Strung my 1st today!

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kominak

Posts: 135
Joined: Apr. 20 2010

Strung my 1st today!

So after more than a year of work I finally finished my first guitar build, here she is:

caucasian spruce top
mediterranean cypress back/sides
BRW headplate, bridge and bindings
cedar neck
ebony fretboard
660mm scale, weights about 1350g
french polished

action:
7.5mm at bridge
10.5mm at soundhole(not ideal, but playable, I hope)
2.7mm at 12th fret

A big THANK YOU to all the luthiers around here who always helped me when I was in doubt!

A couple of pics:

By some lucky strike I even managed to comply with the long debated "old rule" about matching color of top and back woods (sorry, couldn't resist :)

Thanks once again guys, it is a great feeling to finally hear this guitar.

Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px

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Martin Kominak
Slovakia

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 7 2011 22:05:31

Andy Culpepper

Posts: 3023
Joined: Mar. 30 2009
From: NY, USA

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

Looks great, how does it sound?

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http://www.andyculpepper.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 7 2011 22:13:09

JuanDaBomb

Posts: 189
Joined: May 18 2011

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

Congrats, it does look fantastic. I really like your headstock design too. I'm also curious to hear how it sounds.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 7 2011 23:29:03

Gummy

Posts: 495
Joined: Nov. 27 2005
From: North Carolina, USA

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

That must be a really great feeling. Like your first child?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 7 2011 23:45:08

Doitsujin

Posts: 5078
Joined: Apr. 10 2005

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

congrats! I hope it is as good as it look! ;)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 0:20:34

Flamingrae

Posts: 220
Joined: May 19 2009

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

Ahhh.......Well done you. Give yourself a good pat on the back. There is nothing quite like hearing the first few sounds - and if it's nice ( which I'm sure it will be ) it should only get better.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 0:40:28

Steve Wright

Posts: 120
Joined: May 11 2011
From: Scotland Fife UK

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

Martin, well done. Looks fantastic. Love the headstock and what I can see of the rosette. Looks like a nice piece of spruce. Frets looks nicely finished off. How do you find the "Nut" though? When playing at first position, do you find the nut slightly sharp. It looks sharp to me, but that could just be the photo. I don't feel comfortable with a sharp nut. Wow! I'm jealous of your achievements and dedication.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 1:41:02

rodrigovalt

Posts: 296
Joined: May 1 2011

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

congratulations man! it looks beautiful

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Rodrigo

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 1:42:35

FullMetalGuitarist

Posts: 88
Joined: Aug. 22 2011

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

Beautiful guitar , beautiful headstock.
Glad to see a caucasian wood on a flamenco guitar :)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 6:06:40

kominak

Posts: 135
Joined: Apr. 20 2010

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

Thanks guys!

I can't judge the sound very well because I never held a real flamenco guitar before and I only started learning flamenco guitar yesterday :)

I was hoping the guitar will be more "sweet modern" than "raspy traditional" - like the sound of Tomatito, Vicente Amigo or Pedro Sierra.
I know that it's not possible to predict the sound of your first guitar, but I did what I could - I followed the flamenco plan from LMI (B.Lewis), chose a little softer piece of spruce for top, used solid linings instead of kerfed, flat bridge shape, D'addario j46 strings...

At first I thought that maybe she sounded too sweet/classical but after I lowered the saddle and the fret buzz kicked in I was more than happy. Plus it looks like the guitar will be quite versatile - I played some latin/jazz rhythms and I liked the sound a lot. Maybe I'll try some brighter treble strings next time.

Also, the sound changed quite a bit in the first few hours, I'm looking forward to hearing how will she sound in a year :)

In the end I'm very pleasantly surprised - the result is much better than I was expecting when I started this project. And I admire the luthier's work even more now - it's a lot of work to put together a guitar!

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Martin Kominak
Slovakia

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 8:06:10

KMMI77

Posts: 1821
Joined: Jul. 26 2009
From: The land down under

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

Nice work, It looks great!

So do you already have plans to start number 2?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 8:28:32

kominak

Posts: 135
Joined: Apr. 20 2010

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to KMMI77)

quote:

So do you already have plans to start number 2?

