{"id":1679,"date":"2022-11-09T22:50:43","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T03:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/?page_id=1679"},"modified":"2025-11-13T15:00:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T20:00:21","slug":"003-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/?page_id=1679","title":{"rendered":"003 Orchestra Model"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Serial Number 003<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First Steel String Build<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Started build in September 2022: completed on November 6, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*edited on February 27, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

003 was my first attempt on building an Orchestra Model guitar and also the first guitar that has a cutaway on it. I used a Ramirez body so it is going to be a little different in sound and obviously, in size. The bodies were similar enough in size so I figured it was worth trying. I did receive the Orchestra Model mould and body template during the construction of the body. S\/N 004 will be another OM\/000 guitar and will be made with the correct body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A classical and acoustic guitar have their differences in the build so the new things took a bit to figure out and accomplish. A big difference with this guitar is that I didn’t have to build jigs and set them up as I went like the first two guitars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find that building the body is actually easy: it is some of the fine, precision wood working that I still need to improve on but I’m sure I will level up soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When I was at my course in April, we discussed torrefied wood: Jeremy’s personal experience with it is that it’s brittle to work with and I definitely found that out first-hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought I had a full body set for torrefied tonewood but it turned out that the torrefied Sitka Spruce wasn’t wide enough for the body size. The body is made of a combination of torrefied Khaya African Mahogany for the back and torrefied Sapele for the sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mahogany and Sapele naturally have a pearl kind of sheen to them. It is almost like a figured pattern as opposed being through the whole surface – kind of like tiger\/flame Maple. With the back and sides French polished, I would say you can still kind of see that in the Khaya African Mahogany back but the Sapele doesn’t seem to have it – the Sapele just seems to sparkle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The guitar has Indian Rosewood for the back strip and binding to give some contrast to the back and sides and a piece of torrefied Khaya African Mahogany for the truss rod cover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the neck was taken off and sanded down to refinish with Tru-Oil. I tried to use up my boiled linseed oil thinking the finished result would be similar to Tru-Oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also see that string 5 and string 2 are against the post of string 6 and 1: I’m not sure how this happened with having a template to use and mark for the headstock. This will be something I will need to figure out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The neck is just one piece Khaya African Mahogany. I did want to laminate something in the middle but because this was new model build. I didn’t want to use up the material in case this guitar didn’t turn out well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An acoustic bridge is a different build than the classical bridge but they aren’t really THAT different besides some minor things. I did watch some of the demonstrations for acoustic guitar builds when it was going on during my course so it wasn’t a big transition from what I learned. I also keep some bridges as reference pieces which really helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would like to design a custom bridge and head stock for future guitars – something to make the guitars unique to my brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting in January of 2025, previously built guitars will go through a revamp. One thing I seem to struggle on is the shape of the heel and some guitars need tweaking on the neck angle and left\/right alignment. Some guitars have other things that need to be looked at as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S\/N 003 had the neck reworked as well as the neck angle and the left\/right alignment. Strings have been changed from EJ16 to EJ26. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*I have played this guitar side by side with a Takamine GF30CE-NAT (close to grand concert proportions) and this guitar is slightly louder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/div>\n\n\n\n

SPECS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body<\/strong> Ramirez Body with cutaway <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scale <\/strong>25.34″<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top<\/strong> Sitka Spruce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back<\/strong> torrefied Khaya African Mahogany<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sides<\/strong> torrefied Sapele<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neck<\/strong> Khaya African Mahogany<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fingerboard<\/strong> Rosewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bridge<\/strong> Rosewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuning Machines<\/strong> Gotoh 381<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strings<\/strong> D’Addario EJ26<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serial Number 003 First Steel String Build Started build in September 2022: completed on November 6, 2022 *edited on February 27, 2025 003 was my first attempt on building an Orchestra Model guitar and also the first guitar that has a cutaway on it. I used a Ramirez body so it is going to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1679","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}