New Builds for 2024

paulmcevoy75 · March 3

Josh's system and my system are relatively similar, his adjustment is in the heel, mine is in the fingerboard, he has two bolts, mine has one. Ultimately they do the same thing. Josh has been a big inspiration for me, he also suggested I go take Sergei Dejonge's guitar making class in Quebec which I did in 2019. Josh is involved with a big co-op of luthiers in Montreal and I've stolen a plethora of ideas from them.

strombolimusik · March 3

Yes, the co-op in Mile End. Have seen some great shows there!

Quebec City is definitely where many luthiers are made. I don't know if de Jonge is affiliated with the École nationale de lutherie but would not be surprised. L'Atelier de Lutherie Moustache came from there and are still around. Interestingly I just saw a Moustache Selmer on FB Marketplace, dropped from $3,850 to $3,000 cad. I'm searching for options locally because 15% sales tax, a weak Canadian dollar and import duties make it prohibitive to buy internationally, unfortunately.

There's always Django in June!

paulmcevoy75 · March 3

Well Josh is a great choice. His guitars are really special.

If I could move to Montreal right now I'd be there in a second.

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/117030#Comment_117030

paulmcevoy75 · March 3

thanks to @billyshakes for pointing out that I wrote my youtube address wrong:

it's https://www.youtube.com/@PaulMcEvoyGuitars/

Bones · March 6

It looks like your sides are double wall? Or am I not seeing it correctly? Thanks for the pics. Nice looking shop BTW

paulmcevoy75 · March 6

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/117051#Comment_117051

yup! They are generally called "structural sides" I prefer to call them "cored sides" but I didn't invent them. I think they were maybe originally "invented" (most things in lutherie have multiple origins) by my teacher Sergei Dejonge but like a lot of ideas he tried them and then moved on. As far as I understand it, Mike Kennedy and Jeremy Clark (52 Instruments), long time apprentices of Sergei's, started doing them again consistently and kind of re-codified it.

Josh Greenberg, already mentioned here, works in their shop and uses them. I kinda got into it from a combination of all of them.

The way I do it is a 1.5-2mm outer veneer, a 6mm kerfed core (usually basswood or poplar) and an inner veneer.

For me they offer a number of advantages but acoustically I like to think of them as the sides of a snare drum. The drum is super rigid, but the heads are very thin and flexible. So if you put energy into the drum head (with the stick), not much energy is transferred to the sides and the drum will be louder. If you think of a snare drum with less stiff sides, it's probably not going to be as loud.

The Montreal guys have more scientific reasons why they work. I tend to think my instruments are better since I started using those sides. The guitar that Sam Farthing is playing above is the first instrument I made with them and it is bizarrely loud. I can't totally explain why but I think it's a pretty thin top on these very stiff sides.

And thanks about the shop! It is oftentimes a chaotic mess and I'm working on 7 guitars right now so it's a bit insane at the moment.

paulmcevoy75 · March 6

670/660 multiscale Big Mouth top

billyshakes · March 6

So if this newest build is as loud as the previous one, will you say Bigmouth Strikes Again?

paulmcevoy75 · March 6

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/117063#Comment_117063

Haha yeah maybe!

The original big mouth has an accidentally very thin top, I'm not going as thin on these ones. I think it will be maybe a better compromise between a loud guitar and a more traditional sound. We will see......