Building a Hufschmid Guitar Redwood top! (lots of pictures)

[rhequiem]

Looks incredible! Looking forward to seeing it finished

 

[Helldunkel]

second coat...

sunshine

no sunshine

Where do you buy all those nice pieces of wood?
Especially those wonderful top ?

thanks

if I tell you, I would have to kill you

 

[fluff191]

 

[Helldunkel]

Steinberger Gearless Tuners + Old school Fender strat style reversed headstock = WIN

 

[Khoi]

after you put that coat on the body.. my god that wood looks absolutely wonderful.

Your build and craftsmanship is nearly impeccable too, I want one of your guitars!

 

[stanbog]

That's awesome!
Good to see such things are being build in Switzerland - i might be contacting you soon. Cheers!

 

[PeteLaramee]

I love tops w/out binding. And those look awesome.

 

[Helldunkel]

Thank you all for your kind words and taking the time to check out this topic

Introducing the completed instrument Custom Built for Jacques Reynaud - France

-Aged premium quatersawn one piece Sapelli Mahogany body (intense ribbon figurine)
-Aged premium quatersawn one piece Sapelli Mahogany neck (intense ribbon figurine)
-Indian Rosewood Fingerboard, 24 jumbo frets, 25.5'' scale, 12'' radius
-Threaded Inserts T-nuts Bolt-on neck system (like on my very first guitars! 1996-2001)
-Old Growth Highly Figured Redwood Top Salvaged from a 2000 years olf tree!
-Steinberger Gearless Tuners
-Hipshot Bridge
-Hufschmid PHD nut - string retainer and string block
-Custom handmade chrome Kent Armstrong pickups made by Kent himself.
-Birshwood Casey Tru-Oil finish
-Luminlay side dots!

more (better) pics to come...

 

[cdm]

Beautiful build my friend!

 

[CaseyCor]

That is gorgeous mate. Excellent work. My girlfriend melted at the finished picture! So beautiful. I love the neck joint, very interesting. Does Sapelli Mahogany sound different than the typical Mahogany used, or are companies just not specific about it because they source their wood from many different places in order to keep plenty in stock?

Is that Kent Armstrong of lucite guitar fame? Very cool! Please tell him I'm a fan of his work!

 

[Death by Uberschall]

 

[Helldunkel]

Is that Kent Armstrong of lucite guitar fame? Very cool! Please tell him I'm a fan of his work!

These pickups have been handmade in Vermont by Kent Armstrong himself, Kent has been producing my pickups (H design) and making these ones for me since 1998 (between 1996 and 1998 I was using Bill Lawrence XL500 pickups)

Hufschmid Guitars and Kent Armstrong Handmade Pickups is a very long love story...

That is gorgeous mate. Excellent work. My girlfriend melted at the finished picture! So beautiful. I love the neck joint, very interesting. Does Sapelli Mahogany sound different than the typical Mahogany used, or are companies just not specific about it because they source their wood from many different places in order to keep plenty in stock

To make it short and easy to understand,

"Mahogany" does not mean anything unless you are talking about genuine Mahogany... But then again:
(and you can check this in any wood encyclopedia, in this case I am pasting some wiki information)

The term "genuine mahogany" applies to only the Swietenia mahoganies, wherever grown...

"Swietenia mahagoni, commonly known as the West Indian Mahogany, is a species of Swietenia native to southern Florida, USA, The Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola. It is the species from which the original mahogany wood was produced."

(and this is what generated all of this bloody internet confusion, not to mention that cuban mahogany is one of the most endangered species of the Mahogany family)

If you only talk about "Mahogany", this refers to the largest group of all Meliaceae, the fifteen related species of Swietenia, Khaya and Entandrophragma...

The guitar industry tries to make things simple. The consumer imagines he buys a great piece of kit because big companies claim ‘Mahogany sounds warm’.

The truth is that generally, the customer has little or no idea what they are buying.

When you read ‘Mahogany body and neck' - these are generalities that can cover and mask many
things: some inexpensive substitute, a poorer species OR an endangered specie!

What makes the sound of a guitar (apart from the pickups of course, the scale, the hardware and the hundered of various different elements etc etc etc....) is of course the stiffness to weight ratio or specific stiffness of the timber which is being used and that is what I am looking for specifically when building an instrument..

Sapelli Mahogany sounds very bright because of its great stiffness to weight ratio, people always ask to me how think are my instruments, believe it or not but I cant reply to that question but only give an estimate because my goal is not a target thickness but a target stiffness, I will plain the wood down until I estimate that it resonates at its full potential...

"Mahogany is an airy bright wood just for the record, don't confuse the construction and scale length of a LP with the wood" - John Suhr

Anyway, hope this helps a little

 

[Helldunkel]

Just finished editing the final pictures, that's it folks

 

[M.Axel]

That redwood top is soo amazing and the whole guitar is absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Badronald]

Good Lord, that is beautiful.

I don't really care for "furniture top" guitars, but somehow that has an incredibly beautiful look to it and doesn't seem to be overstated. Very classy.

Amazing work.

 

[IHateRap]

I like it.

 

[Helldunkel]

guitar is now ready for delivery, cant wait! Customer is comming from France tomorrow

 

[Helldunkel]

Hey guys, thought you may like to check out some orders I was recently working on...

Here comes the 8 string!
specs:

-Premium grade 40 years old quatersawn Sapelli mahogany one piece body
-Premium grade 30 years old quatersawn African Afzelia Doussié one piece neck
-Premium grade Brazilian Ironwood Fingerboard, 20'' radius, 24 frets
-One of a kind Spalted Western Maple Top
-27.5'' baritone scale
-High quality Hipshot hardware, special compensated bridge low string saddles
-Hufschmid PHD string block! Nut! String retainer!
-West African Ebony control buttons
-Luminlay Side Dots System
-Pickups have been custom built according to the customer preferences and have a dark flame maple texture finish...
-the mounting rings for the pickups are my design and are expertly casted.
-Tru-Oil finish (10 coats)

we made a funny video last day for fun...

Here comes the 7 string!
specs:

-Premium grade 40 years old quatersawn Sapelli mahogany one piece body
-Premium grade 30 years old quatersawn African Afzelia Doussié one piece neck
-Premium grade Brazilian Ironwood Fingerboard, 20'' radius, 24 frets
-Salvaged Old Growth Western Maple Top (probably a couple hundered years old!)
-25.5'' scale
-High quality Hipshot hardware, special compensated bridge low string saddles
-Hufschmid PHD Nut! String retainer!
-West African Ebony control buttons
-Luminlay Side Dots System
-Pickups have been custom built according to the customer preferences and have a dark flame maple texture finish...
-Tru-Oil finish (10 coats)

 

[Helldunkel]

I am also currently working on this 7 string single cut which feature a salvaged Old Growth Bastogne Walnut Top! (Bastogne is the rarest of all walnut woods)...

 

[MYLILSS]

absolutely gorgeous guitar !