Guitar # 006:    

Acoustic Dreadnought, with solid Padauk back and sides, Solid Bear-claw Sitka top, Ebony fret board and Bridge.

 Completed December 15th, 2004

Specs Padauk: yes... from the Padauk Tree. I sure hope your monitor is displaying the incredible orange colour of this beautiful wood.  Orange is it's natural colour.  As the years pass, oils in the wood oxidize and slowly change this orange to a rich deep chocolate brown with orange high lights. What about the sound.  Well... this is another canon, crystal clear to the 22d fret, with warm base response with tones between that of an Indian Rose Wood and Mahogany guitar. So why don't we see more Padauk guitars out there?  In short, Paduak is a pain in the ass.  It's difficult to bend, and the oils gum up the cutting tools.  When finishing, the oils can bleed into other wood if you're not careful.  But as you look through these photo's, I think you will agree, it's worth the extra effort. Click any of these photos to see a larger image.

April 25, 08 Update. 

This guitar has been my demonstrator and main axe for the last three and a half years.  I've been dragging it to open mic events and letting everyone play it.  Well one of those people who has played it multiple time is a gifted young finger style player by the name of Maxim Budnick.  I've been blown away by his guitar work and song writing.  He felt the same way by this guitar.  So he gave me the call saying "I want your guitar".  Ok, cool.  I'm going to miss this guitar but I built it with the intent that others create something special with it, and I know Maxim will do that.  Thanks Maxim.

Click here to listen to Maxim's Music:  Maxim Budnick

Shot from the guitar shop:  The End Graft.

Some times, when going through a pile of wood, one happen upon some craze knots and flame patterns.  These are of no use for a structural part of the guitar but if used imaginatively can add some wonderful accent points.  The end graft of this guitar is an example of one of these areas.

A small bit of Hard Maple with a wild flame pattern was ripped in two, laid out to mirror the centre line, and framed with black/maple pin lines. These three photos below were taken during the construction of this guitar, showing how I did it..      

In the first photo, I have aligned a jig to cut the slot for the end graft.	The next picture show the slot after it was cut, and the various bits of wood arranged in the order they will be glued into positioned.	The last picture is of the end graft installed and trimmed to size with a section of binding material held up to it to show how the corners go together.

        Back