers to work properly when it counts. These trees are not native to my region (Pacific Northwest) but when we bought our house the elderly woman living next door had a large, beautiful example growing in her backyard. Great fall colors and always the last to lose its gorgeous leaves. Gertrude was the lady's name and she was very sweet to us and our daughter. She passed away several years ago and her lovely tree was cut down when a new house was put up. When I saw this wood for sale I just had to have it. I call this guitar Gertrude, of course. How could I not?

There is indeed a MOP dot incorporated in the headstock veneer. Let's just say that was the result of an "opportunity" that arose during the building process and leave it at that.

Clay - Thanks for your thoughts on the bridge. I looked at that long and hard and made several blanks from scrap to see if I could put a jog in it somewhere. As much as I wanted it to work, everything I tried seemed forced to my eye. Coupled with my fears that I might be adding weight and perhaps a stress point unnecessarily, I decided to go this direction. I'm still working on that and have lately been thinking it might work to add a subtle element to the surface of the bridge, as opposed to along an edge. We'll see.

Thanks again!

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George :-)

What a beautiful set of back/sides! I'm really interested in learning more about it.

For anyone interested, here's a short audio clip of the guitar. This was recorded with a small USB mic plugged into my laptop--no EQ, etc. (Warning: I'm not an accomplished musician.) On my speakers this is in the ballpark of what I hear from the guitar itself, although there's less presence and it sounds kind of muted. Anyway, it's something.

https://soundcloud.com/moocatdog/liquid ... ar/s-GwmKY

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George :-)

Very nice, George! Everything goes so well together. I especially like the way you finished off the fret board.

Alex

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

I like everything about Gertrude! Nice one George - keep building them.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Looking great (and sounding) George. It's very nicely tied together. Your buddy is going to be very happy.
Cheers!

Well done. Really nice looking guitar!

That's a beautiful guitar.
Chock up another wood in the list of "alternative tonewoods".

Kinda surprises me that we don't see more of the stuff...

Thanks

Very nice guitar, you can be proud!