I started on Mark's Build your own Acoustic course in May 2018. Loved every minute of it and can highly recommend him as a teacher of Luthiery. completed the acoustic and Electric courses over the next 2 years. Travel was the main problem living on the Isle of man. Got bitten by the bug for guitar making and today finished off my eighth acoustic with number 9 not far behind with Electric number eight on the bench. Hope you like this one.
Trying to make a living out of a hobby doesn't work 🙂
Wow @mikeyrjiom - stunning looking work.
As Koen says, tell us some more about it and your builld approach. 8 (nearly 9!) acoustic builds in that period of time is impressive too, what are you doing with them all?
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
Thank you all for your comments.
I will try to condense the build. I do keep pictures of the builds but there are a lot. I have sold all but the first acoustic guitar so far. Not making much profit but covered costs so I can buy more wood for the next build sold two electrics via a local music shop again not much profit but allows more builds. I like the PRS style body shape but made two tele style guitars as well My Facebook page is "https://www.facebook.com/mjcguitarsiom" for more pictures
The back and sides are from Bosnian flamed maple billets. Sourced via Facebook. (Mevlawood) Took ages to arrive but fantastic wood. I stained it with Tonetech brown stain. Rubbed it almost back out with 400 grit. Then laid down four coats of Tonetech tobacco tint nitro then lacquer top coats. The top is European spruce, think it was A grade. Mahogany neck with ebony fretboard with a maple tree of life style inlayed. Ebony headstock veneer front and back and gold mother of pearl inlays. Jescar Evo gold fretwire. Bridge is ebony and using my own design. I put a 28" radius on the bottom of the bridge to help it bond with the soundboard better. Gotoh SG381 tuners.
I hand bend the sides using an Ibex iron. Have a Jet 16/32 drum sander for thicknessing the wood using Marks specifications from the course. I've picked up a secondhand CNC router and learnt to do the mop inlays and pockets. Took a long time to get to grips with that. I have an earlex HVLP spray system using a gravity fed gun. I use Tonetech nitro but have had recently had to go for Dartfords as Tonetech only sell cans now. I have posted before the buffer I have built which helps finishing. I still haven't perfected the gloss mirror finish though.
hope that helps. Let me know if there's anything else I can pass on. 👍
Trying to make a living out of a hobby doesn't work 🙂