Serial Number 043

Left Handed 00 Modern

Started on July 14, 2025; completed on August 09, 2025

In the middle of the last build, I was sent a picture of a guitar arm bevel with sound ports drilled into the bevel. I saw it and thought of extending that arm bevel to around the D sound hole – one piece if possible. I think the idea is good but pulling it off is another story.

A set of Spruce will be used for this guitar. This is from a whole lot of Spruce soundboards that were sold to me from a retiring luthier. He believed the boards to be Red Spruce but because it isn’t certain that they are Red Spruce, I won’t list them as “Red Spruce”.

A set of Goncalo Alves (Tigerwood) was chosen for the back and sides set: I always look at what was used in previous builds and I do prefer to try new tonewooods that come in. Cost is also a factor.

I thought about how to efficiently do the bevel but didn’t come up with any better methods. I did discuss with somebody about trying different methods after I glued in the wood to do the bevel and also have brought in some kerfling to test out.

Sapele from a new supplier was chosen for the neck and a Wenge lamination strip for the middle to keep the Wenge accents consistent in the instrument.

Indian Laurel was decided upon after a long debate over what to use for the fingerboard. It looks similar to Rosewood but not quite. I thought it was actually Pau Rosa but on the red end of the colour spectrum.

I did want to try to inlay the second logo that I use but forgot to leave the excess material around the headstock to setup on the CNC machine. Some test cutting was done for future projects.

One thing that I has been mentioned to me over the last while was adding a volute on the neck/head stock angle so this guitar, I finally tried to add a volute to the neck. I must have only seen a volute once or twice but I know the general shape that it should be. Not sure about the size of it but I will probably figure what in the near future.

To change things up a little, I used 4mm luminous dots for the inlays. The abalone strips that I have been using on the last few guitars give the instruments a subtle classier look but I have been having a hard time finding some more.

With the Indian Laurel being similar in colour and grain pattern to the Rosewood pieces I have for bridges, I decided on using Rosewood for a bridge. I was actuallly contemplating between Rosewood and Wenge for the bridge for a bit but ended up going with the Rosewood in the end.

I was going to use some newly brought in unslotted bone bridge pins but will use them on the next build.

SPECS

Body Grand Concert, left handed

Scale 24.9″

Top Spruce

Back Goncalo Alves

Sides Goncalo Alves

Neck Sapele/Wenge strip

Fingerboard Indian Laurel

Bridge Rosewood

Tuning Machines Gotoh 381

Strings D’Addario EJ26 Phosphor Bronze