Strung my 1st today! (Full Version)

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kominak -> Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 7 2011 22:05:31)

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



Andy Culpepper -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 7 2011 22:13:09)

Looks great, how does it sound?



JuanDaBomb -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 7 2011 23:29:03)

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



Gummy -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 7 2011 23:45:08)

That must be a really great feeling. Like your first child?[:)]



Doitsujin -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 0:20:34)

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



Flamingrae -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 0:40:28)

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.[:)][:)][:)]



Steve Wright -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 1:41:02)

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.



rodrigovalt -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 1:42:35)

congratulations man! it looks beautiful



FullMetalGuitarist -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 6:06:40)

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



kominak -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 8:06:10)

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!



KMMI77 -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 8:28:32)

Nice work, It looks great!

So do you already have plans to start number 2?



kominak -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 8:41:31)

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 :)



Elie -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 8:44:20)

Olee !! congratulations
she looks so beautiful [:)]



KMMI77 -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 8:52:13)

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 [:D] 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[8D][:D]



Anders Eliasson -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 12:12:51)

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



kominak -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 14:56:31)

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.



Gimar Yestra -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 15:26:59)

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



paul.troutfisher -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 8 2011 17:03:49)

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.



Yojimbo -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 9 2011 1:40:21)

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



Stephen Eden -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 9 2011 13:56:38)

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



bugeyed -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 9 2011 22:14:23)

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



FullMetalGuitarist -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 19 2011 16:16:26)

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 :)



kominak -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 19 2011 20:20:00)

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 :)



FullMetalGuitarist -> RE: Strung my 1st today! (Nov. 20 2011 16:47:01)

I see, thank you.
I hope one Day I'll make myself a nice blanca :)



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