Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

These things are addictive. I made the first one with the view to showing it at the Cheltenham Acoustic Guitar Show this coming weekend but took it to guitar camp and couldn't resist a cash in hand offer for it. That got me in trouble with my youngest daughter Suzanna as she had named it and wanted it. So it was time to make another from the small stash of wood I had. We decided to use the one and only sitka spruce top that I bought in a moment of madness years ago and haven't known what to do with (Yes Steve K - I've finally lost my Sitka virginity ) , and a small block of wood I bought labelled African Walnut that would do a neck, sides and four piece back, some EI Rosewood side offcuts for bindings and ebony for the bridge and headstock veneers.

African walnut would appear to be Lovoa klaineana or Lovoa trichiliodes, and to confuse things it is a member of the genus Meliaceae - the mahogany family. It is a lovely wood to work with and according to Suzanna and my wife looks like Tigerseye - which is interesting as one of its common names is Tigerwood.

These instruments were named by my daughter Suzanna after the shape-shifting Scandanavian Water Spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin. If properly approached, they will teach a musician to play so adeptly "that the trees dance and waterfalls stop at his music." Not exactly a violin, but very similar tuning - GDAE or GDAD. The first one was called Nøkken and this one is called Nácken.

The design is the same as the first one - 579mm scale length with 14 frets clear of the body on a Martin Size 5 body. The tuning is GDAD and the strings I am using are 49, 32, 22w, 15. The sound is pleasing so far - the sitka is more on the "fundimental" side of spruces I have used but it works well on the instrument and it will be interesting to hear how it opens out. These are real fun session instruments.

This time I got to do a soundclip. These are useful to do early in an instruments life (the strings went on last Friday) as you can go back later and compare. I find that there are tunes lurking in each instrument that seem to come out when you noodle around on them for the very first time. This one is appropriate to the ANZLF as it came out as a "loose" version of "Botany Bay".

Some pictures:




Top bracing (lutz spruce):


Back bracing (lutz spruce):


Thanks for looking and listening.

Sounds and looks absolutely gorgeous Dave and a very nice version of Botany Bay.

It's got a very large diameter soundhole for such a small bodied instrument. Any reasoning behind it?

Bob,

Thanks. The soundholes on my instruments tend to be larger than most other makers I suppose. When I strated building I was influenced by makers I liked and I had a Dermot McIlroy guitar that was SJ size with a 110mm diameter soundhole that sounded great. I find that with the arching I use on my tops I get better volume and projection with the larger soundholes without sacrificing "tonal quality", so that's what I do. I've read somewhere that Mario Proulx does a similar thing. The soundhole on this one is 94mm diameter. On my own design instruments (rather than Martin Size 5) I have the soundhole further towards the neck block than is "traditional" - maybe this balances out the Helmholz rise in pitch.

It looks larger than it actually is Dave.

We use 92mm soundholes on the O models so ther's not a huge difference there. I was thinking it was up around 100mm.

Bob,

I find that optically, solid wood rosettes seem to make the soundhole look bigger than ones that are done with just bwb purfling combinations.

That is another beauty Dave. I loved the look of you're first one, and this one looks the goods too.

G'day Dave,

What a fun little instrument. It sounds warm and inviting. Is that the same ladder bracing as your concert sized guitar?

Beautifully crafted mate!

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers

Alan

Joel - thanks.

Alan - Thanks too. Yes it's essentially the same bracing but "voiced" to the top and hence not as tall.

Another great little instrument Dave. I think it would make a wonderful pub guitar. Another to add to my 'to do' list. Or of course you could just send it to me after Cheltenham, Suzanna would understand.

Your folder on my music player is getting quite full now.

Colin

Hi Dave.....Niiiiice,great sound great to look at,can't get much better than that(but you gotta try,eh).........cheers Steve

Dave, what a treat! I always enjoy looking at your fine creations, but now that you've come over to the dark side, things are really going to get interesting. You done all that wood proud, M8.

A tip for bringing out the best in Sitka:
make all your measurements in inches, not milimeters.
Otherwise you'll just end up confusing your top wood.

Steve

Hi Dave
Another great looking guitar, I was thinking the same about the soundhole but you've cleared that up. Thanks for the spec's Dave I've just pulled out the timber to build a tenor guitar. I have a customer who is umming and arring about getting one so I told him I'd build it anyway for the experience, he wasn't happy as he said if he hears it he'll have to but it..........OK by me. Nice one Dave.

Dave, it looks like I'm late to this, so can't add much except I love that rendition of Botany Bay, and it's a really great looking instrument.

I'm going to have to build a ladder braced guitar soon, so hopefully I can pick your brain about some design considerations.

Looking at the top that you have braced, it doesn't appear that there is much of a radius in it. I think that you said that you build with an 8' radius. Is it just the camera angle that makes it look much flatter than it actually is?

What a wonderful sounding little guitar!

Very stealthy seams on the back - who would know it's 4-piece.

Dennis

Colin - thanks. I'm not sure Suzanna would understand

Steve - thanks. The next one will always be better - or that's always the hope.drive that keeps you building.

Stephen - I'm just glad that that particular piece of Sitka is no longer looking at me longingly and making me feel guilty. I'll remember the inch trick if I get another piece. I still think I prefer it with the White spruce infusion (aka Lutz).

Taffy - they are great fun to play and I bet you'll end up making one for yourself as well.

Allen - I'm glad you liked "Botany Bay". You can pick my brains any time. The bottom of the braces on the top and back were profiled to a 10' radius. I don't use any radius dishes so don't know what the radius settled out at but you can see the curvature from these photos:
Top:


Back:


Dennis - Thanks.

Gosh thats nice Dave, I love the sound and your comments about the radius make good sense.

Is there any reason you didnt go for GDAE tuning?

Steve, do you recommend accents as well when voicing? a bit teutonic for Lutz,, a bit hispanic for BRW etc?

Sebastiaan,

Thanks, I like the sound a lot too and am pleased with how "Botany Bay" turned out. There's loads of space in there to add some lap-slide - hint Alan . I'm used to GDAD as I play guitar-bouzouki there a lot and like the modal droning you get. I couldn't have done that piece "Botany Bay" with the same chordal feel in GDAE, which is more a melody tuning imho.

Well Dave, Not only a beautiful looking instrument but very nice playing and it certainly has a lovely tone to it straight out of the box..