# Canadian School of Lutherie Custom Acoustic



## CSOL (Nov 29, 2010)

Hey all,

I just found this forum. Looks like I've been missing out for quite a while! Some of your pics are amazing. There is some great work being done and it's awesome to have a place like this to share it. I work at the Canadian School of Lutherie in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. Thought I'd share some pics of some of our guitars. 

This one I just finished. It was ordered for a young woman by her husband for xmas this year. He wanted a smaller body guitar as she's not very big. I'd wanted to try building a parlor-style with a full scale length and 14 fret neck for a while so it worked out perfectly. 

The top is douglas fir from and old factory that was tore down on the waterfront here in Halifax. The story is that people that arrived in Halifax through the underground railroad came through this building. 










The back and sides are large tooth aspen. It's a wood that grows locally that we use quite often for our guitars. It's not known as a traditional tonewood, but we're hoping to change that. It's fantastic. This one has some really nice curl to it.










I went to the local second hand store and picked up some buttons for the rosette. Another thing I had been wanting to toy with and this order gave me the perfect opportunity.










Inlaid them into some douglas fir and cut it out with the dremel. Then inlaid that piece into the top.




























Then my photo-taking lapsed. 










I wanted to use as much local wood as possible. I also wanted to make it a special instrument for the customer. The fret dots are made from deer antler that was found near her cottage. The binding is hawthorn from near the same place. The endstrip is made from a piece of maple burl that her grandmother collected when building her house. I used local curly maple for the headstock veneer and ebony for the fretboard.

The neck is a five piece laminate. The two outside pieces are quartersawn birch that was pulled from the bottom of the LaHave river here in Nova Scotia. The centre piece is apple collected from the river's shore. I used two pieces of purpleheart for contrasting strips.



















This is my personal Lethean Guitars Logo. I made it out of abalone buttons to keep with the same motif. We have our own Canadian School of Lutherie logo, which you'll be seeing in future posts, but this was a personal project.










Almost done now! I'm just as excited to hear it as the customer is. I've got some more pics that I'll post later. This is my first post so I hope the images work... I look forward to reading your replies.


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## Lab123 (May 27, 2007)

Hey....Very nice work and welcome to the Forum..Great to see another acoustic guy in here .I would guess that you are very familiar with George Rizsanyi...That rosette is awesome...I would never have thought of doing something like that ...Going with "outside the box" ideas can be sometimes very successful.. Please keep posting and I'm sure we will get in contact again...Larry


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## YJMUJRSRV (Jul 17, 2007)

gone fishing


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## CSOL (Nov 29, 2010)

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, Larry, you could say I am familiar with George  I learned the trade from him and he is an instructor here at Canadian School of Lutherie. He's also a great friend of mine. 

Glad you both like the guitar. I will post some more pics of it and of our other projects here soon. I'm going to be stringing it up in the next couple days, so I'll take some pics when I do.


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## Lab123 (May 27, 2007)

George would be a great friend to have...I have spent some time in Nova Scotia with friends in Lahave..Beautiful area of Nova Scotia...Here is a pic of a guitar that I am getting ready to finish.


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## CSOL (Nov 29, 2010)

wow, is that ever sweet, Larry! I love the inlay work on the fretboard and the custom carve into the soundhole. Looks great! What kind of finish are you going to do? Are the back and sides rosewood?


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## Lab123 (May 27, 2007)

I have been using French Polish in the past but found that the finish is easily tarnished by players who use the guitar a great deal..I have just bought a gallon of Magnalac Precatalyzed lacquer...I will fill the pores with Z-poxy and give it a couple of coats of French Polish and then get it sprayed...The back and sides are East Indian Rosewood...I have been looking at Rizsinyi guitars and love the natural wood pickguard that he uses on some of his guitars...Looks like a spalted maple????..I think something like that would look great on this guitar...Larry


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## CSOL (Nov 29, 2010)

very, very nice. french polish is something that we've been doing more of lately, but with tung oil instead of the traditional shellac. i really like the natural look of an oil finish. i also like that it's not toxic to apply and easy to repair any wear or damage that might occur  the above guitar is finished in tung oil. i didn't french polish it, though. my next thread will be of a guitar that is french polished with tung oil. 

george has used a lot of wood pickguards. some of them are definitely spalted maple. some of them are burl. anything that we can find that looks really interesting. it's nice to let mother nature do the design work for us  wooden things (pickguards or otherwise) pretty much always look better than plastic to my eye. i'd love to see some more pics of your guitar's construction...


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing--wasn't sure how the buttons would work, but it looks cool.
Checked out the school's website too, too bad I'm not that good with woodworking tools.


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## CSOL (Nov 29, 2010)

glad you like the rosette, zontar. thanks also for checking out the website. it's not necessary to have experience with woodworking tools to make a really nice guitar. we've had students who have never held a router or sanded a piece of wood before and they end up leaving with beautiful instruments. these are the skills we specialize in teaching people. if you're interested in trying, please don't let a lack of experience hinder you.


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## CSOL (Nov 29, 2010)

So here's the continued journey of the parlor. I stayed up late last night, installed the tuners and made a saddle so I could post pics today. 

These first two pics are ones that I took after the finish was completed. I wanted the guitar to have a real vintage vibe, so the finish was applied completely by hand. I first applied two coats of Walnut-coloured Danish Oil to the body. I then attached the neck and applied several coats of tung oil to the whole guitar until the wood seemed happy. I really like the way the finish turned out. It almost looks like it survived a fire....



















