Here's Kelly's OM, finished and strung. The sinker Redwood yields an amazing amount of punch. We are quite pleased with the sound.
A view of the finished back. The greenish hue of raw Ziricote warmed up to a rich brown under finish, which pairs beautifully with redwood.
Close-up of the rosette, showing the color match to good advantage.
A view of the sound port. These act somewhat like monitors, allowing the player to hear more of the complexity of the guitar's sound.
Kelly chose this stunning set of Rodgers tuners, as beautiful as they are functional. Somewhat like jewelry for one's guitar.
View of the tail wedge. Our guitar will be used on stage, and this end pin jack is the only evidence of internal electronics. Play it with joy, Kelly, and many happy notes to you!
A fine guitar needs a fine neck. Here we are gluing Honduran mahogany, a Ziricote center lamination and black/white veneers together to yield a stiff and beautiful neck shaft.
Bookmatched head plates of figured Ziricote were chosen for the headstock. The front plate is on the right. On left is the rear plate.
Here the headplates are glued on, and the shape carved. This will be a slotted head, so care was taken to fit the sapwood into the center of the headstock.
And here is the rear of the head. You can just see the black/white veneers glued under both head plates, which yield attractive lines at the edge of the slots.
Wood bindings a far more handsome than plastic. However, they are not nearly as flexible, requiring them to be prebent. Kelly chose African Blackwood bindings which will be a subtle and elegant contrast to the dark Ziricote.
Of course, before the binding is applied, the purflings go in. We've chosen a narrow Paua abalone band bordered with black lines for this guitar. In this shot, a teflon strip holds the place where the abalone will go.
After the purfling sandwich dries, then the bindings are applied with this strong brown tape.
When the glue dries, that teflon strip is removed and Paua is inserted. Here's the finished appearance scraped and sanded flush. Notice we put a thin maple line either side of the bindings to give a visual break in the dark colors.
Top gluing on, and box now closed. Note the plywood "donut" around the top helping to evenly distribute clamping pressure.
Top now glued, and flushed to the sides. We're ready to start the binding process.
Binding process starts by inlaying the tail wedge. We're trying to keep the Ziricote/sapwood theme going even in this small area, and the bookmatched wedge gives an interesting contrast to the sides.
...and then the fun starts, routing the ledges for purfling and binding strips. This jig helps hold the router vertically so the undulations of an arched back or top don't throw the cutter and mar the binding ledge.
Kelly opted for a soundport, and once we settled on the design, the layout began.
Of course, a hole in the side weakens it, so we go in and glue in a couple layers of veneer. That reinforces the side, and when the soundport is cut the veneers give a decorative appearance.
Carving under way. You can just see the layers of veneer through the emerging port.
Finished sound port. Edges beveled, and smoothly sanded. Now the white/black veneers are revealed to good advantage, repeating the white/black theme that is developing on the guitar.
Kelly decided on this striking Sinker redwood top. Buried underwater for years, this log picked up some interesting mineral streaking. As a plus, this top had a deep, rich tap tone. Here the rosette is being laid out.
Rosette installed. Since one of the themes of this guitar is Ziricote with sapwood, we chose this piece for the rosette. The sapwood was oriented to match the pale streak in the redwood top. The wood ring is bordered with Pau abalone.
Here's the top getting braced in our go-bar deck. The braces are Sitka spruce and the bridge plate is Padauk, a stiff, musical wood that puts zing into the tonal palette.
After carving, we sign and date the top--and if the mood strikes, we'll inscribe some well-wishes deep inside the instrument.
Ziricote back, with braces installed and carved. The center seam reinforcement is an off-cut from an Oregon Myrtle back. The color looked right, and it will be a treat to see when peeking into the soundhole.
Back is now glued to the rim assembly. We like to align the side braces with the back braces for a clean look inside. Note the reinforced area in the upper bout for a sound port.
This photo shows one reason guitarmaking is such a joy. We get to work with the world's great woods, and this set of Ziricote will make a beautiful guitar.
Our customer, Kelly, chose this set because of this lovely sapwood pattern. It was a mutual decision to leave the pattern uninterrupted with an inlay, and instead let the wood do the talking.
From time to time, a customer will send us his own set of wood. We're happy to work with such sets, if they meet our criteria. Here is a beautiful set of Ziricote from a customer in Georgia from which we will be building a deep body OM.
Sides bent, in the mold, and blocks glued in place.
Gluing in the linings. Our preference here is Spanish Cedar, a mahogany-like wood that is light, strong and wonderfully fragrant.
Side assembly complete: blocks installed, linings in, and side braces glued and carved. The purpose of these side braces is to forestall a crack that could develop if the instrument were to receive a blow to the sides.
Ronnie Sheeon