$100 Local Materials Challenge, California redwood, walnut OM (Completed 5/19/12)

[Steven Wilson]

Looks great Patrick

[Patrick DeGreve]

I had a rare three day weekend this week, and got quite a lot done. Here I glued on the bridge. I have seen that most everybody glues on the bridge after they have finished the guitar. All the books I have read do it this way, but I like to glue the bridge on to the soundboard before finishing, then mask the bridge. On this build I will not mask the bridge, because I think the waknut could use the lacquer finish.

[Patrick DeGreve]

Big mistake! Very frustrating! I was very careful to measure the positions for the tuners, but not carefull enough. As you see I drilled the hole for the top tuner 1/8" short of the matching tuner. What's that they say "measure twice, cut once". I was always going to keep this guitar for myself, so I am going to leave it as is to remind me to be more carfull.

[Patrick DeGreve]

After sanding with 120, 220, 320, and 500 grit sandpaper, I sprayed on four coats of Mohawk vinyl sealer lacquer. This really brought out the colors of the wood. The redwood deepened and the walnut darkened. These pictures do not show it, but this guitar came to life with the lacquer. I can't wait to put on the gloss coats. Here are a few pictures of the guitar with the vinyl sealer.

[Patrick DeGreve]

Another shot of the back.

[Patrick DeGreve]

And a third picture of the back.

[Patrick DeGreve]

Here is a shot of the redwood soundboard.

[Patrick DeGreve]

And a close up of the soundboard.

[Josh Humphrey]

Wow- it is really looking great Patrick! That walnut is truly special

[Patrick DeGreve]

After giving it some thought, I have changed my mind about leaving the holes in the peghead as they are. It would bother me forever, and I have a fix in mind. The holes I drilled have two thickness. The hole from the back of the peghead is 3/8", and the hole from the face is 1/4". I am goling to plug the back, and face holes with dowel, and re-drill the holes. I will drill the high one 1/16" lower, and the low one 1/16" higher. The dowel will act as a shim, and support the tuners. The washer will cover the shims, so they should look fine. We will see.

[Mark Swanson]

Looks great! I think the bridge looks a bit big.

[Steven Wilson]

Love the back. I agree the bridge looks a bit chunky

[Patrick DeGreve]

Thanks for the coments. Mark and Steven, the bridge looks much bigger in the picture than it is (the picture is keystoning quite a bit). If you check my early posts of making the bridge, there is a picture of it next to a standard Martin style bridge. I made my bridge about 1/8" wider and 3/8" deeper because I was concerned about using walnut for the bridge, and wanted to get a better footprint on the redwood. I was concerned about the bridge pulling off the redwood. Looking at the guitar from a straight angle, I think the bridge LOOKS OK. I am not sure about how much this will affect the sound? The guitar has a nice deep resonate sound when I tap it, so I hope I haven't made it too big? We will see. Thanks for the positive comments about the walnut back. About a year and a half ago my local hardwood dealer had a special purchase sale on walnut ($6.99 per board ft.). I looked through about 70 boards, and found three that were quarter sawn, and bought those. The back and sides of this guitar and the drop top on the Les Paul I am building for this challenge, were cut from one of those pieces. I still have enough from this board to make another back. I got very lucky finding this wood. I check out the local hardwood dealers in my area all the time ( I have become a woodaholic).

[Eddie McRae]

Beautiful! Very nice work. And I too, of course, love that black walnut! Gorgeous grain and very nice bookmatching.

[Tristan Williams]

Lovely lovely guitar!

[Edmundo Azalde]

Very nice. I also really like the walnut. I think Claro is the new mahogany

[Patrick DeGreve]

This one is finished! I strung it up last night, played with the action, and I like it. I am going to keep this one for myself. I like the tone if it very much. It is not a bright as the other OM I made last year, but has a more full, warm sound. I don't know if it is because of the redwood vs sitka, or plate thickness, but there is clearly a difference in the two. I like them both. I bought a Joyo acoustic preamp-pickup on Ebay that is the same size as the Fishman Presys. I thought I would try it in this to see what I think. I thought if I don't like it I can swap it out for the Presys down the line. It was so cheap ($ 10.99), that I didn't hold out much hope for it, but it sounds good. I will have to play with it down the line, but so far it is fun to have. I also put on cheap tuners that are OK for now, but again they are the same size as Grover rotomatics, so if they give me trouble I can swap them out. As it is it is a fun little guitar. I am very glad I joined this challenge. I may not have tried redwood on a steel string,( I bought it for a classical), but it has a very good sound. I will probably use it again on a steel string. Here is a picture of the Joyo preamp.

[Patrick DeGreve]

I pluged and re-drilled the peghead, to fix my mistake. I moved one down 1/16", and one up 1/16", and they match up much better.

[Patrick DeGreve]

Here is a shot of the back. I wish I could take credit for the beautiful grain in the walnut, but some tree did that all by itself.

[Patrick DeGreve]

Here is a shot of the full back.