New Builds for 2024

paulmcevoy75

you can see the wooden pins through the mickey mouse ears on some of the pictures on the first and 2nd page of this thread. I have matching holes in my side molds, it locks it all together.

billyshakes

Robin Nolan has his Djangus guitar (Gibson SG inspired Selmac), you should keep the ears and make a Mickey Mouse type guiter with extra "sound holes." I think he (MIckey) just went into the public domain this year. Picture Mickey w/ a pencil thin moustache. Ha ha!

Thanks for the knowledge.

paulmcevoy75

If you're paying man, I'll build you a Mickey mouse guitar!

paulmcevoy75

Hello all

I'm plugging away. Almost have all 7 guitars boxed up. When that happens I will focus on the 4 Selmish guitars so I have them ready for Django in June. I sure hope to have all 4 done by then.

Some more pictures in the album:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9X2qPHtH2YXt2cro7

An idea I stole from someone, with the structured sides, the inner lamination is a little boring and the lack of linings gives me a big canvas. So I started laminating "wallpaper" on the insides. For the little plain jane steel string I'm making (minimalist, no ornamentation) I put a french color chart on the inside. For the Selmer guitars I put some maps of Paris inside. Just something funny to see if you peer inside the soundhole.

I'm very pleased with these guitars overall. It's an absolute slog working on 7 guitars at once but it's giving me the chance to refine each operation as I go and it's teaching me a ton. I can not wait to make some necks.

Here's a couple sample pictures.

As usual I'm at instagram.com/paulmcevoyguitars

billyshakes

Congrats on the Fretboard Journal call out I saw the other day!

paulmcevoy75

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/117354#Comment_117354

haha yeah my 11 seconds of fame.

What's your username on there?

bbwood_98

@paulmcevoy75 - ok - I have a new question - whats the added weight with the side construction that way? seems great in terms of stiffness, but heavier then a traditional side with lining. Also - one lattice classical without the carbon fiber right? very nice! Finally - there was one guitar with the tournavos (sp? - sorry). Curious if you've every thought to add one to a django box . . . ??

paulmcevoy75

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/117358#Comment_117358

Good questions.

I just weighed the body with the modern F holes in this picture, 2lbs 10oz (without the neck),1194 grams. So about half the weight of the lightest telecaster body for a guitar that sits on your knee. I don't think you'd notice the weight, maybe if you had another Selmer guitar in your hand you would. But if you liked the guitar I don't think it would make any difference and if you didn't like the guitar, well...you didn't like it.

The lattice classical has no carbon. It's spruce braced and based on a guitar I liked a lot. I think it's going to sound amazing, we will see. I have another fan braced classical in this batch that I'm retopping, it also seems like it's going to be really nice.

That Turnavoz guitar is an experiment, I had an extra set of classical sized ribs but I've never made a steel string guitar before. It's kind of modeled on a J45 but it's a smaller body. The turnavoz should drop the air resonance a bit to potentially make up for some of that lost volume. We will see.

It's the first time I've tried a Turnavoz. Josh Greenberg in Montreal puts them in all his Selmer guitars as far as I know. A lot of the ideas I'm working with come from Josh and the guys he works with (Michael Kennedy and Jeremy Clark) that all work at Miles End Guitar Coop.

paulmcevoy75

But I don't know exactly how much weight it adds. Looks like maybe 8oz or 240g. Not a whole hell of a lot. I'm just weighing a piece of the core material I have.

Jeremy Clark I think says that the added weight has some acoustically beneficial properties as well (and some of the most modern makers actually just add metal weights in their guitars to do that). I honestly don't have a complete understanding of all of that yet. For me it makes me able to make a slightly lighter top as it's sitting on an absurdly strong structure. I can put a 40lb weigh on the rib set with no back or side attached and it doesn't deflect even slightly. There's a lot I like about it from a construction perspective as all. It makes rib cracks close to impossible. Plus I can add maps of Paris inside my guitars which I think is kinda funny.

strombolimusik

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/117358#Comment_117358

I've played one of Josh Greenberg's Larkspur guitars, which is constructed with structural sides and it felt very light and responsive, with a prodigious volume. Of course, I don't know the weight and perhaps the lightness comes from something else in the construction.