Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

This one is for my wife's cousin's wife.....sheesh that's a mouthful.

Top: AAA Sitka from Alaska SW
Back and sides: Tas Blackheart Sassafras from TimS's sale a year or so back
Neck: Sassafras one piece from a chunk I bought for 2 necks
Bindings: Sassafras offcut from the side pieces w/ BWB, and BWB purfling on the front
Head plate: Sassafras offcut bookmatch
Fretboard and bridge: Puriri from Christian, bound with sassafras offcuts. Works nicely with the Sassafras. Someone else here used that combination too.....
Inlays: Turquoise dots and diamonds, with Mariann written at the 12th fret
Frets: Jescar NS from the recent group buy
Tuner: Recycled from a Gretsch 5120, nicely engraved
Giving to her this Saturday when they come down to us for a visit. Was a gift for the wedding. Engagement gift was a set of Chef's knives fro Scott, and the Guitar is her piece of the pie.....

This top is awesome. Beautiful silking and crosschecking, and sounds great. Will put up a link of Mariann playing and singing after Saturday.....

That looks really nice Nick, well done.

Steve

That's very nice Nick, The Sass neck has surprised me, did you need to reinforce with Carbon fibre or was it Ok ?

also like that bridge

Thanks Steve, Tod.

As to the neck, I guess time will tell. It seems perfectly stable, and as the events with Mr. Thames point out, CF rods don't appear to help unless applied in a particular way. Double acting truss rod and the Sassafras worked much like Qld Maple, which I usually use....

Overall, I'm happy with it. The bindings were MUCH better than my others, which has been my bugaboo. Also my lacquer finishing is continuing to improve.

Tis bloody bewdiful Nick, i'm sure Mariann will be eternally grateful when presented with this pearler, i love the Sassafrass and the unique rosette.
Cheers..

Rod.

Hi Nick
Great looking little guitar i really like the rosette.
Regards Steve

Top job Nick

Hi Nick,

Lookin' good!
Do I detect a common theme in the shapes of the headstock and the bridge?

Thanks,
GregL.

Many thanks guys. I really like this one. It helps that the Sassafras is so striking, even out of the centre there is a lot going on.

It is better in several areas than my past ones, including the bindings(best effort yet, but still not perfect), and the lacquer finish, which continues to improve.

Greg, the wave-ish look is replicated in the headstock, the end of the fretboard, and the bridge.

I recently stopped in at the largest music shop in our region to visit a mate who works there, and looked over the $3500+ range of guitars, and decided that my work is easily as good, if not better, than most of them, so I'm pretty happy.

It was interesting to note that this particular shop keeps the lighting at "twilight" levels, presumably to improve the percetion of the instruments they have on offer...while I, on the other hand, inspect mine in the brightest light I can find....Obviously not a marketing guru just yet...

That's a stunning piece of eork from the headstock on down!

A couple of pix of Mariann when she picked up the guitar. She was over the moon.....

nnickusa wrote:A couple of pix of Mariann when she picked up the guitar. She was over the moon.....

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I have liked all your guitars Nick, this one is no exception, good for you. Your photos on the other hand.......

Cheers

Col

Yeah, I know, Col. Used my iPad, which is either really good or ratshit. Should have broken out the SLR, but.........