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Guitar #1 - The Orion
The Orion was my first attempt at building a guitar. I followed the instructions in William Cumpiano's book carefully and over a period of about 2 years,
I managed to produce a guitar that looked and sounded pretty good. There were many lessons learned and many things that I would change, but I continue
to play this guitar almost every day.
Guitar #2 - RJW
Actually, guitars 2, 3 and 4 were all built together so it's hard to say which should be numbered which. This guitar was made for my friend Bob W. from Waterloo. It has
mahogany back, sides and neck, a Sitka spruce top and ebony fretboard, bridge and head veneer. I had wanted to try my hand at cutaway guitars so this one has a
venetian cutaway. The finish is a water based laquer from Stewart McDonald (see links page)
Guitar #3 - The Wave
This guitar was made for my nephew Burton. It has East Indian rosewood back, sides fretboard, bridge and head veneer as well as a Sitka spruce top.
Again this one has a venetian cutaway. The finish is a water based laquer. This guitar and #2 above have all the same dimensions and differ only in the decoration and
woods. I couldnt' hear any noticible difference in the sound so I guess I'll conclude that to my ears, back and side woods have little to do with the sound of the guitar.
Guitar #4 - Leo
This guitar was made for my brother Richard. It was my first attempt at a classical guitar.It has East Indian rosewood back and sides, ebony bridge, fretboard
and head veneer as well as a Sitka spruce top. Again this one has a venetian cutaway. The finish is a water based laquer. I was very happy with the way this classical turned
out. The Leo theme is represented in the inlay of a lion's head in the headstock of the guitar as well as the constellation Leo in the heel of the neck. The lion inlay is made up of 7
different kinds of wood to give the different colours. The constellation is made of birch dots which are sized to represent the brightness of the individual stars.
Guitar #5 - The Pampered Puppy
This guitar was made for my niece Jesse. She is a dog groomer by trade so I agreed to build her a guitar in exchange for lifetime dog grooming services for Watson the Wonder Dog.
This classical guitar doesn't have a cutaway and has a deeper body than the Leo. The result was a guitar with a little more volume. It has East Indian rosewood back, sides,
ebony fretboard, bridge and head veneer as well as a Sitka spruce top. The finish is French polish. As my first attempt at French polish, it certainly presented some challenges and
took me longer than it should have, but in the end, the finish came up pretty well. I also decided to do something a little different with the rosette. Using walnut and cherry, I fashioned
a compass rose of sorts. I really liked the look.
Guitar #6 for Haim Gamliel
This guitar was for a Toronto client. It has the same deeper body as #5, but has a slightly wider lower bout. Engleman spruce was used for the top rather than the Sitka that
I've been using so far. This was my second French polish effort and the results were very good. I still have work to do to master getting into the corners, but I'm getting there.
Guitar #7 for John Green
01April2005: This guitar began life as a kit from StewMac. John had started to work on it but later approached me to see if
I would finish it for him. I thought it would be an interesting project just to see another "method" of
construction. Certainly some of the dimensions such as top thickness and brace heights didn't match with what
I was used to building so I was very interested to hear what the finished guitar would sound like. In the end
it sounds pretty good. Different than my usual, but good all the same. It just goes to show you that there
are many "right" ways to build a guitar. Oh boy, look at the grass. You can tell I took these pictures just
after the snow melted.
Guitar #8 for ME!
08April2005: This guitar was borne from many sources. First of all, I wanted a classical guitar for myself. When I
sat down to design it, there were a lot of issues that I wanted to solve. Many of them have been bugging me about
guitar design since I started playing back in the the 70's.
It had to have a cutaway. And no ordinary cutaway, it had to provide proper thumb support all the way up the neck
to the last fret (this guitar has 21 unlike most classicals which only have 19). So the heel was resessed into the
body.
The sound hole was moved out of the center of the top to give a larger effective vibrating area - making the guitar
louder and projecting more sound up towards the player in a similar way to a side port.
