New member and my first build

[Robdon]

Hello,
I have just joined the forum and built my first guitar with guidance and assistance from Noom, a very talented luthier and wonderful teacher here in Brisbane. It is an OM and has a sitka spruce top from Stewmac and figured Tasmanian blackwood back and sides from Australian guitar timbers. I am french polishing it at the moment and will post a picture of the back when I finish polishing. The blackwood started out as a lot of work to pore fill but I devised a very fast way to do so in the end. I will describe it in another post.
I am retired and after building this I have been bitten by the luthier bug. I am already planning my next guitar - an archtop acoustic, hence the plan sheet under the guitar in the photo. I want to use curly maple for the back and sides and would really appreciate it if anyone could point me to a supplier/s.
Best wishes,
Rob

[joel]

Thats a nice looking guitar! Reckon you did better on your first than I did on mine!

[kiwigeo]

Nice work on that guitar Rob..and welcome to the forum.

[Mark McLean]

Hi Rob. That looks like a nice job for number 1. I reckon we deserve a few more pictures than just the one?
Regarding number two, I recently bought some curly maple back& side sets from Stew Mac for an arch top build and was quite pleased with what was supplied. I think a more important question is where are you sourcing archtop soundboard billets? I got four quarter-sawn Sitka spruce slabs from Mathews in Melbourne about 3 years ago, but it was the first time they had stock of that stuff in years. I would love to do a huon pine soundboard for a future one, but I don’t know where to find the right stuff.
mm

[Robdon]

Thank you all for the kind words. I checked Stewmac and they appear to have no backs or soundboards. I think I will spend the kids inheritance and buy a European spruce soundboard from Tonewood Switzerland. It is the postage that is the killer.
Huon pine would be gorgeous.
Best regards,
Rob

[56nortondomy]

Alaska specialty woods has really nice Sitka spruce in archtop sets, I got my last set there, a master grade set which was first class. Thought about Blackwood for back and sides? That's a really good option. Wayne