Serial Number 041
00 Modern
Started on April 21, 2025; completed on May 19, 2025
This guitar had implemented some interesting ideas from pictures I had seen on the internet. I was not sure how it would turn out as I have just seen some pictures and haven’t really researched into the structural changes made to make these guitars work.
The body for this guitar has two sound holes but they will be on the upper bout. The biggest thing here would be to have a hole large enough to get a hand in there to tighten up the bolts for the neck. When I built S/N 0039, the sound hole was smaller compared to the Hsienmo guitar that I got the idea off of . But I was lucky enough that it was still big enough to get my hand in there.
The second thing for this guitar would be the bridge; I had seen a discussion about bridge lift and somebody posted a picture of a bridge in which the bridge pin holes were separate from the bridge. It might have been flush (or not) with the soundboard but was a very unique and different approach to the bridge pins. I think this can eliminate bridge lift altogether and was definitely worth a try.
I wanted a back and sides set that would stand out a little and from going through the pictures on the website, I thought one of the Ambrosia Maple sets would be a good candidate. With the soundboard, I was actually looking towards a set of Caucasian Spruce but the boards I was thinking of was a bit smaller than the Grand Concert mold. I looked through the inventory again and decided on a set of Engelmann 1A.
Bloodwood was used for the arm bevel wood as well as some accent pieces around the sound hole cutouts. Not making the same mistake on S/N 039, I used Bloodwood for the bridge to keep the colours consistent.
After looking through my selection of neck woods, twice, I reluctantly decided on Turkish Walnut. My first choice would have been White Limba for some reason but the last piece of White Limba is laminated with a board of Purple Heart in the middle. Again, I wanted to keep a Bloodwood accent going on the guitar.
I used a piece of Tamarind for the fingerboard. My first choice would have been Ambrosia Maple just to keep the colour pattern consistent but I don’t have any cuts of Ambrosia Maple fingerboards on hand.
Only after I had slotted the fingerboard and measured for the bridge and saddle slot, I had realized that I set the guitar for 25.34″ scale instead of the intended 24.9″ scale length that it should have been. Good thing it was done to both and there were no issues from it.
With still wanting to have my own headstock shape, I used the PRS headstock shape for this guitar. The straightness of the strings from the nut to the tuning machines is pretty good just need to make a shape that I would prefer more. I personally don’t find the PRS headstock shape “right” for an acoustic guitar for some reason.
The guitar is bright in sound as expected.
SPECS
Body Grand Concert
Scale 24.9″
Top Engelmann Spruce 1A
Back Ambrosia Maple
Sides Ambrosia Maple
Neck Turkish Walnut/Bloodwood strip
Fingerboard Tamarind
Bridge Bloodwood
Tuning Machines Grover Rotomatic 102N
Strings D’Addario EJ26 Phosphor Bronze