Serial Number 039

Started on March 04, 2025; completed on April 03, 2025

Some ideas for this guitar will be taken from a recent customer’s Hseinmo guitar. Mostly it will be the laminated back braces; I thought it was visually appealing and have more strength than straight Spruce. I am thinking of trying the semi circle sound hole that the Hsienmo has as well – it is not located in the usual spot for guitars so it may make a difference in sound.

I was initially thinking of building a Grand Concert but decided to go with a Orchestra Model since it is the biggest size guitar that I build. I pulled out a set of Adirondack Spruce soundboard set having confidence in this build. A set of White Oak back and sides was the original set in mind for this build but as I was going through the stack, a set of highly figured Eucalyptus really caught my eye.

A second reason to go with a bigger sized guitar is that I feel that figured wood on a smaller guitar seems to be a waste – I purchase my back and sides set aiming for a Classical or Orchestra Model since I don’t build Dreadnoughts but there are occasions I do buy Dreadnought sized boards. This way, I am covered for all the sizes I build and extra wood could always be used for other things such as accent pieces or end flashes.

I found a Khaya neck that was started before for Orchestra Model size – I will use this for the build.

A sound port and arm bevel will be added to this guitar. It is something that I would like to continue on future guitars or have as an option. The good thing with the sound port is that I can try different shapes but it is harder to shape something that isn’t drilled out (a circle).

Some side support strips were added; this should have been done on my guitars since I stopped reinforcing the side panels with laminations. Laminating the sides was what we did in the course but my attempts to laminate the sides here didn’t go very well. The other thing would be the money invested to make separate molds and the space needed to store everything.

From what I know, the side strips are more to stop cracks from spreading if they occur on the sides of the guitar. The strips won’t really add much weight to the guitar body.

A recent purchase of an oscillating spindle sander was tested to help making the bridge wings. This made it much safer and easier than the previous way I was doing it on the belt sander. I made a bridge that doesn’t use bridge pins – it is not something new to me, I used to have an Ovation that was like that. This would be the first time trying it out on a guitar build.

Some new Abalone strips were used for inlays. They are a little on the small side at 7mmx1.5mmx2mm. These went on a fumed Eucalyptus fingerboard. I actually think some of these Eucalyptus boards I have may be flamed.

I went with a Mango bridge but looking at the Wenge I used for the arm bevel, I should have cut a piece of Wenge instead. The colour would have been a better match.

SPECS

Body Orchestra Model

Scale 25.4″

Top Adirondack 1A

Back highly figured Eucalyptus

Sides highly figured Eucalyptus

Neck  Khaya African Mahogany/Wenge strip

Fingerboard fumed Eucalyptus

Bridge Mango

Tuning Machines Gotoh 381

Strings D’Addario EJ26 Phosphor Bronze