1930s Oahu 71K (Kay) Roundneck Conversion Jumbo Guitar

This is project two of the three guitars that nearly broke me. More info on that detail is on project one (click here).

This guitar got the same squareneck-to-roundneck conversion (it started off as a Hawaiian guitar) as the last one but it has original bracing. Because of that, I only strung it with 50w-11 gauges (the x-braced one has 54w-12) because the 25 7/8" or so scale length puts a lot of tension on the top and this one is just ladder-braced. Despite that, it sounds much better than I was expecting -- sort-of woody and throaty and punchy.

The big work here was to reshape the neck, install carbon fiber rods under the fretboard, and refret the neck. The reset went easy after that (it's bolted and the board is "tacked" into place with dots of glue on the top). The original bridge was reglued by someone in the past but I did have to fill its saddle slot and pinholes and recut the slot (in the right place) and redrill the pinholes to suit. Like the other guitar, I recut the original nut to suit the new stringing style but made a new, bone saddle for it.

Likewise, the board on this one is pretty curvy (7 1/4" or so?) and feels strangely-modern!

While this one has a nice rosewood bridge, the fretboard is ebonized maple and prone to chipping. It was not fun refretting it at all.

The neck recarve on this one turned-out a lot more elegant as it started-off with a nicer heel profile to begin-with. I finished it with some nitro and then buffed it down to give it an aged feel.

This one may yet get a new, ebony, pyramid bridge but I did like the look of the original so I left it. It has some "chewed" areas near the pearl dots from previous muckery but I did clean it up quite a bit.

This is one of three guitars I worked on of the same type for the owner.