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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
 Posted - 04/19/2007 : 7:38:44 PM
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Karl asked me to post this for him. quote:
Posted on behalf of Karl Monetti
As you may remember from early last year, i made a Weissenborn guitar. Shortly after that, while playing my once-trusty Martin Backpacker, I wondered if I could make a better sounding travel guitar incorporating some of the concepts if the Weissenborn, namely the hollow neck. As you may know, the Weissenborn has a very deep hollow neck, and was meant to be played as a lap steel instrument. It is well known that the hollow keck is what gives the Weissenborn its distinctive resonance, but they are totally unplayabe as a fretted instrument.
So, I set out with my limited knowledge and skills to build a fretable hollow necked travel guitar. I posted the results in pictures last year, but here is a reminder of what things look like. I kept the basic body shape of the Weissenborn on the upper bout. I shortened the body and headstock each by three inches, I narrowed the body from 16.5 inches to 12 inches, and reduced the thickness to 2.5 inches at the heel, the whole giuitar decreasing in thickness toward the nut to 1 inch. I made a huge cutaway on the lower bout to provide access to the 20th fret.
The guitar is built around a solid sugar maple headstock/neck that is hollowed out on the top. It is sandwiched between the sides, back and top, and further stiffened by the fretboard glued on top of the top itself. Once the parts are assembled, i then rasp down the corners of the neck block and sides/back away from the fretboard to make a comfortable, if somewhat thick, but very playable hollow neck. Borrowing an idea from Ovation, I use multiple soundholes, including a side port for better player listening. As a final touch, I put in a K&K Pure Western Mini pickup system. Tis is a passive pickup, and I was advised to buy a pre-amp (I got a Baggs Para-Acoustic), but it works so well without the pre-amp that I cannot turn myu amp up over 3 or 4 without bringing down the walls.
The results have been very rewarding. I sort of threw the first one together, just wanting to find out if the idea worked. Since then I have made a few more, trying to get my techniques and ideas refined. I am now at the point where I would feel comfortable selling a few to intersted buyers. Especially after the resposes of the campers in February, and the locals who catch me playing during the week here in Fairbanks.
Here are the specs; length, 33 inches, width, 12 inches, depth 2.5 inches. Neck width 1.8 inches at nut, 2.2 inches at bridge. Cutaway allows access to 20th fret. Full 25 inch scale. Woods used are as follows; tops are Sitka spruce, sides are walnut, backs are myrtle or koa. Neck/headstock is maple, fretboard is katalox, bridges are any of a variety of exotic hardwoods, some unknown to me. The saddles and nuts are fossilized mastodon ivory from Alaska. I use chorme Gotoh locking mini tuners.
The guitars come with a nice gig bag and a strap, and are strung with light strings. I am asking $950 plus shipping. I am almost certainly coming to the June camp on Molokai and wojuld be happy to deliver one there if anyone is interested. You may reply to me via the members email section, or post comments here. Thanks for your support.
Karl
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cpatch
Ahonui
USA
2187 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2007 : 07:09:00 AM
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| A link to photos? |
Craig
My goal is to be able to play as well as people think I can. |
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2007 : 6:18:50 PM
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Andy |
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
Posted - 04/23/2007 : 6:12:54 PM
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Karl asked me to post this for him. quote:
Posted on behalf of Karl Monetti
From left, for comparison, a Jumbo Taylor. Then, in order, Medusas #1-4, followed by Martin Backpacker for comparison, and two canoe paddles because i was too lazy to move them. Notice the overall length is almost identical with the Martin, but the Medusa has access to 20 frets vs only 15 on the Martin.
All 4 Medusas are quite different in this picture, as I was still working on some details. I have settled on the 2 1/8 inch soundhole on numbers 1 & 4, the pickguard on #4. I have decided to make the headstock/neck in one piece (#1 was two pieces) in either maple (#2) or lyptus, a hybrid with properties much like mahogany (#3 & 4), or mahogany. I am not presently willing to sell any of these, as each has several defects that I wish to eliminate.
Number 5 is just about complete and is at the level I feel comfortable selling.
Number 1 was Koa back and top, I threw it together in a week just to see if it would work. It has numerous small mistakes in the construction, but it gave me the impetus to make a good one. The only mistake in #2 was the last soundhole, near the cutaway, ended up too close to the edge of the guitar, so i pulled that koa scrap out of the bin and glued it on for a sort-of-pickguard. On number 3 I tried a brush-on finish, which is atrocious and needs to be completely refinished. I also used a shorter scale, but forgot to move the bridge forward, hence the “floating “ bridge ahead of the real bridge. Oh, and the top pieces were cut too narrow by my friend at the mill, so I had to glue that rosewood strip down the middle to make it wide enough. This is what you might call a “one-off” item, with the emphasis on the OFF, and it just might end up as a wall hanging :)
Number 4 has some finish issues as well, and also needs to be re-done, after which it will be available.
