I just finished up a guitar that we are going to raffle off to support a fund we (the employees of my cancer center) run. the money we raise goes directly to help people who have been left in a financial bind due to their treatments. In an attempt to have something I could email out to the rest of the oncology division (to boost ticket sales) I asked a guy at a local shop to make a video. I pretty much just dropped it off, told him what it was made from, what it was for and asked him to pick some music that would highlight its strengths. The video is long so you can skip to the end to hear it. . .
This is a parlor guitar roughly the size of a martin size 1. I drew up all the plans myself and had some head-scratching with regards to bracing. The body is short (about 18 1/4 inches) so the 12 fret neck pushes the bridge back into the widest part of the lower bout, which I wanted but then I had to figure out how wide and where to put the X to maximize the use of such a small top. I also moved the soundhole closer to the heel in hopes to support more bass. This left a big space between the soundhole and bridge which made it hard to get the pickguard to look right and be in a position to do its job. One of the things I love about this hobby is how every decision affects something else.
I wanted to design a guitar that would be comfortable for a person who may be bed or recliner ridden. Another theme of this guitar was finding woods that were in need of rescue and giving them a second chance at new life.
top : Pine from the cull bin of the Home Depot. The board was twisted and cracked but there was s section of clear wood large enough for this guitar. I could tell by how it had split that it didn't really have any runnout so I gave it a chance. I resawed it and watched. It didn't move. I took it through several baking cycles; that bubbled a ton of resin out of it but it didn't move. I jointed it and watched. It didn't move. I thicknessed it and it felt really good. I kept expecting to have to throw it away but it kept passing the tests. . .
Back and sides : Cherry form our local urban log recycler
Neck : Maple. Years ago I bought craigslist table saw that belonged to the sellers deceased grandpa. it had a giant chunk of maple screwed to the fence as a sacrificial fence for dados. It sat in the corner for years until I realized I could squeeze a neck out of it if I cut it up just right.
Jatoba appointments : Old hardwood flooring
Rats, I just realized the pics I have are too large. I'll resize them later. In the mean time, here is the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCBqhxH8o-U Thanks for looking.