#5 Acoustic Parlour Guitar

[ozziebluesman]

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Originally Posted on: Aug 15 2010

Hello to you all,

This one is a little Bobby Dazzler, fact is, this is his name now or Dazz for short.

The guitar is going to a new home very shortly after a little tweaking. This is my best effort yet! I am very pleased with the outcome. Good volume, midrange orientated but with a full tone.

Back and Sides: Bob in Geelong's $60 parlour set special. (Very nice indeed)
Top: Bunya Pine: From Tim Spittle.
Fingerboard: Gidgee from Micheal Connor
Binding and Bridge: Blackwood
Neck: Queensland Maple

Here are a few pictures and a sound sample will follow later on.






Thank you for looking.
Cheers
Alan

[Clancy]

Very sweet Alan. I like. What's the (one piece) neck?

[liam_fnq]

you just keep getting better Alan. what sort of tuners are they? the gold looks very classy.

Well done

[Kim]

Very tidy indeed Alan, gotta love the blackwood and the bunya looks really good on these smaller instruments cause you can trim out the heart wood and skew cut stuff and still get the width you need. The cool thing is that Bunya grows fast so the regrowth now fast recovering from heavy logging in the past will very soon be large enough to allow the same to be done and produce a nice clean fully quartered top for a dred or SJ.

Cheers

Kim

[Dave Anderson]

Very nice work Alan!

[Bob Connor]

Lovely work Alan. I look forward to the sound clip.

[Mark McLean]

Alan, that one puts a tick in every box. I love the satin finish - what did you use?

cheers, Mark

[Localele]

Love your work Alan. Now I am waiting for a listen.

[Luke]

looks fantastic Allan. Do think the bunya top makes this small body guitar louder than other tops you have used.
I have only played a couple of instruments with Bunya tops i remember one was a parlour or 000 and was impressed with its volume great for finger style blues.

[bunker]

Well done Alan. I must agree with all comments it looks neat and tidy. Also like the natural finish look and I am always interested in the finishes applied especially, if it didn't involve a great a great deal of technology.
Keep at it.
Archie

[Allen]

Simple - Check
Elegant - Check
Timeless - Check

3 for 3 mate. That ones going to loved for years to come. I like everything about it.

Did you shape the neck to anything in particular, or just go by the way it felt? I know you're pretty particular about that.

[jeffhigh]

That's the best Piece of Bunya I have seen on that top Allan
Great work overall too

[DarwinStrings]

Nice work Alan, cool collection of Aussie wood.

Jim

[ozziebluesman]

Thank you all for your comments. It has been a rewarding build as everything went to plan, well except for the bleed on the rosette and the binding broke in three places while installing. It was my first go at making my own binding and installing purfilng also. All I can say is it was an experience. Now to answer a few questions:

Craig: The neck is Queensland Maple laminated from three pieces. You can see the join but you have to look for it.

Liam: They are Grover Sta-Tite gold tuners. Up here gold is not such a good option with the weather we receive but it was what the customer wanted.

Kim: I like Bunya as a soundbord. It is renewable and is an alternative to spruce for future use.

Mark: The finish is Hard Shellac with a few final coats of Renaissence Wax. The first three coats are just to seal and are a wash coat of the Hard Shellac. Then six coats of the Hard Shellac as a two pound cut with sanding back to level with 400 grit sandpaper. The final two coats are straight out of the bottle. I leave it for six weeks to crosslink, sand with 400 again and then 600, 800, 1000 flexible paper from Stew Mac.

Luke: Yep I reckon Bunya makes for a louder instrument. It is not as sweet as spruce in my opinion but has it's own tone. I had the opportunity to play many Maton acoustics while working in a music retail shop for 12 years. This little guitar I built is loud but when fingerpicked, is a nice warm tone. Being midrange orientated it has a honk to the tone.

Bunker: I explained the finish process above. It is very simple process and the results look good at the moment but maybe because it is very thin, it may not take abuse and hard knocks. Time will tell!

Allen: The neck profile is not from the plan but is from the LMI OM plan. The customer didn't want the wide profile like on the Scott Antes Concert guitar plan. It is very close to a Maton which I like very much. Maybe a tad thicker.

Jeff: The Bunya came from Tim Spittle. It was $30 a set and has some character. I remember Allen had a tap of this top on one of his visits and he said he would build with it! That's good enough for me. It did have a strong tap. I bought two tops at the time and the other set went into Ukulele tops and it didn't have near the responce of the top used on this guitar. I like the character!

