Newbie feels welcome

[Clancy]

Thanks for your welcome Allen. I've felt right at home reading the threads, just a bit nervous to join in the fun. Having been asked to show the aussie archtop, I'll attempt to load some pics.

Knowing bugger all about luthiery and with my experience of wood working totaling a couple of out of control campfires, I decided that my first attempt at making an instrument must be a carved 17" archtop using only australian timbers (what's a tonewood??).

The result is...
Blackwood B&S
King Billy Top
Bunya bracing
Qld Maple neck
Gidgee fingerboard
Burdekin Plum finger rest & saddle
Flamed Blackwood binding

Oh, and an itch I just can't seem to scratch no matter how much time I spend in the workshop. My wife now calls herself a Guitar Widow!!








Since completing the aussie archtop I've nearly completed a flat top irish bouzouki using bunya & blackwood and am working on a carved mando with Qld Maple & King Billy......Damn, I've got the bug bad.

[ozziebluesman]

Welcome to the forum Craig.

I'm like you and have the guitar building bug real bad! So far just four instruments completed. Two concert ukulele's and two weissenborn copy lap slide guitars. I too like using Oz woods! All good fun !

Your carved top guitar is a beauty. Congratulations! That's a mighty fine feat for a first up effort. Hope to see some more pics and maybe a few sound clips of your fine instruments.

Cheers

Alan

[Hippety Hop]

Guitar Widow - Good one.

'On ya champ. Nice work.

Hip.

[kiwigeo]

Welcome Craig....youre banned! That guitar is far too nice.

Cheers Martin

[Allen]

Damn!!! that's nice work there Craig. You probably realize now that you couldn't have picked a more challenging instrument as your first.

And there are more than a couple guitar widows here. Mine even knows that when I say "OH BABY" to the computer, it's not porn, but wood that I'm looking at.

You got nothing to be shy about in posting your work here. We're all on a steep learning curve, and the more you build, the more you realize that you're not going to have enough days left to learn everything you want to.

[seeaxe]

What a stunning guitar - it even looks Australian - all the same colours you see when you fly over the place

If thats a first guitar that means I'm about 4 behind!! I'd better get going on number 3.

Great job!

Richard

[Craig]

Man O Man that's a mighty nice guitar Craig . Hard to believe it's your first effort . I'm with Martin ,, gotta be banned ,, way to cool.

Congrats mate

[Lillian]

Craig, either you are a super fast study or you are a lair. Don't know diddly about what you are doing. Yeah right. Have another yarn to tell?

That is a beautiful archtop. For a first attempt with no experience, its phenomenal.

[Clancy]

Thanks for the look everyone. The guitar widow read your posts & was quietly proud of her hubbie. (and can I put that chisel down now & give the kids a bath).

Before I began this guitar I got Bennedettos book & read it cover to cover several times. I listed all the tools required then short listed those I could afford.

I then spent another 3 months or so reading everything I could find on the net about lutherie. I questioned the guys at Gilet whenever I was unsure about tonewoods.

Gilet sourced the Blackwood for me, adding that it would be a royal pain to carve & was I sure I wanted it. I accidently stubbed my toe on a lump of wood that was under a table at the annual Timber Show. This turned out to be the King Billy top.

Six months after starting my research I finally put tool to timber.

Some things would take me weeks to figure out how I was going to do them. Then it would take 1/2 hr to do it. Then I'd start thinking about the next step.

Two years after starting the guitar was built. I dithered for another six months trying to decide what finnish to use. Got an opportunity to use the spray booth at a local college so went with nitro c.

Now the guitar widow wants to hang it on the wall and not let me play it!

[Hesh1956]

My wife now calls herself a Guitar Widow!!

Welcome to the ANZLF Craig. Your guitar looks great!!!

When I started building guitars my "ex" called herself lucky........

[Kim]

Very nice Craig, talk about a leap into the deep end, but it looks like you took to it like a duck to water.

Welcome to the ANZLF.

Cheers

Kim

[Taffy Evans]

Hi Craig and welcome
Well your first taste of guitar building was a big bite, and you did a great job, well done. The guitar looks very impressive.

[DarwinStrings]

I don't have anything to say other than that I disagree with your wife. You shouldn't hang it on your wall, you should hang it on my wall.

Jim

[Deano]

FANTASTIC work Craig.

I too picked up Bennedettos Book and i've been reading it cover to cover for a while now. Building an archtop has been my main inspiration to take up guitar building, being bitten by the bug also along the way.

Your work is a true inspiration to finally take the plunge, now I just gotta decide on the perfect timbers for my dream archtop

Cheers,

Dean

[Bob Connor]

G'day Craig and welcome to the forum.

Nothing like jumping in at the deep end, but the guiatr is a stunner - great choice of timbers.

[gratay]

wow .... To attempt that on your first build and pull it off with that sort of flair is quite remarkable..
excellent work and I love the choice of wood also..

The Benedetto book was the first I bought and after reading it a couple of times I thought it best to attempt something else first before tackling that one..my hats off to you, Craig ..

[Clancy]

Dean & Gratay - There are some things in Bennedetto's book that are well explained and some great one liners.
ie.
"do this..." - um, ok, how?
or
"make a cut using (insert expensive or otherwise unatainable tool)"

I really should have done something else first. Now I do certain parts of a build in archaic ways (then discover how everyone else does it on sites like this).

I also need lots of practice spraying the finish. One day I'll sand it back & do it again - maybe, possibly.