Barry Daniels' birdseye maple thinline archtop electric guitar [Pictures] - created 07-30-2006

Daniels, Barry - 07/30/2006.16:36:55
MIMForum Staff

Here is my latest. Specifics:

Solid spruce top

3/4 length spruce block

Laminated birdseye maple b&s

Ebony fretboard and peghead overlay

Gibson humbuckers, TonePro bridge

Nitro lacquer finish

Waverly tuners

I made the laminated back and sides with a vacuum bag and a two part form.

Here is the back. Bookmatched birdseye on both inner and outer faces with three plys of mahogany veneer in the interior.

Closeup of the hardware. The photo is too dark to tell, but that is a plastic tortise shell pickguard. All binding is cream colored plastic.

This inlay took way too much time.

Uno mas.

Love that bird inlay!

Very pretty! The headstock is nice, original and well done. I am sure it took a lot of time.

Another sweet ax that I'll never get to know *^#!.

Looks comfy, responsive & classy.

Excellent work, Barry. Love that headstock. I hate to think of the amount of work that much birdseye maple carving adds up to be.

Keep up the nice work, Barry!

Nelson

Ellie, the back and sides are laminated.

Nice work Barry! Sure would like to see the bracing inside there. Beautiful work and design.

Really classy and I bet it plays even better than it looks!

Barry, how did you do the engraving on the peghead? That looks just great.

That is just sweet! Nice stuff Barry!

Thanks for the nice comments folks.

Mark, The lines on the heron and banner were engraved with a graver. The text, however, is a decal. There is no way I would have attempted that by engraving. If I was that good at engraving, I would get a job at the mint. The decal was simply laid on top of the MOP and lacquered over. How do you like the trees?

Ken, I will see if I can find a photo of the insides, but basically there is a 4" wide spruce block tying the top to the back that extends about an inch past the stop bar studs. There are no other braces. The top was left flat in the area above the block.

That engraving sure did look good!

I like the trees a lot, what is the green material you used there?

Ay yi yi! That is beautiful Barry!

Wow, great stuff to aspire to Barry. I'm assuming that it's a commission that won't be around too long so have fun while you can.

Mark, the treeline was made with a veneer log that included some green dyed veneer, mahogany veneer and maple veneer. There is also some green veneer in the cattails.

Darrel, Yep, it was a commission and is already gone. But I have the forms to build myself another

Barry that is a beauty indeed! The inlay I am sure was time consuming -- but ya gotta be pretty pleased with it and yourself.

Where did you get MOP big enough to do the bird? (Lastly -- you got birds like that in the Woodlands )

Barry--Nice looking nut. Micarta? Corian?

Nelson

Nelson, the nut is bone. Wouldn't use any other thing.

Anthony, Sorry, I don't remember where I got the MOP. The head of the bird is a separate piece of MOP from the body.

The bird is a snowy egret which we have a lot of here on the gulf coast. They like to stand motionless in roadside ditches waiting for lunch. Yep, we got water birds and trees.

Amazing, just amazing, Barry! What was the thickness of the BE maple veneer you used? What was the final thickness of your back and sides?

David, the birdseye was fairly thin veneer. Probably about 1/40". I will get back to you with some actual measurements.

First rate all the way, Barry!

Can you describe how you jointed the birds eye veneer on the back?

Wow, That is just super nice! Fantastic inlay work.

Barry: Beautiful guitar! It's a real turn-on when one comes out so well...BTW, where did you get the finger rest support bracket? I have only been able to find the kind the Stew Mac sells and they don't provide enough support for a hanging pickup.

The support bracket came from AllParts.

The birdseye maple was jointed by scribing with a sharp knife against a straight edge. I then used some veneer tape on the outside surface to hold the joint together. A thin strip of rosewood veneer was added for contrast. The taped together sheet then was laminated with the other sheets and after curing, the veneer tape was scraped off.

One thing I discovered was that I got a better arch during lamination, if I cut a 1/8" wide pie shaped wedge off the veneer joint starting at the high point of the arch, and ending up at the bottom of the guitar. This gave a slight cone shape to the sheet when I pulled the joint together with the tape. The cone shaped sheet appeared to readliy accept the shape of my arched form (it had a 1/2" high arch). Test panels made without the cut out wedge resulted in folds or open joints.

Thanks for the tip about the veneer tape. I used it last night to glue up a book matched cherry backstrap. I worked great.

Wow!!

The 12th fret has an inlaid snail. Food for the egret.

The Gibson humbuckers give the guitar a smooth but full sound that's just right for the classic jazz style of its owner.

Wow, nice guitar!

Looking at that guitar gives me shivers . What an amazing and detailed work of art! I hope to get a tenth that skilled.

There are so many fine luthiers here at MIMF.

Thanks for the nice comments folks.

bump

Can't blame you for that.

Outstanding detail work throughout, Barry! I don't know how I managed to miss this thread earlier, but I sure am glad I stumbled across it today. This is truly inspiring to me. Curious about a detail on your fingerboard. It appears to be bound in white and then black. Is that correct? If so, did you extend your fret slots through the white layer before adding the black, or perhaps extend through both layers and then touch up with a shellac stick or something of that nature? Regardless, I like everything that I can see about your guitar. Your obvious patience is amazing.

Best regards,

Pat Hanna

The inlays on the headstock has to be some of the best work I've seen on an instrument. How does it play?

Thanks guys.

Pat, the white purfling on the fingerboard is actually a cream colored plastic and the fret slot is extended through it. The dark binding is ebony and the fret slot does NOT extend through it. The frets were nipped off with a Stew-Mac nipper so that they lay on top of the ebony binding.

Phillip, the guitar is setup with a low action and flat wound strings per the client's wishes (he is a traditional jazz guy). It plays silky smooth.