"The Queen of Hearts"

A place where you can let us see your finished instruments in all their glory.

Moderators: kiwigeo, Jeremy D

Post Reply
User avatar
Taffy Evans
Blackwood
Posts: 995
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:54 pm
Location: Charters Towers North Queensland

"The Queen of Hearts"

Post by Taffy Evans » Sat May 17, 2014 2:49 pm

Here's a guitar that's been received well by musicians and others who have seen and heard it.

I wanted to build something special, something different, something that would give me a different challenge. I gave myself a list of criteria that I wanted to follow these were as follows:

1 -I was asked to do something special, something that would stand out.
2 -I wanted hearts to figure in the design
3 -And the words or numbers "50" were to feature somehow in the guitar build
4 -The "000" style guitar was to be used
5 -Use some local [goldfields timber] where possible
6 -Besides looking special it of course had to have a good tone.
7-And lastly I had a finish date that would make it one of the quickest builds I have undertaken [That's quick by my standards] As it happened the delivery date was moved, and as I had finished by the said deadline I had a chance to play the guitar for a while.

1 - I researched guitars with heart shaped soundholes but could only find the two that I already knew about. Eric Clapton's "Ivan the Terrible" twelve string guitar, and though not a true heart shape, a guitar, also a twelve string, played by the late Pete Seager.
I had tried to have a guitar built for me many years ago with that shape sound hole, but the maker declined. So planing/designing this guitar was down to me.

2 - Why hearts? well I thought that if I have a heart shaped soundhole, why not make hearts a feature of the guitar.

3 - Why "50"? At the time of starting this guitar I had been in Australia for 50 years, and next year my wife and I would have been married 50 years. So fifty hearts it was going to be.

4 - Why "000"? why not? I had made some nice sounding "000"s and hoped this be as good as it's predecessors. Its possibly better.

5- Local timber. This came from two sources. The peghead overlays are from timber savaged from a local hotel built in the 1800's and burnt down in the mid 1990's. These were used with the dried open grain and shakes still visible, very brittle and a worry to inlay and work. The other is Emu Apple and is used for the fingerboard. Gold frets and gold tuners with ebony buttons finish of the look well, I thought.

The inlays are MOP, ebony and maple.

Thanks for looking.
01-DSCF0072.JPG
01-DSCF0072.JPG (73.96 KiB) Viewed 17259 times
08-DSCF0050.JPG
08-DSCF0050.JPG (70.46 KiB) Viewed 17259 times
03-DSCF0058.JPG
03-DSCF0058.JPG (106.08 KiB) Viewed 17259 times
02-DSCF0073.JPG
02-DSCF0073.JPG (115.06 KiB) Viewed 17259 times
04-DSCF0074.JPG
04-DSCF0074.JPG (75.71 KiB) Viewed 17259 times
05-DSCF0075.JPG
05-DSCF0075.JPG (78.05 KiB) Viewed 17259 times
07-DSCF0051.JPG
07-DSCF0051.JPG (62.56 KiB) Viewed 17259 times
12-DSCF0059.JPG
12-DSCF0059.JPG (88.6 KiB) Viewed 17259 times
1-DSCF0035.JPG
1-DSCF0035.JPG (78.34 KiB) Viewed 17259 times
2-DSCF0030.JPG
2-DSCF0030.JPG (94.67 KiB) Viewed 17259 times
Taff

User avatar
demonx
Blackwood
Posts: 1395
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2012 6:55 pm
Location: Ballarat Victoria
Contact:

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by demonx » Sat May 17, 2014 3:46 pm

Nicely themed without overdoing it, great work!

User avatar
rocket
Blackwood
Posts: 1210
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:43 pm
Location: melbourne,, outer east
Contact:

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by rocket » Sun May 18, 2014 10:39 pm

That's bloody nice Taff,, the sound hole purfling,, done by hand or some machinery?? very nicely finish axe though, congrats!
Rod.
Like I said before the crash, " Hit the bloody thing, it won't hit ya back

www.octiganguitars.com

User avatar
charangohabsburg
Blackwood
Posts: 1818
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 1:25 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by charangohabsburg » Mon May 19, 2014 1:04 am

Amazing and very nice. :cl

I wonder if there are more hearts on the guitar than I could see!
Markus

To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.

