Archtop Guitar Build - Finished!!!

It has taken a while but I have now turned this...

into this...

I'm very pleased with how it turned out in terms of tone, ease of play and looks.  I also took it in to get a professional opinion and our local luthier (Bill Hatfield) really liked it after he put it through the paces both acoustically and electrically.  This past weekend I played it in church for the first time and it got good reviews so now to build another one.

Here are some close-ups of a few of the details of the guitar.  First off is the finger rest and it's mounting block.  If you look closely you can see that I've cut a bevel into the side facing the strings.  This is because the neck sits low to the body (explained in an earlier post) and I needed a little more clearance between the high E string and the finger rest when finger picking. The pickup is a Kent Armstrong sidemount slimline humbucker.  I really like the sound of this pickup and the shielded wiring make it very quiet.  The single pot is for volume and I thought about a tone pot but there really is no room for it on the finger rest.  The end jack is a Fishman stereo jack that I've wired mono with the leads going through the upper roundrel of the "f-hole."

The tail piece mounts via a sarconi strap to the double ringed end jack.  The bone insert protects the edge of the top and works well.  The strings that I am currently using are nickle jazz 11's.

I hope that you've enjoyed following along with this build and be sure to check out the other cool and eclectic collection of things that I've built that are on this blog!