Custom Mahogany OM Guitar with Old-growth Red (Adirondack) spruce top
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- Опубліковано 22 січ 2025
- This is my first serious attempt at lutherie except for the build of two ukuleles, one from a kit. Sourced all the woods myself locally except the Honduras mahogany back and sides which I bought from Stew-Mac. Used their plans, plus outstanding instruction videos from O'Brien Guitars, where Robbie O'Brien leads you through a complete build. Essential to a new builder like me. Unique features are a fretboard and bridge made from ironwood or eastern hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) sawn myself a few years ago. Also birdseye maple rosette, headstock veneer, and end graft. I purchased a mold and pattern from Luthier's Mercantile and a pre-war Martin OM plan from Stew-Mac. I steam-bent the sides and hard maple bindings in my own steam box and made several other jigs to rout the neck and bridge slots. The finish is hand-rubbed min-wax warm gloss poly, applied with a super-fine sanding sponge and rubbed off, probably 4-5 coats sanded in between with 600 grit.
Purchased the following supplies: fret wire, basswood kerfing, bwb purfling, Waverly tuners, bone saddle and nut, ebony bridge pins, pickguard, and double-action truss rod. Also added these tools: set of 3 nut files, Stew-Mac's plunge router for a Dremel, along with its circle-cutting attachment to make the rosette and sound-hole, small 1/8" shaft (Dremel) spiral down-cut router bits, a small convex-sole plane for shaping the spruce braces, and bridge pin hole reamer. Last but not least, I found I did not have a way to measure dimensions over 24" precisely, so I bought a 36" metric/Imperial steel rule from Lee Valley (needed to set the bridge accurately, and generally helpful).
This sounds very good to my ear, great sustain and even tone. (See another video of me playing it) I nailed the intonation originally, but now I think the saddle has leaned very slightly forward and now requires tweaking (which I will probably never do, at least until I change strings}. I can't wait to make another one!