Maple L-00

[Jeff Chumley]

I haven't posted in a while. I've been rebuilding my shop (total overhaul with insulation, sealed floor and humidity control extra electrical circuits etc.) and quietly building guitars for the last couple of years. When I started on this forum ten or twelve years ago I was building solid body electrics for my kids. Then I went through an archtop acoustic phase. For the last couple of years I've been building flat tops. I've read a lot of the standard "How To" books and talked to a lot of builders. I've gotten a lot of good advice on this forum. I also took Robby O'brien's online course and a top bracing course on DVD from Kent Everett. I think their approach is straight forward and easy to understand.

This is my fourth flat top. It has a red spruce top, maple back and sides, Mahogany neck, and Koa bindings and peghead overlay. It has a very nice balanced sound. Great for finger picking. Good with a flat pick too but not nearly as powerful as the rosewood L-00 that was my second build.

Now the bad. When I set the bridge I somehow shorted the scale enough that I couldn't compensate by filing the saddle. I routed out the 3/32 slot and replaced the saddle with a 5/32 one but that still left strings five and six sharp so I had to remove the bridge. My normal bridge setting procedure is to measure and mask the top for the bridge and then when actually gluing on the bridge I use a temporary tailpiece and set the actual bridge/Saddle using a tuner to get the position right and tape it off so I can replace it exactly. It's pretty fool proof but as I'm an ugly fool I managed to beat it. I think I might just sand down the top and refinish due to some dings and marks I managed to put in the finish.

Anyway. It's hard to beat maple/koa for looks and It it seems to produce a nice sounding guitar with the L-00 size.

[Mario Proulx]

Nice!

You can gain some room on a same-size bridge by putting the bridge pins at an angle(rearward...). This would allow you to set the saddle further back, and might be all you need.

[Jeff Chumley]

Thanks Mario,

I may do that. I should have thought of that myself. I'll have a look at it this evening.