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In this Discussion
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A truly beautiful piece of work. I'm drooling, never mind you!
Hang in there!
The funny thing is that while I'm looking forward to it, I'm not champing at the bit at all. It will be ready when it's ready. I think this must be because it's been more than two years since I ordered it and I've got used to knowing it's a long way off. Seeing it take physical shape "already" is a bit of a surprise!
One is that it is said to sound very like cedar and I like cedar a lot.
A second is that this is an all-Tasmanian guitar (OK, Paul snuck a tiny bit of ebony onto the rosette, so 99.9% Tasmanian) and King Billy is the softest and lightest Tasmanian softwood - Huon Pine is stronger but heavier, and although technically a softwood is more akin to a light-middleweight timber like mahogany or Queensland Maple; Celery-top Pine ditto. In fact, Celery-top is hard enough to use for a neck, which is what we are doing.
And the third is that Paul just happened to have a bit of King Billy in his stock, and it just happened to be (barely!) wide enough for an oversize jumbo. I liked the look of it too. It will be a pretty top when it's finished.
Is it a wise choice for this particular instrument? Dunno, wait and see. I often think that cedar (and by extension King Billy) is best suited to smaller instruments which can be a bit over-crisp with stiffer tops, and less so with large guitars (which have more room to flex and therefore suit a stiffer wood such as spruce or even mahogany. But against that there are plenty of very good makers who make dreadnoughts and jumbos in cedar and there ain't too much wrong with Furch or Lowden. In the end, I guess it is up to the maker to judge how far to thin the particular top and how stiffly to brace it. Paul was happy to use King Billy, so that was good enough for me.
Anyway, when the guitar is completed, I'll have an example of every major Tasmanian tonewood: Huon Pine (Cole Clark Angel top); King Billy (baritone top); Celery-top (baritone neck); Blackwood (WA May back & sides, various necks); Myrtle Beech ("tiger myrtle") (back and sides of the concert guitar also made by Paul; baritone fretboard); and Southern Sassafras (aka "blackheart sassafras") (baritone back & sides).
So that just leaves my other little "complete the set" project. Counting the Brook I'm in the process of ordering, I'll have guitars from Australia, the USA, Japan, and the UK. I have it in mind over the next few years to order guitars from Germany (Stoll) and Sri Lanka (New Tone). That'll be six different countries, after that only 189 to go!
Can't wait to see it completed.
"You know that bit of Celery-top I bought to make the neck out of?"
"Sure."
"Well as soon as I cut into it I thought 'That smells like Huon Pine!' and sure enough, that's what it is. I don't know whether I made the mistake or the timber merchant screwed up, but either way it's Huon Pine. Anyway, we can get a bit of Celery-top and try again or if you like we can use the Huon Pine".
"No worries", I said, Huon Pine will be fine."
"I was hoping you would say that!"
So he's made the neck blank up and will start the carve in due course. For the headstock we have decided to keep it simple, something broadly similar to this one (which is my Cole Clark Angel III)
The headstock illustrated is Huon Pine flanked by Blackwood with an ebony fretboard. We will be using Huon Pine and Tiger Myrtle, with the fretboard also in Tiger Myrtle.
Huon Pine has become a bit of a visual theme as this guitar design has evolved: it is now going to be the neck, part of the headstock veneer, it already appears on the rosette and we decided to use it also for the body binding and the strip (I forget what you call it) which goes along the seam where the sides join on the end of the body.
I'm a bit sad to not have any Celery-top now (it would have been nice to have completed the set) but perhaps that can be something for another day.
As reminder (I'm sure I would have mentioned this earlier) Huon Pine is broadly similar to Honduran Mahogany so far as weight and hardness go. It is slightly lighter (95% of the density) and marginally harder (102%), so although Paul was doubtful of its suitability as a binding material - bindings are supposed to be hard so as to resist damage and protect the rest of the instrument - I reckon it out to do the job. There is a sensible argument to do what Cole Clark did with the instrument in the picture just above, use Rock Maple from Canada, which is quite a lot harder and of course much cheaper, but I'm happy with my choice.
The main alternative we considered was Drooping Sheoak, a hard, fairly dark brown timber native to most states in southern Australia (including Tasmania). That would make an ideal binding timber but on balance I decided that the tan-coloured King Billy top would look better with a light rather than a dark binding.
What about the hardware? Paul will carve bone bridge and nut but we have not discussed tuners or bridge pins yet.
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Love it for what it is, which I'm pretty sure you will.
Oh, and I picked the tuners. Paul had a set of Gotoh 510s, gold, closed back, with black winders in his bottom drawer. I said they would do just fine.
We have binding and a neck carve!
King Billy Pine top, Celery-top Pine binding, Tiger Myrtle fretboard.
Huon Pine neck, Blackheart Sassafras back and sides.
It's going to look great once Paul puts a finish on it.
An on goes the first coat:
Mrs Tannin wants to know if it comes with the nice balloon.
My YouTube Channel
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My YouTube Channel
I'm not sure exactly why he chose to do that. Possibly it's because that's the way the Thunderhawk does it and he feels that the resulting high bridge and saddle is part of the magic of the sound. I do remember that he borrowed the Thunderhawk back at one stage and had a good think about it, so clearly there is some method there.
He did comment that it made that point (the headstock join) the weakest part of the guitar, but then that always is the weak spot and there is still plenty of wood there on this one.
The headstock veneer is Paul's own idea. I wanted a simple combination-of-timbers design along the lines of a Cole Clark or Maton WA May headstock, but left it to Paul to choose the timbers and do it in his own way. (My motto is never tell the chef how to cook a chicken! Just tell him you like chicken and let him go for it.)
His choice - made while I was away in the UK recently - was a surprise to me. I was expecting the dark Tiger Myrtle (matching the bridge and fingerboard) and Huon Pine but now that the neck is Huon Pine (instead of Celery-top) he decided to use Musk instead. It's quite something!
http://www.distinctivetimbers.com.au/products/musk/tasmanian_musk.htm
It looks great, although I may have to review my position on being past GAS now...
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Thanks for sharing; a lot of time and effort has gone into it - much appreciated.
Just odds and ends to finish off. I suppose I'd best start scratching around for some money to pay for it with now. (That's the trouble with such a slow build process - for ages it seems as though it won't be ready practically forever and one tends to fritter cash away on other things in the meantime).
You must be like a kid at Christmas waiting to pick that up.
And yes, as someone above mentioned, it's been great to see the build stages. It feels like we've all been involved!