Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Finished the final setup on this today and it's new owner came and took it home.

It's a Honduran Rosewood 0-18 with a Lutz Spruce top from Shane Neifer, Cocobolo bindings, rosette, head plate and back strap. The neck is Fijian grown Honduras Mahogany, fingerboard is Ebony with Evo frets and Gotoh 510 tuners.

The guitar has double sides (the inner is blackwood), lattice bracing in the lower bout (3mm x 5mm) and a new (for me) neck attachment system which is a stainless steel bar in the heel of the neck to which stainless hex bolts are screwed (see pic below)

It sounds great. Tony commented when he first pick it up that it felt like it had the power of a dready. It has lots of sustain and I reckon it'll sound great once it's played in a bit. I would say I've only played it for about half an hour.
Tony O'Neill, the happy new owner
This is the neck attachment system. The steel bar sits vertically in the heel of the neck

Great looking guitar Bob, happy looking Tony as well. I really like the wood selections on this one, but you already knew that.

Cheers

Kim

Once again a display of great craftsmanship Bob. What is the finished side thickness and when you say lattice in the lower bout do you mean the same style as the King Billy top?

Jim

That's right Jim.

The same treatment as the King Billy top.

I took this one down to 2.4mm so I'll be interested to see what the top does over the next month. If it stays put I can probably go thinner on the next one.

The sides are bloody thick. I left them both at around .070" so it'd be about .150".

I intend to go thinner on the next one with both pieces of the laminate at around .040" - just to lighten things up a bit.

Tony's a good guitarist - (used to play with the Bushwackers, although he played fiddle with them) and he's played a few of my guitars over the years and he reckons this one with the new bracing is the duck's guts so I'll keep refining it and see where it gets me.

Another fine looking instrument, Bob. It looks good all the way from Arkansas! I really like the shape of your bridge.

Ron

Outstanding, Bob. Another killer guitar!