Mats Lea, Acoustic Guitar and Guitar Stand/Seat (Student Awards 2019)

For my project I made both a guitar and a guitar seat/stand. I chose to make a steel string OM orchestra style guitar as it suited my fingerpicking playing technique. The base design of the guitar was based on a plan. However, aspects such as the bridge, headstock and rosette were designed by me. What made this guitar challenging Is that I had to make a bolt on/bolt off neck system, most aspects of the guitar were curved such as the top and back are arched at a radius of 15 and 30 feet as well as the fretboard being curved. The guitar was even French polished taking me a couple of months to complete. I did make the guitar at home since my dad, Helge Lea, has the necessary tools for me to make it and also taught me the processes of the whole project. The woods for the guitar where European spruce (top), Indian rosewood (back and sides), New Guinea rosewood (neck), Amazon rosewood (bridge, headstock veneer and bindings), Sitka spruce (braces), Queensland maple (head and tail blocks), redgum and red abalone (rosette), Madagascar rosewood (fret board), European beech (linings), blackwood (side splints), for the purflings (sycamore, sapele mahogany, pear wood (stained black). Throughout the construction of my guitar I have used multiple jigs and templates, most of which I made myself including the guitar mould and the headstock and bridge templates. I have also used multiple complicated processes such as carving, steambending, routing, and joinery. However, the guitar stand/seat was made only by basing it off of an image I found online, from this I created my own templates, designs and dimensions to suit me specifically, therefore lots of prototyping was used where I played around with the height of the chair, height of the foot rest and also the angle at which the legs faced. This was extremely complicated as the side rails had to be designed to satisfy the height of the foot rest and the angle that the guitar sits at to fit into the cutaway section in the seat and also to be able to not touch the back of the legs. This seat/stand was made at school since I had to make something at school. The woods used were American walnut (seat and side rails), rock maple (legs) and wenge (footrest, backrest and wedge joints). I did not just use templates for this chair but I also carved the front edge of the seat, turned the front and beck rest as well as the side knobs and made wedge joints (side rails go into the foot rest). The overall project was challenging yet it payed off as both projects complement each other in both design and wood choice. Year 12, Waverley College. Teacher: Matthew Barr.

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