Ive been doing a wee bit of woodwork for fun like cabinets, jigs/tools etc for the last two years, which then took me down the rabbit hole that is guitar building. I've been obsessed since.
Decided I was going to build an OM as my first guitar. Been enjoying the process, simple tasks took bloody ages. Only due to the fact I've never really used or knew how to use hand tools. Now I'm more confident and have a more experience and having a brill time.
Started building in May. Hopefully, the end result will be and eagleman spruce top, french walnut sides, walnut neck, olive wood back and headstock. Not sure about the fretboard and bridge yet. Infact, literally just just glued the top and back to the sides last week.
I came across the YouTube streams a few days ago which led me here and became a member straight away.
Anyway, super happy to be in the community and I will apologise now if I ask ridiculous questions or use the forum like a dafty.
Cheers, Norrie
Your guitar looks good and very ambitious for a first build
Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.
@markbailey Cheers Mark, aye the website is great. Thank you.
@rocknroller912 Thanks Mate, yeah I think that now too. I now know to never use olive wood again. Hidden cracks and defects that have taken hours to tidy up.haha
🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️
It might have been badly dried causing cracks. Was the olive wood hard to glue.
Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.
@rocknroller912 Yeah possibly, when I got the slab of olive wood it looked great, left it for months before milling it down for bookmatching. Thats when I noticed issues. I guess the problems of buying a slab.
Glueing was fine, just made sure to sand from 80g to 120g and remove all dust prior. Just used titebond original.
Welcome to this awesome community @norriemac! Awesome job on that first build so far. I cant wait to see more pics 🙂
Greetings from Oregon, US of A... Your guitar is beautiful. Hope it plays for you as beautiful as it looks,,,your craftsman ship is evident, Thanks for the tip on Olive wood being a difficult wood...notes like that are helpful [for the community] for future considerations.
I bought a piece of Poplar wood for my first electric guitar build, only because i didn't want to invest top dollars on my first 'learning curve'...found out later that it is NOT a good wood to stain. I can paint it or bleach it or work with stains and natural oil covers and hope for the best, but it's not a good recipient of finishes. Had I done more research beforehand, i doubt if i would have purchased Poplar wood for the body of my first guitar build. However, as learning curves go, this should prove to be a benefit because I bought a great treatise on wood finishing [ Understanding Wood Finishing, by Bob Flexner] and have plans to apply a bleach to the guitar body and attempt a creative finish, similar to a picture of a guitar from Mark's Guitar Academy. see pix below;
I'm retired from a career in House Framing (carpenter) & Professional Land Surveying and through the years I've worked on some wood projects, but wood finishing has always been a bit intimidating. My next build, Lord willing, will be for a Mandolin - Redwood and Cherry wood - or Sycamore if available. The guitar build is an axe for one of my sons...and especially for the project learning process.
Just wanted to welcome you to the forum, can already see yer questions & comments will be helpful...nice to learn a bit about the Olive Wood.
<>< Poco7
this picture from Guitarmaking was on my fridge, i was trying to decide how to color my first build..this will be what I'm going for - for the most part,,,probably not with the brown natural color because the Poplar wood is harder to stain or oil , my understanding is that it predominantly turns a yucky [ hmmnn, Yucky?,raising kids a looooonnnng time] greenish tint..but i'll not take my chances, but experiment with some scrap pieces with different combination ideas...maybe just black wood on the back and sides...my hardware is gold and cream, not black.
i was trying to decide how to color my first build..this will be what I'm going for
I’ll add some photos tomorrow showing the various stages of achieving that finished colour. It started out very blue! The postcard pic is also a better representation of the true colour it is today - I should use a better avatar pic!
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