Side view in the same order. The sides are all walnut. The soundholes will all be placed as in #2 and 4. You can see the constant taper of the Medusa from heel to nut. Overall it is deeper than the Martin (held in place by the canoe paddle). The depth at the heel is 2.5 inches.
Back view shows the figure in the koa. Not sure i can find stuff this good any more as it is getting rare. Number 5 is koa, and I have one more set on hand, then the next few will be myrtle, of which I have a very nice, highly figured slab. On 1 and 4 I bookmatched the back, on 2 and 3 I used the woods in such a way as to accentuate the available grains. You can see the brush marks on #3......makes me sick to think of refinishing that one.
Cutaway side. Disregard #1, the maple strip was glued on as an afterthought because i goofed up on the width of the neck block...as I said, I was in a hurry to see if the concept worked. This sort of looks cool, but it will not be reproduced!
This is the side view of #2. I used it because the maple contrasts better than the lyptus to give you an idea of the sandwich construction technique. You can see here that the headstock/neckblock is one piece and extends well into the body; in fact it goes the whole length of the fretboard. It is sandwiched side to side by the walnut sides, and also between the top and back, with further support coming from the fretboard glued directly to the
top. Then I round the edges off to make it more playable. Neck thickness is just over an inch at the nut, and about 1.4” at the 15th fret. All in all, the effect it produces is quite striking.
I consider myself a modest, honest person. I wanted to make something that sounded better than my trusty dusty backpacker. I feel I accomplished that. I am not the best craftsman in the world, but I do believe I have come up with something very functional that is structurally sound and really cool looking, and that sounds very good. At camp I had the opportunity to hear it played by someone else along with 6 or 7 other travel or compact guitars, and I felt it was among the top performers. And, if you plug in at all, I know you will like the K&K sound. The neck is a bit fat, I know that, making it a bit harder to use yor thumb over the top in some instances. It needs to be for structural reasons, although I may try thinning one down a bit more for myself; if it doesn’t move in a year, I may then sell tham thinner. As always, the final test is in the playing and listening, so I am trying to put together a video of my son playing one of his tunes, and me playing a few hawaiian and slide tunes as well so you can get an idea of how it sounds acoustically and plugged in.
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 12:42:42 PM
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quote:
At camp I had the opportunity to hear it played by someone else along with 6 or 7 other travel or compact guitars, and I felt it was among the top performers.
That someone would have been me. 
I think Karl's onto something here. It really is a cool little axe -- I like that it works just as well as a steel, too. It's fun to play and sounds pretty dang good. The little sound port on the upper bout adds a lot to the player's experience. The pickup smokes.
How's that for an endorsement, doc?
Mark |
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Karl Monetti
`Olu`olu
USA
756 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 1:27:22 PM
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Mark,
Thanks, for the effusive endorsement (I'll pay you later).
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Karl
Frozen North |
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Davey
Akahai
USA
53 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 1:58:07 PM
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Very cool!
I would love to check out a video and/or audio clip(s) of these little units in action. 
Davey |
Edited by - Davey on 04/24/2007 1:58:22 PM |
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Karl Monetti
`Olu`olu
USA
756 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2007 : 2:56:43 PM
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Davey,
my son and I played a few tunes on two different Medusas and we recorded them to miniVCR. I am taking them to a friend to put on a website so you can hear them. Jethro plays two of his own tunes, then I play several slack key and slide tunes first on a high-end name brand guitar, then on the Medusa for contrast. I hope to have the website ready by Monday. I will post here when it is up and running. |
Karl
Frozen North |
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Karl Monetti
`Olu`olu
USA
756 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2007 : 10:12:19 AM
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Well, the web site is now finished, with video clips of me and my son playing various tunes. He does two of his own compositions, I doa few slack key and a few slide tunes. Remember folks, I am just having fun as a player, so you will probably sound a lot better than me! Besides, I could not afford to get Keola to play the tunes for me:)
Now I need to get back to building, since our brief buyt glorious summer is slowly coming to a close. |
Karl
Frozen North |
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wdf
Ha`aha`a
USA
1153 Posts |
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