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I just tried using Safari and no paperclip or EDIT button shows. In fact, the EDIT button that was there that allowed me to add the P.S. to m6 last post is now no longer visible. This is true for both Safari and Google Chrome.
Unfortunately, using Google Chrome on an iPad I see no paperclip or edit button on posts that I have authored.
P.S.
EDIT in uppercase appears next to REPLY but only immediately after I post. It goes away though and no longer appears after some point in time post authoring.
I apologize but I do not understand the formatting conventions of this website. There does not appear to be a mechanism to allow me to edit my posts so the images will display.
I received some photos from SGGC.
They have joined the Claro Walnut backset; routed and installed a curly maple purfled African Blackwood backstrip. The set looks typical of an claro-english walnut orchard tree graft stump with its nature of light brown and dark brown striping and its curly figure.
You can see the deep arch of a 12’ radius dish in the joined set in the ladder braces.
The ladder braces and cross-grain back reinforcement strip are both made from Sitka Spruce. They are carved to almost no remaining thickness where they will meet the linings. Looking on the inside, you can see how the set goes from quarter sawn to rift/flat sawn. There is also a pin knot is present in the lower bout (between ladder brace 3 and 4) that will likely need some stabilization and filling.
They have joined, sanded to thickness and rough cut to shape the Italian Spruce top set from Rudi Bachmann.
They also installed a simple, clean Paua Abalone/Maple/Black Fiber rosette.
The [I]Italian Spruce[/I] top has now been braced. This is SCGC’s 1375th Model FS that they have made since the late 1980s when the first model rolled off their bench. The top is signed by long-time SCGC employee Adam Rose (AR). Adam has been with SCGC since the 1980s and has voiced many tops. I also believe that he is the Manager of CNC Design & Programming at SCGC.
The top has been straight taper braced with [I]Adirondack Spruce[/I] bracing adhered with [I]Hot-Hide-Glue[/I]. They have installed a popsicle brace above the upper transverse brace and a somewhat thick Hard Maple bridge plate that is chamfered on it right edge adjacent to the x-brace. Interestingly, the finger braces on the treble side of the top are straight taper profiled and a scalloped on the bass side of the top.
Here is a short, accelerated video that the company made of Adam Rose voicing the bracing on a top from about 5-years ago.
[YOUTUBE]STnbfzcqaeo[/YOUTUBE]
More when I get it in the new year…
No, a Nazareth derivative 12 fret 000 body is typically longer at 20-7/16” and the upper bout is narrower at 10-3/4”. You should write to Carolyn Sills at SCGC to confirm their take on a 000-12F.
I just got the word from Carolyn that the shop should begin my build in about two weeks. If the shop shares some photos while it is being built, I will share them here.
Gentlemen, thanks for trying this as added content. It would good to try it with some other of their top dealers as well.
Some that come to mind are: The Music Emporium (Lexington, MA), Eddie’s Guitars (Maplewood, MO), Heartbreaker Guitars (Las Vegas, NV), Northern Lights Music (Littleton, NH) or The North American Guitar (Nashville, TN). I am sure that there are others, but these five came to mind all having large inventories.
I would be interested in hearing about three things:
1) Which you touched upon with Mike, is how they order now within SCGC’s custom paradigm to differentiate their inventory from other dealers;
2) How the advent of the internet has augmented their businesses from being a regional brick and mortar shops to having national and international customer bases and;
3) Since they all carry a number of other boutique brands of instruments as well, what differentiates SCGC guitars from other brands in their shop?
I watched it last night (thanks).
I am not sure if Tad knows this. When Richard was speaking about Bill Lewis and how his business Lewis Luthier Supply (Vancouver, CA) was latter sold to Todd Taggert who changed the name to LMII there is actually a tie back to our friend luthier Bruce Sexauer.
Bill was a classical and flamenco guitar instructor at the Mediterranean Guitar Shop in Vancouver in the early 1960s. The owner of the shop, George Bowden also owned a flamenco and classical guitar factory in Majorca, Spain. He sent Bill over to Majorca to learn how to make guitars. Bill ended up leaving the Mediterranean Guitar Shop and opened his own shop Bill Lewis Music (also in Vancouver). Bills brother was in the sawyering business and began exporting Western Red Cedar to Spain to guitar makers in the late 1960s/early 1970s. So his foundation in lutherie and his brothers access to woods were the foundation of Bill Lewis Luthier Supply. I also understand after Michael Gurian’s factory fire in 1979 that Bill helped Michael re-establish himself. So the LMII, Allied Lutherie and Gurian Instruments all in some way are tied back to him.
Back to Bruce…
After Bill, George Bowden sent Michael Dunn to Majorca for the same training while he was employed at the Mediterranean Guitar Shop. This is where Bruce first learned to make a guitar (from Michael). Michael was trained in the Spanish tradition in building from the top up without molds using tentalones as linings.
Richard bringing up Bill Lewis’s name made me recall this.
For those of you interested, I also found out the top and back radius dish of an FS Model. The top dish radius is 33’ and the back dish radius is 12’. These are both fairly small radii by vintage standards and more similar to those used in modern lutherie.
I have found that differences in fretboard radius in a practical sense are transparent to me. I have guitars with a variety of fretboard radii from 12” to 20” and a variety of compound radii. After a few minutes playing an instrument I forget these specs totally.
Unfortunately, I did not ask the question broadly, but just in relation to my guitar. I also asked about the top and back dish. They are 33’ and 12’ radii respectively. I know years ago, they were all 14” radius. I believe over the years they have moved more broadly to a compound radius.
I had done that and found 2008 video with Willie Carter giving a tour 13 years ago and one with Teja Gerken about 3 years ago. I got the sense that Santa Cruz made more guitars/year (700-800/year) back then than the do today. The operation can be seen from wood storage/conditioning, plate thicknessing, side bending, block/lining installation, top/back bracing, closing the box, neck manufacture, CNC operations, dovetail installation, finishing, setup/plek etc.. So it is a cross trained, team built instrument.
I was curious as they moved to lower their manufacturing volume (e.g., ~400/year) with a greater percentage of customization, how shop operations may have changed? How does the input post Carolyn writing up specs travel with the project through the shop in terms of player’s intent? I suspect that once the spec sheet is written up, the team members just do the best that they can to create the guitar. Guitars are more than just recipes. I was wondering if player information or intent (e.g. they care more about responsiveness, or headroom, timbre of the trebles etc.) is communicated beyond the spec. sheet that follows the order through the shop?
Thanks…A rotation system is what I suspected for cross training for colleague development and long-term viability (people move on). Certain operations are also likely done by their supply chain (e.g., purflings, bindings, shell inlay etc.). I am curious how the customer player input moves from Richard/Carolyn to wood selection and bracing of the top. Does the luthier performing these tasks know the input goals of the client? It would be good to understand the SC journey post-Carolyn, from wood to instrument as a project moves through the shop.
