Lutz/Blackheart Sass Hybrid Nylon, venetian cutawy & arm bevel

[lamanoditrento]

I have finally finished No.4.

Lutz spruce (thanks Martin Kiwigeo), blackheart sassafras (thanks Bobthebuilder), mahogany neck, IRW fretboard, wenge bridge, flamed maple binding and arm bevel. It is full BOBO neck (using Strato's bolt-on Spanish heel), compound radius fretboard with EVO frets, MOP 12 fret inlay, compensated nut and a hard shellac French polish.

[Gazm]

AWESOME! The French polish looks as deep as the Pacific ocean, love the segmented heel & deco slotted head!!
Great work Trent.

Gaz

[WJ Guitars]

Trent, I like the design and shape of the neck. The purfling lines add a nice class to the guitar and the flamed maple bindings and arm bevel looks elegant.

Wayne
https://wjguitars.wixsite.com/mysite-1

[kiwigeo]

Wow.....that's a magnificent guitar Trent, absolutely stunning.

[Fisherman]

Fantastic looking guitar. I hope there will be more classicals like this in future that depart from the norm! I love all the design elements, beautiful work.

How does it sound? I have some lutz so am very interested to hear your thoughts....

[lamanoditrento]

Thanks all. Pretty happy to have it off my bench with 2 bridge failures for that one finally stayed on. As for the sound, to tell you the truth I am having a hard time telling any difference to Englemann. It is a little thinner at 2.1mm target thickness for what it is worth but how that translated into tone... Have to make a few more I guess

[Mark McLean]

Lovely work Trent. Lots of nice individual touches.
Well done with the 18 hole bridge. It creates such a clean look and good function. When I tried it once I got a good functional outcome, but mine doesn't bear close inspection of the regularity of the hole placement. Did you develop any good tricks or jigs for this?
And how about the arm bevel method? I am gearing up to attempt my first soon, and have the Kent Everett DVD as a guide. Is yours a veneer surface, or a solid piece of maple? Any tips?

[Trevor Gore]

Nice!

[Dave M]

Trent great detailing. I imagine that scooping of the heel is to further improve access to the upper frets...?

I'm looking with envy at that armrest. I left my last classical with too sharp a corner and end up with a great crease in my forearm!

[lamanoditrento]

Lovely work Trent. Lots of nice individual touches.
Well done with the 18 hole bridge. It creates such a clean look and good function. When I tried it once I got a good functional outcome, but mine doesn't bear close inspection of the regularity of the hole placement. Did you develop any good tricks or jigs for this?
And how about the arm bevel method? I am gearing up to attempt my first soon, and have the Kent Everett DVD as a guide. Is yours a veneer surface, or a solid piece of maple? Any tips?

I pretty much made an aluminium template as per Trevor method in his book. I'll take a pic and post it when I am back in the workshop. As for the arm bevel, I pretty much followed Kent's DVD with veneer over a substrate. The additional things I would recommend is instead of an additional black veneer he suggests, I recommend using a couple of strips the same veneer you are intending to use over top of it. Also, I don't think Ken mentions grain orientation of his substrate, but on the Paulownia I used the end grain wasn't the best surface to work with, crumbling under a rasp etc. Oh, ironing the veneer on work so well, you can hardly believe it.

I imagine that scooping of the heel is to further improve access to the upper frets...?

I think the improvement is probably only psychological, but I really enjoyed carving it and will probably do it again with some more and crisper curves.

Nice!

I should have also thanked you above Trevor, this build is 95% per your book. Your book is pretty much the bible in the workshop!

[lamanoditrento]

18 hole bridge drilling jig

IMG_4560a.jpg (104.83 KiB) Viewed 27432 times

[Mark McLean]

OK, that looks straight forward enough. Do you drill into a solid blank and then route out the middle, or route before you drill?

[lamanoditrento]

Drill using a depth stop, then rout the channel to expose the holes. That way you avoid any breakout from drilling the holes

[Mark McLean]

Right you are boss. Thanks.

[kiwigeo]

Trent did you make any modifications to the bridge design after you failures? I notice the "valley" between the tie block and the saddle ramp doesn't extend all the way across the bridge top.

[lamanoditrento]

Trent did you make any modifications to the bridge design after you failures? I notice the "valley" between the tie block and the saddle ramp doesn't extend all the way across the bridge top.

Yes the 2nd bridge really threw me and had me thinking hard about making sure the 3rd one stuck. The 1st one failed along the lamination between the IRW and the CF along the epoxy join. The second one the HHG didn't stick to the IRW (despite careful acetone cleaning to remove oil) and cracked along the string ramp slot. So I became a little conservative and made both the saddle slot and string ramp slot blind and glued with titebond. I also inlayed a new piece of spruce so the 3rd bridge had a pristine surface to glue to. 2 bridge removals being a bridge too far for the poor spruce underneath.

[Francis]

Superb build and lovely detailing