dreadnaught style guitar

i built this for a former co-worker back in 2002 (?) she had me build it to give to her fiance, and all i had to go on for input was: "he likes blondes, and Bruce Springsteen" 

 

the top is sitka spruce. the neck, back, and sides are flamed maple. the bridge and fingerboard are cocobolo. the trim and inlay are spalted maple, cocobolo, and pipestone

  the bridge is loosely inspired by the Kasha style guitar bridge. the back has a double x-brace pattern. the top has an unusual single x-brace pattern.

the body is a very large jumbo style, and is actually offset from the centerline in sort of an &ampersand shape. this is an ergonomic design idea, to shift the lower bout downward (treble sideway), to reduce the area under the forearm without taking away any body volume.

the cocobolo heart volute splice was the result of a measuring lesson i had to learn during the building process. i try to deal with my mistakes in artistic ways if i can't make them invisible.

i don't who ended up getting the guitar in the divorce so i have lost track of this instrument. (hence the not better quality photos)

small scale steel string guitar

this is a small scale acoustic i built for my former boss to give to his kids to learn on. 

at the time i think his oldest of four was 12 years old. the main consideration with that in mind was to build it to be durable. i went with an ebony fingerboard and bridge for the added strength.

all the wood on the body is extra thick and heavily braced. i also used an oversized pickguard, which as you can see by the gigantic scratch below the bridge could've stood to be bigger. 

next it had to be easy to play for small hands, i believe i used a 22" scale length, i probably have it written down somewhere, i'll check on that. 

 the neck, back and sides are mahogany, the top is salvaged redwood. the binding and inlays are cream vinyl

 

one last feature i added for the beginning guitarist was numbered frets. i made a set of letter and number stamps from an old typewriter, i use them for dating and numbering my instruments(most times).

2 lap steels, 3 necks

this is Buddy. Buddy is the Knotwells collectively owned double neck lap steel. 

brian of the Knotwells came up with the idea to build it as well as the idea for the name and the built in ashtray.

 we got the ashtray (which is now long gone. anybody got one of these i can have?) at a restaurant in ashevlle, nc. on our first tour

buddy is built out of plywood and formica from the original counter from the original Harvard Market, with a vinyl covering on the bottom

this is my second lap steel, built for Jason of the local band Myrrh

 like buddy this one is a plywood body covered with formica and vinyl backing on the bottom.

 jason told me i could have free reign in designing so i of course went overboard with everything.

 the fingerboard is plexi with the fret lines and marker dots cut into and coloured from the underside. the top surface is smooth

 i worked in a few construction design improvements over buddy. the nut on buddy is a big chunk of corian. the single neck nut is an adjustable bridge saddle, recycled from the shop.

 i also used a stop-tailpiece as opposed to the string-thru style on buddy. both lap steels have "shop special" no-name humbuckers, and ric style bridges with the saddles cut down to have no neck radius.

baritone ukulele

this ukulele i made back in 2005(i think) for my friend Suzanne Vallie  

 the soundboard is from the same batch of salvaged redwood planks that i used on my mandolin top.

 

the back is ebony from the lumber store bargain bin.

 the plates were beautifully bookmatched but on the wrong face.

they were warping in a curve opposite of how i wanted them to go, )l not (l, the back of the uke would have been concave. i actually had to heat bend the back plates like i do to shape the sides.

the sides and the headstock face are walnut which came from a junk piano bench. 

the rest of the bench got used to make a bakery case. i'll post photos of that here soon.

the fingerboard and bridge are padouk i had left over from luthiery school.

 the nut, saddle and inlays are gold acrylic. the rosette is padouk and maple, all the binding is maple.

you can kind of see how the back is heavily braced to keep the ebony from moving back the other way.

the neck is mahogany with no tale. here's the first strap button-on-headstock. i used water based laquer on this instrument in one attempt to abandon the toxic stuff. i didn't really like working with the water based stuff much better and gave up on it after a couple instruments.

tenor ukulele

i built this in 2006 for my friend Kari.  i had just been to the Guild of American Luthiers convention in tacoma so it only took me about a month to complete.

 

a few months after having this uke, Kari left it on top of her car at a show and drove off. it was not around anywhere when she went back to look. 

if anyone knows anything about what happened to this instrument please contact me here!

the top is sitka spruce. the fingerboard, bridge, and trim are purpleheart. 

  the back, sides, and neck are flamed maple that i got as partial trade for a guitar i built.

 Kari named it "the rockstar" because of all the pearloid flash.

the access panel in the endblock was inspired from Harry Fleishman's workshop at the luthier convention. 

 

the removable panel makes electronic and internal repairs far easier. also this is a place for a battery.

 the bracing design is my own, likely inspired by various convention lectures.

 the strap pin at the headstock finial is an idea from a baritone ukulele i had built. i'll post that next.

electric banjo #2

this banjo was made for Terell of the Knotwells. i found the rim, resonator, and tension hoop used super cheap and couldn't pass them up. i only had to build the neck and bridge and order hardware.

the buttons for the tuners came from a guitar at the shop, one of the six had broke. we replaced them with metal buttons and kept the left over five, perfect for a banjo set. 

the neck is walnut with an oil finish and the fingerboard is padouk. i made it in the same style as the electric banjo with the fifth tuner up on the headstock. 

here is a close look at the channel the top string runs through from the fifth fret to the nut. 

the headstock has a burl veneer face that matches the tuner buttons and a matching orange pearloid stripe. the top corner is raised up from the face for a 3-d effect.

 i also had this pickup i had been given broken which i fixed and never used. it works like a magnetic pickup but senses a thin steel strip on the underside of the head instead of the strings.

volume and tone are mounted on the upper bout of the rim. the heel cap is padouk, the bridge is walnut with an ebony cap. i made the flanges out of brass.

built in 2011 date stamped at the end or the fretboard. orange and black pearloid and tortoise vinyl inlays.