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In the thread about recycling timber for instruments I mentioned using the packing case from a new dishwasher (German spruce) for bracing in my latest guitar build. Ned asked to see a few pictures so here they are.

It is a Nick Lucas style L-00. 13 frets to the body like some of the original Gibson Nick Lucas guitars built in the '30s (they also made 12-fret and 14-fret versions at different times). I like the design because it is small bodied but deep (drednaught depth) and has a bigger voice than most 00 sized guitars. Mahogany B&S, Adirondack top, mahogany bolt-on neck, macassar ebony bridge and fretboard, cocobolo binding and soundhole binding. The slotted headstock is obviously not Gibsonesque, but I like it for the vintage vibe. This is only the second guitar that I have built so I still have a lot to learn.

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Best to you Tim- I haven't been making guitars for a real long time aether compared to some of the people out there but I do like to experiment like you do with different things like bracing and the placement of them.
Best to you in your adventure...
Peace, Donald

Sweet!!!! Nice choice of woods!! I finished an L-OO in 2008 as my second guitar. Mine's a 14 fret - I got the plans from Guild of American Luthiers www.luth.org/plans/bp.htm I had a bad shoulder at the time so I made a wedge body - being 3 1/4" on top side and 4 3/8" on the bottom - hoping it would be kinder on the shoulder than my Sigma Dreadnaught. The wedge serves its purpose but now my shoulder is healed (mostly) and I wonder how much volume I lost in sound by decreasing the body volume.Anyway great job - keep on rockin!
Tried to edit my entry above - no luck! What I forgot to add was my L-OO is Adirondack spruce and the B/S are curly cherry, mahogany bolt on, mortice and tennon neck, rosewood headstock veneer and bridge, rosette and binding - plastic.
Harry, you pulled off a really nice sunburst on that top! Did you spray that or do it by hand? I love the shape of the bridge also. Probably no big loss from the wedge shape - and it is a cool custom feature.
I really love the L-00. I have an OM and 2 dreds lying around the house at the moment but the L-00 is the one I am most likely to pick up.
Best wishes
Mark
Thanks Mark, the sunburst was sprayed, first on pieces of cardboard to figure out the best way to approach spraying. I used a turntable to rotate the body while spraying. Spraying a sunburst is one of those gut wrenching processes much like cutting the binding channel where everything "could" go terribly wrong if you don't stay focused. Scraping the strained nitro off the rosette took more time than sparying all three color coats.

The bridge style came from a bridge I had seen somewhere in the distant past.

The slotted head you made is very elegant indeed!!!!
Am I wrong in assuming the L in L-OO refers to being a Lucas stlye guitar?
All the best
Harry
I haven't had the courage or the skill to try a burst yet. But the day will come.

Gibson produced a long running range of flat-top guitars with the L prefix, starting as early as 1902. It went from the L-0 and L-00 models (which designated size) through the L-1, L-2, L-3 etc. By then the names just became sequential for different styles and models in pretty much the same size. Then they switched to arch-top design with some L-3s, the L-4 and L-5. Eventually the model names got up to L-70something. Most of these stopped production by the 40s, but the L-00 is still produced to this day. The Nick Lucas model was a fancier version of the L-00, which was otherwise a low-budget guitar. So the L-series didn't get its name from him. I don't actually know why all these models were given the letter L.
I sent out an email to Gibson asking "What the L is all about?" We'll see if they respond - could just be L for large as Gibson started out with mandolins and a guitar would be sort of a Large mandolin shape.

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