Perhaps the most radical change was the bridge design. I call it a zero-torsion bridge because by the design removes
the normal forces that bridges place on soundboards that eventually warp them. The brass center piece pulls down and
puts string pressure on the saddle, but because it's balances on the dual saddle system, the net effect on the
soundboard is zero. Add to that the fact the the tail piece terminates the strings in a straight line, the net pressure
on the soundboard is negligable. The end result is that the sound board should stay in the same shape it is now
for years to come. (At least that's the theory. We'll have to wait for 20 years to see if I'm right)
Because of the bridge design not putting undue forces on the soundboard, the soundboard can be made lighter than
normal. The bracing is light and the soundboard is very responsive.
Last but not least is the choice of woods. All the woods for this guitar are native Ontario species. I believe that
the philosophy of using traditional exotic (and often endangered) species needs to be abandoned. There are lots of
sustainable and beautiful wood options in North America. This guitar has cherry back and sides. The neck is
made up of cherry, walnut and ash. The fretboard, bridge and tailpiece are walnut. The soundboard is white pine.
There was certainly a good deal of "prototyping" in this guitar, but I believe it plays, looks and sounds beautiful.
Not only that, but even with a set of $70.00 tuners, the whole thing cost me under $100.00 make (and that's Canadian eh!).
Click this rockin little guy for a short audio sample of the guitar recorded with an AKG C4000B and Shure SM57 microphones. It's a 706KB wma
file. (My appolgies to Pink Floyd). Other than a little reverb, I haven't changed
the sound at all.
Celtic Mandolin #1
25April2005: This is my first attempt at building a mandolin.
In line with my guitar making philosophy of late, this instrument features all native woods. No endangered exotic
species here. The back and sides are White Ash. The soundboard is Eastern White Pine. The neck is Black Cherry,
Ash and Black Walnut. The fretboard and bridge are Cherry and the head veneer, tailpiece and binding are all
Walnut.
The sound of the instrument is wonderful. It has a warmth to it that I can only attribute to the pine top. You
can listen to a sample here. (562kb wma file).
I'm no mandolin player so the playing in simple.
As a first attempt, I will certainly change a few things in the next one I build. The tuners I used work ok,
but they don't really thrill me. The tailpiece design although functional and simple, doesn't really to anything
to add to the looks of the mandolin. However, on the whole, I'm very happy with the way it turned out.
Perhaps the most radical change was the bridge design. I call it a zero-torsion bridge because by the design removes
the normal forces that bridges place on soundboards that eventually warp them. The brass center piece pulls down and
puts string pressure on the saddle, but because it's balances on the dual saddle system, the net effect on the
soundboard is zero. Add to that the fact the the tail piece terminates the strings in a straight line, the net pressure
on the soundboard is negligable. The end result is that the sound board should stay in the same shape it is now
for years to come. (At least that's the theory. We'll have to wait for 20 years to see if I'm right)
Last but not least is the choice of woods. All the woods for this guitar are native Ontario species. I believe that
the philosophy of using traditional exotic (and often endangered) species needs to be abandoned. There are lots of
sustainable and beautiful wood options in North America. This guitar has cherry back and sides. The neck is
made up of cherry, walnut and ash. The fretboard, bridge and tailpiece are walnut. The soundboard is white pine.
There was certainly a good deal of "prototyping" in this guitar, but I believe it plays, looks and sounds beautiful.
Not only that, but even with a set of $70.00 tuners, the whole thing cost me under $100.00 make (and that's Canadian eh!).
The sound of the instrument is wonderful. It has a warmth to it that I can only attribute to the pine top. You
can listen to a sample here. (562kb wma file).
I'm no mandolin player so the playing in simple.
As a first attempt, I will certainly change a few things in the next one I build. The tuners I used work ok,
but they don't really thrill me. The tailpiece design although functional and simple, doesn't really to anything
to add to the looks of the mandolin. However, on the whole, I'm very happy with the way it turned out.