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Topic: Ohia Lehua Special |
Jerry Wagner
From:
California, USA
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Posted 6 Apr 2020 10:45 am |
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This project is evolving, and I’d appreciate any feedback, positive or negative. I’ve been working on this 7-String guitar for about a year, off & on, at a local Maker-Shop in Santa Rosa: https://www.180studios.org/
I’d had some ideas kicking around for a while, and 180 Studios provided a way to do it. So if you happen to have a Maker-Shop in your area, look into it. You could meet some interesting new friends, including guitar players & makers. Unfortunately, it’s shut down now due to C-19.
This is a little 24â€-scale travel guitar. Steinberger 40:1 locking tuners are well-suited to lap steel. This compact 7-String tuner layout works well, with quick & easy string replacement. One problem: The string tension is too high (~38#) for my .013 gage Hi-G string, so I use a Gotoh UPTL tuner there. But if your highest string is tuned to E, you can use all locking Steinberger tuners.
I found some 6-year old Ohia Lehua (57 lbs/ ft3) at a hardwood supplier in Berkeley, and I’d been thinking about I’iwi & Apapane birds on a fretboard for a couple of years. In due course, it all came together. I used VGDF for the first prototype. The body’s milled on a ShopBot and the fret board is engraved & cut on a Gweike Laser.
I like the 24†scale, and the tone, sustain & tuning stability of a semi-hollow high-density wood body. My vintage guitars have single coil pickups, but I decided to use an EMG active PU (made in Santa Rosa); like the PU that’s on Alan Akaka’s Asher 8-String. Very even tone & volume across all strings; and, if you like, just push-pull the volume knob to switch from single coil to humbucker mode.
Specs:
7-Strings & 24†Scale Length; Overall L x W x D: 28†x 6-3/4†x 1-½â€
Weight: 5.25 lbs
Pickup: EMG 707-TW-X, Active PU
Tuners: 40:1 Ratio Steinberger Locking Gearless; Gotoh UPTL @ Hi-G
Nut & Bridge: 1/2†x 1/2†x 1/8†brass angle, with hide glue + (2) screws each
String spacing @ Nut: 2-1/16â€
String Spacing @ Bridge: 2-½â€
Fretboard, Saddle Trim & Back Panel: Laser-engraved acrylic with ivory in-fill
Body: Ohia Lehua; (1st working prototype, VGDF)
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George Piburn
From:
The Land of Enchantment New Mexico
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Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted 6 Apr 2020 1:14 pm
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Wow!
Something really powerful about 'ohi'a lehua...driving around the big island, near recent lava flows its amazing to see the flowering lehua as a first colonizer...
Really cool instrument and it might be a bit unfair to characterize it as just a "travel guitar", with the full scale and electronics I bet its a professional grade instrument!
_________________
Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
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Allan Revich
From:
Victoria, BC
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Don Kona Woods
From:
Hawaiian Kama'aina
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Posted 8 Apr 2020 8:19 am
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Jerry. Very interesting that you chose the Ohia Lehua wood. What was your reason for choosing this wood? As opposed to Koa wood?
Interesting I had a Koa wood steel guitar with strings through the body. Had a great tone. Koa wood is very precious to the Hawaiians. |
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Jerry Wagner
From:
California, USA
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Posted 8 Apr 2020 9:09 am
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Aloha Don,
I decided to use Ohia for a few reasons. I've been playing a Rickenbacher B7 for several years. It actually was a B6 originally, but I converted it with some help from Jason Lollar on the PU and a local luthier friend who made a 24" scale walnut neck for it. I really like the B7 bakelite tone and sustain, and it stays in tune better with the walnut neck. The density of bakelite is about 80 lbs/ ft3; walnut is about 1/2 that.
So I decided to use a high density wood this guitar, and discovered that Ohia is indeed very high density, and was available to me locally at a reasonable price. I was especially pleased about this because I wanted to engrave the 2 native birds feeding on the Ohia blossoms on the fretboard. Ohia is not considered to be an acoustic tone wood, but for an electric lap steel cavity body I think it's ideal. I've not seen any Ohia wood that's highly figured like Koa, but I think the color and grain are quite appealing, nonetheless. And Ohia is about 50% higher density than Koa. But I might try Koa; why not? I have another design, with a more traditional body shape, that I want to make; but it will have to wait until my Maker Shop opens up again. |
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Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted 8 Apr 2020 10:10 am
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Here's me just talking like I know what I'm talking about, I'm not a builder...but just from a symbolic perspective it would be cool to combine koa and 'o'hia...thinking, offhandedly, you could have a figured koa top on a ohia body "frame" and neck similar to your current design.
Another silly idea, I wonder if it is possible to incorporate stuff like the green olivine crystals that rain down after the eruptions in HI? Maybe for accents or dot inlays.
_________________
Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
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Joe Breeden
From:
Virginia, USA
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Posted 8 Apr 2020 11:53 am
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| Wow. Sweet looking guitars Jerry. Like the layout of the tuners. Joe |
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Sweet 