Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Acoustic guitar built to a classical shape (I just like that shape...)

Indian rosewood back and sides, cedar top, all Australian woods mosaic rosette.
New Guinea rosewood bindings. New guinea RW/IRW bridge, Gotoh tuners. X braced, fully french polished.
Super clean sounding and very responsive - it was built for fingerstyle playing.

It's light years better than the first guitar I built as this one was built under the guidance of local guru Jens Ploesser. While it was great to finally put strings on the guitar and to hear it I have mixed feelings about finishing the guitar and the course as it was a great way to spend Saturday afternoons. Whether we were building, planning out the next step or just chatting I was always learning something new and I reckon my skills improved from an L plater to a P plater.

Very nice. I like the rosette and also the bridge design, which reminds me a little of Allen's ukes

Beautiful work, love the design elements, really makes it stand out. How did you find the french polishing process?

lamanoditrento wrote:Very nice. I like the rosette and also the bridge design, which reminds me a little of Allen's ukes

Thanks! It was inspired by the bridge pictured in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=7605

Although their bridge smiles and my bridge frowns! It just seemed to look better that way to my eye on this guitar. I laminated a layer of indian underneath to strengthen it.

Jim wrote:Beautiful work, love the design elements, really makes it stand out. How did you find the french polishing process?

Thanks! I really enjoy french polishing, especially as I can work on the kitchen bench in the air conditioning. I love the high gloss look. It took about 3 weeks after I got the hang of it. I pore filled with egg whites... took about 3, 20 minute sessions and then sanded back perfectly flat. Seemed to go well!

It's a nice package for sure ,yes the bridge reminds me somewhat of the Japanese building style that uke is nuts .The guitar fits together as a package it's hard to design elements that come together ,I have many a scrap paper scribbling.