Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

This is a guitar that I'd been working on for some time, as a gift.

I was asked to use the particular materials from which the instrument is constructed, and the colour combination and textures have led me a merry dance! I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it. The binding and purfling were a lot of work to make, in an attempt to tie all the colours together.

The requirement was for a matt finish, so I've used Rustin's Danish Oil.

I used two brass bridge-pins to add a small amount of weight, as "fine tuning" of the bridge, to achieve a T(1,1)2 of 180.4 Hz. The back is not "active", so I didn't try to fiddle around - not that it needed any fiddling, anyway. The frequency response curve shown is of the finished instrument, with strings attached.

In contrast to my reservations about the aesthetic aspects, I'm very happy with the playability and sound properties.

Frank.

Whoops! I should have posted this in "The Gallery". Sorry

Well can't say I go for the colours much either, but it looks to be very well constructed. Detailing is absolutely great.

I guess the purrple heart will tone down in time!


Cheers Dave

LOL...the downside of doing commissions....you don't always build what you think is tasteful in terms of looks. Nice work though...I like the headstock back strap and the front of the headstock looks nice too.

What a BEAUTY!! Love the colour combination, a gift that will keep on giving pleasure!

What species is the purple bridge/fretboard ??

Well done Frank!

Gaz

Hi Gazm.

Thanks for the nice words.

The wood is Purpleheart (probably Peltogyne purpurea). Always available at the local branch of the (Melbourne) timber merchant, Mathews Timber.

Frank.

Frank I would repeat how impressed I am by the craftsmanship.

On further looking I notice you have used brass bridge pins for the top and bottom strings. Was that to change a resonant frequency?


Cheers Dave

Very nice indeed Frank.
I missed this one.
Keep em coming.
Cheers
Alan

Hi Dave.

Yes, the two brass bridge-pins were used to slightly weight the bridge, to bring the T(1,1)2 as close as possible to 180 Hz. Had I not done this, and used 6 wooden (ebony) pins, the T(1,1)2 would have been around 181.5 Hz - which would have been OK, but I got all fussy and competitive! I'd bought the brass pins cheaply from China, on eBay, many years ago, but had never used them, so I tried them out to see what happened.

There was no reason to assign the brass pins to any particular strings - I put them on the 1st and 6th strings for the sake of symmetry. Had the new owner of the instrument said they didn't want the brass pins, I would have replaced them with the ebony ones - but it turned out that they were quite happy with the look (perhaps like the proverbial rat with a gold tooth!)

I also tried adding side masses, to move the T(1,1)2, but after experimentation and calculation, realised that I was going to have to add more than 350 grams to the weight of the instrument, in order to effect the desired change. By comparison, a little extra weight added directly to the bridge, went a long way.

Frank