John Link - epoxied butt joint

[John Link]

This is "Rip" - 2003.

Neck relief at 7th fret is .002" treble and .008" bass.
Action at 1st fret is .010" e and .021" E; at 13th fret .070" e and .080" E.
Nut and saddle are pre-ban elephant ivory; bridge and end pins are gold inlaid walrus ivory.
Sitka top, Indian rosewood body, bridge and fingerboard, maple bindings, mahogany neck with 1/4" x 1/2" steel truss rod.
Grover tuners, John Greven imitation tortoise pick guard.
Neck joined with modified epoxied butt joint; notice heel cap is inlaid into top end block.
Nitro finish (last I plan to ever do).

[Dave Bagwill]

Nice, John. What's that about 'last I ever plan to do'?

[Robert Hosmer]

Very nice example of the Indian rosewood. Could just be the color in photo, screen settings, my poor eyesight, etc. but first glance one could mistake it for BRAZ.
Or maybe it's just aged well.

I agree with Dave. "...plan to ever do.",he-he.

[John Link]

Hi Dave,

When I think of what I have done with nitro, I wonder why I am still alive. I did my first guitars in a small house, that had half the small basement finished, and a laundry "room" in the other half, with the furnace and "shop" located in what was left - not much. It was not ventilated at all, except for one of those little basement windows. I had a tiny air compressor and an airbrush to finish my guitars with. So I thinned the heck out of the lacquer and applied many coats, obsessively sanding most of each coat off before I applied the next. I wore a good quality carbon filter mask, but in my reckless youth did nothing about the ventilation and the furnace, which was always lit and often running. (Did my building in the winter when it was dry.) "Fog" does not adequately describe the air down there. Why the house did not blow up is a mystery. I was spraying right next to the furnace and it was mostly lacquer thinner.

Now I have a bigger house, the spray area is ventilated and separated from the furnace, which is at the opposite end of the basement. Nonetheless, I worked my way through high school and college spraying lacquer before there were good masks, and that troubles me.

But most of all, every time I have removed old nitro from old guitars for whatever reason, the tap improved, And every time I spray a new one with my fancy HVLP gun it takes at least 2 years for the sound to recover. Finally, many hold it against an instrument if it has been oversprayed with nitro as part of a repair. They seem more tolerant of reapplying shellac.

So, I plan to French Polish from now on. Necks, maybe I would try one of the waterborne finishes, but wonder how well it would match. "Rip" took over 40 hours just to polish because I did it all with wet sandpaper (down to 12000 grit), without recourse to a buffer. So if I'm going to spend that much time anyway, FP seems like a better choice. Obviously, I am not a production type guy.

[John Link]

Hi Robert,

That Indian was "the best" Michael Gurian sold before the fire. (Am I telling you how old I am?) I would order wood from him as I order it from anyone. Since it has always been sight unseen on my part I ask that it be wood they would use, and I don't quibble about the price. I spend so much time building the instrument a few extra bucks to have wood I like is worth it to me. Basically, with exception of flamed maple, I ask for plain, straight grained, perfectly quartered stock. Then I keep it as long as possible before I use it.

Indian has come to be under rated, as far as I can tell. It is the elephant in the room as far as what to use instead of BRW. None of my BRW is as straight as this, though it is quartered. Straight grained, if you can find it, is beyond the pale price wise.

[TonyinNYC]

That sure is a purty guitar! Beautiful wood all around. The sitka top is excellent as is the IRW. I like the heel cap as well.

[John Link]

Thanks Tony. I am trying Wenge next, which is even straighter.