Heh, have to build a house first - my wife is really not happy about me using a router in the living room :)

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Martin Kominak
Slovakia

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 8:41:31

Elie

Posts: 1837
Joined: Apr. 10 2010

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

Olee !! congratulations
she looks so beautiful

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 8:44:20

KMMI77

Posts: 1821
Joined: Jul. 26 2009
From: The land down under

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

quote:

my wife is really not happy about me using a router in the living room :)

As a male I don't see any problem with that whatsoever

What's wrong with sitting down in front of the telly and getting out some power tools? Women just can't stand to see us having fun

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 8:52:13

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

It looks great. Congratulations.

I´m curious:
What is your plantilla? It looks like nit has either a pretty big upper part or a small lower part

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 12:12:51

kominak

Posts: 135
Joined: Apr. 20 2010

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to Anders Eliasson)

quote:

I´m curious:
What is your plantilla? It looks like nit has either a pretty big upper part or a small lower part

Good eye :)

Two things happened:

1. I was following a plan that I bought long ago from ebay and it turned out to be a badly scaled copy of LMI B.Lewis flamenco plan (the seller confused two scales shown on the plan and copied 650mm scale to measure 660mm) - I haven't noticed this at first so the whole guitar was going to be slightly larger.

2.I was too lazy to make a mold so I was bending/assembling it "freehand" and tried to correct the copy error.
The lower bout came out as it should, the upper bout is a little wider.

It's a pity that I haven't built the proper mold and/or solera as I could probably use them in the future. On the other hand I understand the geometry of the guitar better now so I will be doing things differently next time.

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Martin Kominak
Slovakia

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 14:56:31

Gimar Yestra

Posts: 298
Joined: Jan. 19 2011
From: The Netherlands

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

nice job kominak!!
post some sound samples please :D

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 15:26:59

paul.troutfisher

Posts: 161
Joined: Feb. 16 2011
From: Danville, CA

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

Beautiful!

Congrats, one year is what I would call "fast tracking" your first build. I'm 6 months into mine and have a long way to go.

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troutie

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 8 2011 17:03:49

Yojimbo

Posts: 176
Joined: Feb. 7 2011
From: Toronto, Canada

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

I am continually amazed and impressed that some people can actually make such beautiful things.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 9 2011 1:40:21

Stephen Eden

Posts: 914
Joined: Apr. 12 2008
From: UK

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

The head stock looks cool. Semi Santos inspired? The whole thing looks great really!

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 9 2011 13:56:38

bugeyed

Posts: 56
Joined: Aug. 24 2009
From: Conroe, Texas

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

You should be very proud! It looks beautiful. Nice touches on the head stock.
I assume that you are addicted to building guitars now?

Cheers,
kev

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 9 2011 22:14:23

FullMetalGuitarist

Posts: 88
Joined: Aug. 22 2011

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to kominak)

So far I made only a Cejilla , but I'm a very technical guy , and I always liked to get into the smallest details of every thing I use, fit it to my needs and make it unique , and so it is with guitars.
Though i guess it is many players' dream to make their own guitars :)

kominak , out of curiosity , how long it took you to make her? and if you don't mind , how good your woodwork skills are? (I mean , do you have any background in wood/guitar making)

The thing to where my questions lead is: how hard is it to make a flamenco guitar (that will sound good of course) in "homemade conditions"?
I know that my question sound a bit silly , I'm well aware to the fact that you can't turn into a luthier out of a sudden , its just an issue I'm very interested in :)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 19 2011 16:16:26

kominak

Posts: 135
Joined: Apr. 20 2010

RE: Strung my 1st today! (in reply to FullMetalGuitarist)

quote:

kominak , out of curiosity , how long it took you to make her? and if you don't mind , how good your woodwork skills are? (I mean , do you have any background in wood/guitar making)

It took about a year from start to finish, but I spent one year prior to that collecting every information I could - reading books, internet forums, ...

I didn't have any woodworking skills when I started - I used to do some woodcarving with my grandpa as a kid, but that was 20 years ago :)
One thing that helped me a lot was a local guitar making course - it was only 7 days and of course nobody finished his guitar, but many things were explained, prepared and a lot easier to finish at home.

Then I just followed the plan and hoped for the best :)

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Martin Kominak
Slovakia

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 19 2011 20:20:00