I had a few pieces of birch that were found at the bottom of the LaHave River. I used two for the outside pieces of the neck. There was another piece that was perfectly quartersawn and so tightly grained that I wanted to use it for the bridge. When I cut the bridge blank and gave it a tap, I knew instantly that it would be great. It had such a glassy sound to it that it sounded like ebony! I've never used birch for a bridge, but I'm really glad I did this time. I don't know if any other piece would sound as good, but it was a really exciting experiment that paid off. Here are the rest of the pics that I took this morning. The guitar is all strung up.










The endstrip is made from purpleheart and that same piece of maple burl that the customer's grandmother collected.










Another piece of maple burl with the requested inscription.










Gotoh 510s... my favourite.










Another shot of the back. It really shines in the sunlight. The heelcap is made of... you guessed it, maple burl : )










Here's the rest of the pics. The nut and saddle are made from that same piece of deer antler. Antler makes great nuts and saddles, and the natural oils haven't been bleached out of them like most of the bone blanks commercially available. No need for artificial lubricants!




























So that's it! Another project completed. I look forward to your comments and criticisms. I also look forward to making another post very soon. Thanks all!

-Jeremy Nicks
Canadian School of Lutherie


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

Lovely guitar - I bet it sounds great. Can you give a bit more info on how the school is setup? It sounds like this guitar was custom ordered. So you have more than one builder, and you are all using common equipment at the school?


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## Lab123 (May 27, 2007)

Jeremy that is a very sharp looking guitar...How do you like the sound so far?...The beauty of these guitars is they get better and better as time goes on....Great job....Larry


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

CSOL said:


> glad you like the rosette, zontar. thanks also for checking out the website. it's not necessary to have experience with woodworking tools to make a really nice guitar. we've had students who have never held a router or sanded a piece of wood before and they end up leaving with beautiful instruments. these are the skills we specialize in teaching people. if you're interested in trying, please don't let a lack of experience hinder you.


It's not a problem of lack of experience, I have experience using tools--I'm just not that good with them.


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## CSOL (Nov 29, 2010)

Thanks for the feedback and questions. I think the guitar does sound good. It's very loud for its size, which was a nice surprise. I've found the same thing with the sound, Larry. It changes drastically from the time it is strung up. I always love playing it again the morning after - the sound is so different than it was the day before. There's no doubt that it keeps getting better... just play a 60 year old martin or gibson and tell me it doesn't sound better than ever 

@bagpipe: I am one of the three instructors at the school. We have our own custom instruments that are made by all three of us, called Canadian School of Lutherie, that have our flame logo on the headstock. Most of my future posts will be of these guitars. Before we started the school together, however, each of us had our own line of guitars. Mine are called Lethean. The customer who ordered this guitar specifically requested to have a Lethean guitar made by me... otherwise every guitar I make now has the flame logo, and the same goes for George and Mitch (my co-workers). We do all our building and work on our custom orders alongside our students as they work on their own projects. Everyone is under the same roof and uses the same equipment. It's a very friendly atmosphere and I have a ton of fun there... Please feel free to ask if you have any more questions about the school. Btw... there are some very cool tunes on your soundclick page. I love the atmosphere on the Horses of Sable Island.


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## CSOL (Nov 29, 2010)

zontar said:


> It's not a problem of lack of experience, I have experience using tools--I'm just not that good with them.


haha, my mistake, zontar! i misread your post. from some of your other posts it sounds like you are quite an experienced guitar player - something i've always admired and have never achieved. perhaps we can learn something from each other...


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

CSOL said:


> haha, my mistake, zontar! i misread your post. from some of your other posts it sounds like you are quite an experienced guitar player - something i've always admired and have never achieved. perhaps we can learn something from each other...


Maybe we can.
I am experienced at guitar--but that isn't necessarily the same thing as being good.


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## blacktooth (Jul 3, 2010)

that's a really beautiful guitar! I've always wanted to take the course that George was offering at his home in New Germany (i think that's where it was... or Pinehurst) but never got around to it. maybe someday I'll get to take with you guys at the new school. I live in Yarmouth, is it at all possible to get a tour of the school next time I come up to the city?


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## CSOL (Nov 29, 2010)

thanks, blacktooth. george used to offer the course in pinehurst (a small village about 5 mins. south of new germany). we've moved a little further away from you now, but hopefully you can get up here sometime. next time you're in the city, give us a call and you can definitely get a tour of the school. we'd love to have you! 481-7614


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## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

I have a question regarding the finish. I am not that familiar with acoustics, having only built two (both of which I finished in lacquer)...

I thought I read a discussion somewhere at one time talking about the pros and cons of using penetrating oil finishes like Watco Danish oil on acoustics. Does the oil change the tone since it is soaking into the wood rather than sitting on the surface? When you finish a whole guitar with oil, again, do you think it affects the sound or is it purely cosmetic thing VS a plastic finish (laquer, urethane etc)?

Thanks!
Andrew


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## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

oh yes... nice guitar!


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## Shark (Jun 10, 2010)

I love the concept of having such a personalised guitar, from the local woods to things found literally so close to home. I'd love a guitar made like that! One day . . .  Except, I live in the prairies, so you'd have to use, like, rocks and grass.


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## Lab123 (May 27, 2007)

Mark P said:


> I love the concept of having such a personalised guitar, from the local woods to things found literally so close to home. I'd love a guitar made like that! One day . . .  Except, I live in the prairies, so you'd have to use, like, rocks and grass.


Rock guitars and Bluegrass guitars........Members here make em every second day...!


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