The Luthier Community

Hey Joe... This one is for you...

3/4 size Ladder braced guitar based on a Stella 3/4 size. Floating bridge with tailpiece.
24" scale, 13 frets to the body, 1 11/16" nut, 2 1/8" string spacing at the bridge
Lutz spruce from Mario
Hormigo back and sides
Cherry neck
IRW fretboard
Leopard wood rosette and head plate.
Walnut bridge
Varnish finish.

The body is 17 1/2" long and 13 1/2" wide at the lower bout.

Here she is.













And some QC testing. Notice the guitar size vs 5 year olds... It's pretty small.

Somehow - I managed not to take a good picture of the finished top bracing. Here are some in progress shots. You get the idea.

Way to go John! Some beautiful details on that one, the rosette is fantastic!

But come on now......... floating bridge/tailpiece on a flattop, and that simplistic bracing pattern? No way can it sound good...... Haha!

Thanks for sharing and letting others see that I'm not the only crazy one here..........

Nice looking guitar, Great size for a child. I like the rosette and the floating bridge design.

Nice John. I really like the leopard wood headplate!!! How did you mange to finish all the deep ray flecks in that wood? Or was your woodworking such that you didn't have any? I have an all leopard wood B/S in progress and there are some deep craters in there - but it sure looks nice.

Will we get any recordings?

John

Thanks for the kind words guys.

If you like building little parlor guitars - you need to try out ladder bracing...

I am getting to the point that for a small body guitar - I think I like ladder bracing better than X bracing. I can build the structure very lightly this way.

The top on this one was one of Mario's firewood tops... This was about the biggest guitar you could get out of it. The top halves came in about 1/4" thick - but I was under 0.100" when I got all the saw marks out. It was only 0.085" thick when I braced it.. And I had to put wings on it from the upper bout to clear the linings.

I keep thinking that I want to do a pin bridge on one of these.. But they just sound so good with a floating bridge.

Here's another I just caught up to - Holy Smokes! - Gorgeous work, John!

E

Very nice. The sound hole looks huge. Is it an illusion because the guitar body is small?