| Author | Message | ||
| sjhoffma
Member Username: sjhoffma Post Number: 98 Registered: 5-2008 |
I believe we already had a section on chairs for Alembic owners here on this forum, but I thought I would post this up anyway... We had to make half scale chairs for my 3D art class at UVM, and the instant I found out we were going to be working with wood, I already had some ideas. The tiger shaped back was a must! The mandolin neck was added on later in the construction process, when my teacher saw my tiger idea and responded, "wow it looks like a guitar! I'd really like to see you add a neck to this. So heres the final product... not big enough to sit on, but you get the idea...  | ||
| sjhoffma
Member Username: sjhoffma Post Number: 99 Registered: 5-2008 |
by the way, the laminate top is flamed koa, which I had actually bookmatched/ joined together earlier in the year, and just kinda had laying around. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 7820 Registered: 5-2002 |
I looked at the picture before reading the text. Looked like a guitar sitting in a chair. Then noticed there were no strings; then noticed there were eight tuners. Then decided I better read the text. | ||
| sjhoffma
Member Username: sjhoffma Post Number: 100 Registered: 5-2008 |
Just for the hell of it, and in response to dave's post I thought I would share a pic with you all of an actual guitar that I've built. I love the flame on the back and the neck. The top is bearclaw spruce. I made this guitar back when I was 17, over a summer in Nazareth, PA.   | ||
| dadabass2001
Senior Member Username: dadabass2001 Post Number: 1068 Registered: 6-2002 |
Excellent, Sam I take it the mando neck is full size? That gives me a sense of scale. Mike | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 7825 Registered: 5-2002 |
Beautiful guitar! | ||
| gtrguy
Intermediate Member Username: gtrguy Post Number: 188 Registered: 9-2004 |
That's too similar to playing on a tiny stage with the drum kit or another musician stuck up your backside for me! Looks beautiful, though. Dave | ||
| frank
Member Username: frank Post Number: 76 Registered: 12-2005 |
sjhoffma, what kind of finish did you use (for the arch-top and the chair)? How did you apply it? | ||
| tdukes
Member Username: tdukes Post Number: 93 Registered: 4-2008 |
That looks a lot like a Benedetto Manhattan. Very cool. I like the bearclaw in the top. Could you see it before the finish was applied? Todd. | ||
| chrisalembic
Junior Username: chrisalembic Post Number: 15 Registered: 3-2009 |
wow you built this guitar?? its looking great!! how does it play? | ||
| sjhoffma
Intermediate Member Username: sjhoffma Post Number: 101 Registered: 5-2008 |
I used a light amber stain, a tung oil finish, and then i sprayed a few light of coats of lacquer on it. The pictures were taken before the lacquer was applied. I could see some of the bearclaw before applying the finish, but the majority of it popped out after the stain. I was affraid to delve into finishing it at first, but the process was fairly simple. The finished product sounds great! its really loud, and I play it mostly acoustic, although I did install a ken armstrong pickup right under the neck. As for the chair, yes it doesn't look comfortable, it was more of a design sort of thing than a practicality. And for the chair, I just used a simple polyurethane finish, because it was purley for display, I would never touch a guitar with polyurethane. It really made the figure in the koa come out nicely though. | ||
| hydrargyrum
Senior Member Username: hydrargyrum Post Number: 493 Registered: 3-2004 |
Very nice guitar! | ||
| frank
Member Username: frank Post Number: 77 Registered: 12-2005 |
did you take a course to learn to build arch-tops? | ||
| sjhoffma
Intermediate Member Username: sjhoffma Post Number: 102 Registered: 5-2008 |
I did in fact take a class. I took one with Dale Unger from American Archtop guitars, who was actually the only apprentice of Bob Bennedetto. He offers classes in his workshop a few times each year, and walks you through the build process. It was very informative, and after we made a guitar together, I was able to make this one myself a year later, and since have worked on a handful of guitar projects, including a koa and bearclaw spruce flat top acoustic, that is currently in progress. |
