The Luthier Community

Beautiful Joe. Let’s talk about it over a cold one.

John

That's a beautiful guitar, Joe. Does it favor the L-00, do you think? Looks like I'm going to have to build a ladder-braced guitar after seeing yours. That is, as soon as I can do a little work in the shop.

Speaking of Stella guitars, when I was a kid, I really looked down my nose at them. They were cheaply but soundly made and played well. They weren't flashy in the least, but pretty damn good otherwise. As comfortable as I was with mine, I couldn't wait to drop it in favor of a Gibson or a Martin. Now see what a good used copy of that $12.95 guitar would cost.

Tom

Yes Mike it's ladder braced.

I love the looks and sound of the TM white spruce, really has that "vintage" vibe that I like in a guitar.
And I think a little barbecue sauce might go well with it, without the Deet hopefully........

And the tailpiece is just a standard resonator tailpiece. Although this one is nickle plated brass I picked up a few years back. Seems like I can only find chrome plated now which I don't like as well. And I did "relic" it a bit with some circuit board acid etch solution, lets a little of the brass show thru which goes well with the bronze bassplate in the tuners.

And I can't wait to get some feedback at Stringfest, and discuss things over some of Grant's fine brews!

Tom when I think of a Gibson L-00 I think of a 14 fret neck join. This one is a 12 fretter, but they are probably close to the same size. And there's Stellas and then there are Stellas. The old ones from the 20's and 30's were built by the Oscar Schmidt company and they built some good guitars. In the late 40's to early 50's somewhere in there Harmony bought the name and that's when the cheap junk Stellas flooded the market and gave tailpiece/ floating bridge guitars the bad rap that still hangs on to this day. I'm trying to rectify that mindset a little bit in my own small way...…

Thanks guys!

Hey, Joe,

Beautiful guitar! I really like the "old time" vibe!

Joe

Joe, Thanks for calling me out on the Stella guitar issue. It made me look. I did a little research and discovered that the Stella name was bought By Harmony circa 1939. It's clear to me that I have never seen one of the earlier Stellas. The only Stella that I was familiar with was in about 1950 and it couldn't have been more than a few years old. It was cheaply built with painted binding although the little thing sounded pretty good. Paid a quick visit to Ebay and noticed there are a lot of Stellas for sale but they are of the Harmony vintage. Some of those are actually pulling a good price.
Cheers,
Tom

And I'm also getting some of this stain/spotting like Dennis has a thread about. Tried sanding it a bit and it's not just on the surface, seems to go down a ways.

So, any ideas?

I'm a little late to the party on this thread--I have 14,903 unread posts at this point. I just wanted to chime in the the spotting problem. I had some koa sides turn green, I believe because of reaction of the aluminum foil I used to warp the sides with something in the wood. I tried Savograin Oxalic Acid Wood Bleach, and after a couple applications, the green was gone. Oxalic acid gets rid of stains without altering the native color of the wood. There are more aggressive two-part bleaches that are supposed to take out all the color of the wood.

tomlang wrote: ↑Fri Sep 21, 2018 7:35 pm Joe, Thanks for calling me out on the Stella guitar issue. It made me look. I did a little research and discovered that the Stella name was bought By Harmony circa 1939. It's clear to me that I have never seen one of the earlier Stellas. The only Stella that I was familiar with was in about 1950 and it couldn't have been more than a few years old. It was cheaply built with painted binding although the little thing sounded pretty good. Paid a quick visit to Ebay and noticed there are a lot of Stellas for sale but they are of the Harmony vintage. Some of those are actually pulling a good price.
Cheers,
Tom

I bought a cheapo Stella from the Harmony era on eBay for $50. It came in an equally cheapo gig bag. Both the guitar and the interior of the gig bag were infested with a very colorful orange mold. I tossed the gig bag and cleaned up the guitar. I have to say it sounds pretty good, especially for slide playing.