SJ's Guitar — tyson hand-did

SJ's Guitar | I have wanted to post some pics from this build up since late July, but I wanted to keep it a secret for my buddy Stephen Johnson. Right after I finished building #1, Stephen got in touch with me and asked if I would be interested in building him a guitar. I thought this was pretty brave since he had not heard or played the first one. I agreed and we came up with a plan. Here are a few pics of the build.

After talking with Stephen and getting an idea of what he was looking for I decided to go with a Lutz Spruce top. Lutz is a natural hybrid of Sitka and White Spruce and is becoming more popular with builders. It looks like a traditional guitar top with nice light-amber cream color. On this one, I decided to do a more traditional Abalone rosette with some purfling.

The back and sides are what make this guitar stand out. They are made from a wood called Granadillo. It has wild figuring in the grain and the sap line which is book matched on the back of the guitar really pops.

On the inside of the guitar I used some different techniques for bracing and lining. The bracing is loosely based on the pattern used by Bruce Petros of Petros Guitars. I did a lot of research on bracing and structure for this one and wanted to experiment a little to build up some experience with the variations. I also used reverse kerfing (the stuff that lines the top and back of the sides to give a stronger glue joint there) to make the contact there a little stiffer.

The headstock has 5 laminations - Granadillo, black veneer, maple, black veneer, NECK, black veneer, and flamed maple on the back. When carving out the neck relief this gives some cool contrast line all around the headstock.

This guitar turned out super cool and again, I learned a ton on this build. This is also the first guitar I have had to let go. I didn't realize how hard that would be. It is in Boston now and hope that Stephen enjoys it. I'll post some finished shots in another post.