Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Hello again folks.
It appears I got the posting thing right & even received a few positive comments.
Thanks for that!
The boys were just hitting their teens when we started the electric and they're just hitting their twenties now Mark.
Well during the LMI build, it seems I got bitten by some strange type of bug.
Badly......
I still had some of the Silkwood left & a burning desire to build another instrument, starting from a rough lump of wood this time.
This started while the lacquer was drying on the previous OM.
This one took about 6 months & was accompanied by a frantic flurry of tool & jig making as well.
It turned out quite nicely in my opinion
If I had to describe it in a word, it would be "balanced"
No prizes for guessing whose books I was reading during this build! .
The word Weissenborn somehow came to my attention during this time as well.
It was love @ first listen.
I just had to build one of these!
I still haven't seen another one in real life or heard another one live for that matter.
This forum provided me with answers to quite a few of my questions about these strange beasts so thanks for that chaps!
It definitely isn't a true copy as I didn't really know a lot of the detail of a real one & I made quite a few changes as well, for better or worse.
The Silkwood was dragged out again & a pretty quick build time saw it finished in a few months.
I still haven't heard it played in anger by "a Weissenborn player" but it certainly sounds the business from what I have heard.
Did I mention that I can't actually play any of these things properly?
Yeah I know......
I'm trying to learn.....
There was still quite a bit of tool & jig making happening, but I've now copied/modified/designed/made just about the full complement of basic guitar making tool kit.
After the lap steel was finished I had a good talk to myself & made a pact that there would be no more of this guitar madness until I got a few of the pressing jobs that I'd been ignoring out of the way.
This lasted 2 truly miserable weekends before I decided that happiness was more important than the house falling down or the vehicles falling to bits etc.
I'm about half way through another OM out of quite beautiful quilted/flamed Canadian Maple with bearclaw spruce top.
I am taking a bit of time off occasionally to prop the house up & pump the bike tyres however.......

Well that's about it to this point!
Sorry about the length of this epistle
Cheers
Jim

Hi Jim,
I was a bit early welcoming you to our forum.
The best was still to come.
I love weissenborn guitars and have built seven I think.
They are such a haunting tone and a sexy looking beast.
You weiss guitar looks fabulous.
Keep on building mate, it's a great way to spend your spare time.
Cheers
Alan

Are you just tricking us I have over the years seen some high end wood work inlay and the like on cabinets worth 10 to 20 K some of the most amazing instruments .So your fit and finish shows that you care about and know what the end product should look like it's really important because I have been shown some almost finished work with a little more attention to detail and it would have made a really nice piece not saying it was that bad but a smidge more could have jaws dropping .

There is some fine work on the forum to aspire to and keep the creative spirit alive don't give up it's a good thing you do.cheers John

Hey Jim, that shows some really nice skills. And - importantly - some great design flair and composition. Sometimes I see excellent woodworking but simply poor taste in choice of colour and texture (IMHO). But yours are very tasteful as well as nicely put together. You gave yourself some unnecessary level of difficulty with the bound fingerboard and headstock etc, but obviously nailed it. Yeah - you better learn how to play those suckers (if you can spare the time off from building).

BTW - what did you use for the satin finish on the Weissey?
Mark

It's very nice to get some positive encouragement from both parts of my first post.
Thanks for that chaps!

I finished the Weiss with Penetrol wood oil as an experiment Mark & am very happy with the result.
Rubbing it in with wet & dry gives a lovely silken & durable surface & from past experience any wear or scuffs etc can easily be fixed with a quick reapplication.
The only question I still have is if it affects the sound @ all.
It really does penetrate deeply, going right through the blackwood sides of a mates OM as he applied it in about 10-15 mins last weekend.
Whether or not this saturation affects the tone once dry I don't really know, but it doesn't appear to.
As I suggested though, I haven't actually heard another one live to compare.
You could always apply less of it of course........

Jim