Archtop guitar is finally done

[Kevin in California]

Many of you followed along as I made this guitar. I finally had time after completing the OM do get this one done.

It was alot of fun, quite a process and I learned alot.
I'm quite sure that i won't make another. But this is for me and with all its boo boos, I like it a bunch.

My plan 6 years ago when I purchased the materials was to learn to play jazz. Fast forward......I haven't learned much and playing is becoming harder as I approach 70.
So I will still work at it and try to learn simple chords that sound jazzy and try to learn some chord/melody songs.

This is a 17" Archtop guitar built off the Benedetto plans.
I made all the wood parts except the bridge. I had planned to make that also, bought the ebony and adjuster thumb wheel screws for it, but when I saw I could get a quality bridge for about $25 I opted for it.

The body is traditional flamed maple as is the neck. Top is European spruce. Fretboard, finger rest, tail stock and headstock veneer are ebony. Frets are gold.
The bindings and purflings are all ABS plastic. Fretboard inlays are genuine MOP. Tuning machines are gold Grovers.

There is a Benedetto pickup at the end of the fretboard that is suspended/mounted to the finger rest. I mount thumb wheel volume and tone controls to the underside of the finger rest, all wired to an end pin jack.

Finish is, we'll an attempt at lacquer sunburst. I used spray cans for the colors and that didn't go as planned. I wouldn't try that again, but it was convenient so I thought since the colors were there.....no mixing with dyes.
If I ever try another sunburst I will be using a detail gun and mixing the color.

The guitar plays nicely. I like the adjustable bridge for height. You can dial in easily the action you like.

Today I'll pull the Amp out and see if my electronics work....works and see how it sounds.

Then I'll get out the song sheets and start learning those jazz chords. First up is "Autumn Leaves"

Thanks for looking.

[Herman]

Respect, man! Looking at all that carving I am more than sure I will never make such a guitar.
Yours looks very good, including the sunburst. I hope for you it will play and sounds as you like. Well done mate!
Herman

[Will Reyer]

Hey, Kevin, this thing looks totally splendid.

No need to apologize about not wanting to build another. I've had Benedetto's book for maybe 30 years, bought it when I lived in Texas and I've been out of there 21 years now. They're exquisite things, as is yours.

I've a friend up at Interlochen who builds breathtakingly perfect F-5 mandolins to the Lloyd Loar model, right down to the original celluloid (inflammable) bindings, but that work is just an order of magnitude more than I want to expend the energy to even try to attempt.

He took me around to a couple mando builders up there. They use pantographs or some kind of pattern duplicator to do the tedious carving of the soundboard and back, instead of how you probably had to do a one-off, or my friend does. And you had practice with violins, as did my friend.

Your guitar looks excellent to me. Sunbursts are all in the eye of the beholder, too. I don't see anything wrong with yours. The sculpture of the top and back plate look perfect in minute detail.

BTW, probably the most famous guitar player is arguably Maybelle Carter. She was 18, newly married to A.P. Carter's brother, and pregnant, when the Carter Family was discovered in 1927 at Ralph Peer's famous Bristol (recording) Sessions.

She played with “the Carter scratch”. She used thumb and first finger only, learned from watching a Black Piedmont-style picker. However, she didn't play Piedmont syncopated style, but invented what the current Nashville cats call “boom-chuck” which they do with flat picks now.

Maybelle Carter played thumb bass melody and chorded on the off-beat with her first finger, easily duplicated with a flat pick as in pick-sturm sequence in 4/4 time or pick-strum-strum in ¾.

Upon discovery, the Carter Family was invited to New York to record, and Maybelle promptly ditched her Stella Kentucky flat-top box for a Gibson, Lloyd Loar designed, L-5 acoustic archtop jazz guitar with tailpiece, the most expensive thing made in 1928.

So you can feel free to pick Wildwood Flower, or some single-note melody like Charlie Christian, or play triads like Django, or just strum quarter notes like the guys in Tuba Skinny when they don't solo.

Post us some sound files.

(And hey, it really looks gorgeous)

[Rick_A]

Wow! Amazing work Kevin. That maple is beautiful too.I feel like really nice guitars are a lot like nice cars - half the fun is just lookin at em