User avatar
Taffy Evans
Blackwood
Posts: 995
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:54 pm
Location: Charters Towers North Queensland

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by Taffy Evans » Mon May 19, 2014 9:29 am

Thanks.
Rod, rosette done by hand

Markus, there are 50 hearts in all. The back is 3 piece so reinforcing over the two glue seams are heart shaped, also includes soundhole and the two side ports.

I have the build process on disc for the customer, maybe I should post it.
Taff

Kev3
Blackwood
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:35 pm
Location: Townsville, Queensland

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by Kev3 » Mon May 19, 2014 9:33 am

Really like this one Taffy, can't for the life of me work out how you've achieved some of that ! - so, please do post some build pics.
:cl :cl
...............
Kevin

User avatar
charangohabsburg
Blackwood
Posts: 1818
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 1:25 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by charangohabsburg » Mon May 19, 2014 9:35 am

Taff, I tried to get to 50 when counting the hearts, but couldn't spot more than 34! :oops:
Posting the build process sounds like a good idea! :D

Cheers,
Markus

To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.

Kev3
Blackwood
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:35 pm
Location: Townsville, Queensland

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by Kev3 » Mon May 19, 2014 10:17 am

Good game Markus ! - kinda like them "spot the difference pics" - I only made it to 36 hearts :lol:
...............
Kevin

User avatar
charangohabsburg
Blackwood
Posts: 1818
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 1:25 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by charangohabsburg » Mon May 19, 2014 11:22 am

Kevin, I won't give up and I'll count again! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
Markus

To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.

User avatar
Taffy Evans
Blackwood
Posts: 995
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:54 pm
Location: Charters Towers North Queensland

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by Taffy Evans » Mon May 19, 2014 2:56 pm

But wait......there's no prizes :lol:
Taff

User avatar
charangohabsburg
Blackwood
Posts: 1818
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 1:25 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by charangohabsburg » Mon May 19, 2014 9:22 pm

And what about my reputation? People could say "Markus can not count"! :shock: :lol:
Markus

To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.

User avatar
Graham Long
Blackwood
Posts: 141
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:18 am
Contact:

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by Graham Long » Mon May 19, 2014 9:36 pm

Very nice, just the right amount of bling, well done Taffy

User avatar
Taffy Evans
Blackwood
Posts: 995
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:54 pm
Location: Charters Towers North Queensland

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by Taffy Evans » Tue May 20, 2014 7:05 am

I could get sneaky and not tell of some of the hidden hearts that may not count in the 50.

! - The black heart [ebony] in the back of the neck has a white heart [rock maple] at the front under the fingerboard. The ebony was not thick enough to go right through.

2 - The black hearts at the endpin are inlaid into white hearts which were then trimmed back to leave the fine white outlines.

Now that's another 5, :? :roll:
Taff

ckngumbo
Blackwood
Posts: 102
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:41 am
Location: Florida US

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by ckngumbo » Tue May 20, 2014 11:36 am

Taffy that is a beaut!

User avatar
rocket
Blackwood
Posts: 1210
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:43 pm
Location: melbourne,, outer east
Contact:

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by rocket » Wed May 21, 2014 9:52 am

Yes Taff i thought that might have been the case due to the inconsistent profile of the heart shape,i had a similar task recently although not as ornate where i ran some violin purfling around a margin of an oval sound hole in an arched soundboard, using a purfling cutter , knife and pick, pretty hair raising!
Rod.
Like I said before the crash, " Hit the bloody thing, it won't hit ya back

www.octiganguitars.com

jeanburdge
Gidgee
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2014 4:56 pm

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by jeanburdge » Thu Aug 14, 2014 8:06 pm

nicely figured a heart on your guitar..........

User avatar
Taffy Evans
Blackwood
Posts: 995
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:54 pm
Location: Charters Towers North Queensland

Re: "The Queen of Hearts"

Post by Taffy Evans » Fri Aug 15, 2014 11:26 am

Thanks Jean, the guitar has been on display in the Townsville Museum for the last 2-3 months, I'm looking forward to picking it up this coming Monday, and to see how it came through it's stay in its glass case. It's a nice sounding guitar so I'm looking forward to playing it again also.
Taff

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 49 guests