Hanging out with RW Watson (D-35 build)

[sgreer11]

Thank you all so much for the kind words and comments. As soon as I am able to make a trip back home (possibly in a week or two), I'll stop by Mr. Watson's house and snap a few more photos!!

[sgreer11]

Mr. Watson just gave me a call a couple hours ago. He applied the sealer last week and has been finishing/sanding this week. I am going home next weekend and the guitar should be finished up! He also mentioned that he has been experimenting with ToneRITE so he may even have it broken in by the time I get home!

[sgreer11]

So here it is!!!!!

I got home yesterday and picked this beauty up. I cannot say enough about Mr. Watson's kindness and generosity. Not only did he give me a wonderful guitar, he gave me a brand new case, tuner, humidifier, and a PrimeVIBE to "season" my guitar!

As you can tell this guitar is absolutely beautiful; however, the best part is that she sounds even better than she looks. I am not great at describing the tone but I will really try: It's of course one of those guitars that the bass will rattle your window but its also got an extremely warm, rich tone. When you play a chord, it actually sounds like one fat, loud note; not just a bunch of individual notes played together in harmony. Mr. Watson is a bluegrass player so his guitars are very bluegrass inspired when it comes to tone. I believe that this guitar would be what we consider a "cannon"

Please let me know what you guys think! I could not be more proud of the work that Mr. Watson and I did; please let us get your feedback.

PS: This was also a NGD for my Eastman E10OM so it will show up in quite a few of the pics. Also a wonderful guitar and a nice complement to this big rosewood dread!

[sgreer11]

[sgreer11]

Here is a shot of us holding our prized possession

He surprised me with a few touches of his own; one of my favorites being a custom embroidered top block cover inside the guitar. The cover reads how it was custom built for me, the date, what the guitar is made of, and he numbered it (this is #190).

[Treenewt]

Spencer

Thanks for taking the time to chronicle your journey here! What a cool story to go along with a beautiful guitar! I know you'll get many years of enjoyment out of it! Congrats!

[SJ VanSandt]

Wow, Spencer, I don't think it could get any better than that - your great experiences plus a fine guitar! I hope you will treasure both forever, even if you go on to build even better guitars by yourself in the future. And I hope you do that too!

[Dru Edwards]

What fantastic pics, Spencer! Just amazing. Big Congrats!

[OddManOut]

Great thread! Congrats on your new guitars. The Watson looks like a sweet dread. Very nice traditional aesthetics, the koa wedge a nice flourish. The Engelmann top should give it some sparkle and sensitivity. And...it will only get better over time. Enjoy!!!!

Do you know if he used 1/4" or 5/16" top bracing?

[sgreer11]

Originally Posted by OddManOut

Great thread! Congrats on your new guitars. The Watson looks like a sweet dread. Very nice traditional aesthetics, the koa wedge a nice flourish. The Engelmann top should give it some sparkle and sensitivity. And...it will only get better over time. Enjoy!!!!

Do you know if he used 1/4" or 5/16" top bracing?

I'm not 100% sure to be honest. I might run by his shop today before I head back to school and I'll be sure to ask him. I do remember going through with him and tapping all the sets of braces he had to find the best set. If I'm not mistaken we ended up going with 60 year old spruce; but I'm unsure as to the size.

[sgreer11]

Originally Posted by OddManOut

Great thread! Congrats on your new guitars. The Watson looks like a sweet dread. Very nice traditional aesthetics, the koa wedge a nice flourish. The Engelmann top should give it some sparkle and sensitivity. And...it will only get better over time. Enjoy!!!!

Do you know if he used 1/4" or 5/16" top bracing?

To answer your question, I talked to Mr. Watson yesteday; he THINKS that it is 5/16" red spruce.

[sgreer11]

Hi guys!

I woke up this morning and checked the forum to find that Guitar Center was having a killer sale on the TASCAM DR-05 recording device so I dropped by my local GC and picked one up for a song (especially after the mail in rebate).

Anyways I was messing around with the recorder a few minutes ago and recorded some small clips of the RW Watson dread posted above. Just as a disclaimer, this is the first time I have ever used any type of recording device so I know nothing about it. Also I am a very new player and can't play near as good as you all on this forum. This is not a clip to showoff my skill (or lack thereof), this is so you guys can get a small idea of how this beautiful guitar sounds.

There is quite a lot of messing up and ugly parts, but rest assure that everything bad you hear coming out of this guitar is operator error and not the guitar itself

https://soundcloud.com/sgreer11/rw-watson-custom-dread

[Bad Poppa]

Very cool thread/story! It must be a kick to be able to play and enjoy something you built yourself. What a great experience!