Jim: The gidgee fingerboard I was a not so keen on because of it's heavy weight. Looks magnificant! I said to the customer we will do a test on the guitar before assembly to make sure the neck is not too top heavy! Turned out great and the mix of Australian timbers as you say looks good. The customer wanted an all Australian wood guitar.

Thanks again to everyone for your kind remarks and encouragement.

I have another Concert guitar about half finished. This one is the same size but a cedar top and Blackwood this time. My first go at using cedar. Careful! Smile

Cheers

Alan

[DarwinStrings]

Reply by "Sid Barone"

Hi again.. lookin' to buy an OO/OOO style slotted vintage burst.. can u help?
ozziebluesman wrote:
Hello to you all,

This one is a little Bobby Dazzler, fact is, this is his name now or Dazz for short.

The guitar is going to a new home very shortly after a little tweaking. This is my best effort yet! I am very pleased with the outcome. Good volume, midrange orientated but with a full tone.

Back and Sides: Bob in Geelong's $60 parlour set special. (Very nice indeed)
Top: Bunya Pine: From Tim Spittle.
Fingerboard: Gidgee from Micheal Connor
Binding and Bridge: Blackwood

Here are a few pictures and a sound sample will follow later on.





Thank you for looking.
Cheers
Alan

Reply by "Sid Barone"

[ozziebluesman]

Here is a link
mp3/Dazz.mp3
to a sound sample I recorded of the concert guitar. It was recorded in a hurry as the guitar has been delivered to it's new home. Recorded in the workshop with a single microphone the sound sample is just a few different tunes to give you an idea of the tone produced by this little guitar. The first tune is fingerpicked. No edits just what you hear is what you get.

The guitar has good volume, nice string balance and very midrange orientated. I was wanting to try and capture that old style, blues honk tone.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the opportunity to have a listen to the guitar and thanks to Bob (Geelong) for hosting the file for me.

Cheers

Alan

[Localele]

You keep moving the bar higher Alan. It sounds bloody great.Next you'll be giving up the day job.

[Nick]

Have to agree with Micheal here Alan, it has the looks & sound to match! Great sound from the smaller body & overall nails that old bluesy sound just right, less bottom but cuts right through in the mids and highs. Top job Cool

infact I feel a few Borats coming on....

Borat Img Borat Img Borat Img Borat Img Borat Img

There we go...the full five out of five Borats. Wink

[Allen]

What a great sound Alan.

Being very mid range predominant, it has a tone that I really like for that style of music. I don't think I've seen a bracing picture. Got one on file?

[DarwinStrings]

I just listened to the sound clip Alan, it is the most impressed I have been with Bunya so far and am also curious about the bracing you used?

ozziebluesman wrote:
Kim: I like Bunya as a soundbord. It is renewable and is an alternative to spruce for future use.


Unfortunately the commercial planting of Bunya has been stopped and I have heard the Govt is considering ripping out the plantations that are growing now, sounds a bit silly but I have no idea why they are considering this or if it is in fact the truth.

Jim

Life is good if they continue to grow the wood.

[ozziebluesman]

Thanks Michael, Nick, Allen and Jim for you comments.

This is the only picture I have of the top braced. There was more fine tuning after this picture was taken.

Img

The top was thin at 2.8mm thinned out around the outer to about 2.2mm. With the top on the thin side I decided to just follow the bracing pattern and sizes on the Scott Antes plan and made the X braceflat on top and parabolic. I also added a small brace between the bridge plate and X brace centre. The bridgeplate is american maple. After bracing the top it was still very stiff so I took some material off where the finger braces join the X brace. That gave the top some flex and the tap tone was strong so I went with that. I mean I'm still learning so it was sort of an educated guess!

Thanks again for your interest

Cheers

Alan

[Localele]

There is no problem with guessing Alan, as long as you guess RIGHT.I think you have done it.

[Taffy Evans]

I just caught up, been out of town. Yes Al as the others have said a very fine looking guitar. Each one is better than the last, thats the way to go. I've just strung up a 'OOO' style and have two parlors started, I like those small guitars. Anyway well done, again, Al.

[WaddyT]

I missed this one too. Beautiful work, Alan. Quite a looker for a bargain set of wood!

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