T. Drew Heinonen "Olson" SJ - Cedar / Honduran RW - Build Thread - [PHOTOS REBUILT]

[AlanHw]

Looking great! Hope to see more~

I would liked to share Drew's SJ for my shop~

Ceder/Cocobolo SJ
https://www.facebook.com/Alan.EuiTae...59026935365355


Euro/BRW SJ
https://www.facebook.com/Alan.EuiTae...59026967045355

[SiliconValleySJ]

Originally Posted by AlanHw

Looking great! Hope to see more~

I would liked to share Drew's SJ for my shop~

Ceder/Cocobolo SJ
https://www.facebook.com/Alan.EuiTae...59026935365355

Euro/BRW SJ
https://www.facebook.com/Alan.EuiTae...59026967045355

Alan, they look great--and they have Drew's personal aesthetic with the BWBWB purfling around the rosette. Lots more bling than mine, especially the Cedar and Cocobolo one. I debated doing that much but decided against it since I wanted something slightly more subtle.

That set of BRW for the Euro/BRW looks amazing. I almost don't want to know how much of an upcharge it was for a back that is so dark and with fairly straight grain. Looks like a winner.



I almost wish I could fly out to MN when they're all ready and play all 3 of them together. I guess mine is the slightly different looking sibling of the set (and should be slightly different sounding since I was aiming for a particular variation of the Olson tone)! Maybe a local AGFer can play them as a set and give feedback.

[SiliconValleySJ]

More photos from Drew as I was hoping for some with naphtha to get a sense of the colors. He reports that he is "optimistic" about the progress of the guitar and the tone, which I regard as a good sign. (he doesn't want to make any unjustified promises to create wrong expectations!)

Eye candy here:



And the full back because that was omitted from the earlier set:

[Marcus Wong]

Looking real good! I am confused about one thing though.... are my eyes playing a trick on me - why are there 2 different end wedges? Haha

[Nemoman]

Originally Posted by Marcus Wong

Looking real good! I am confused about one thing though.... are my eyes playing a trick on me - why are there 2 different end wedges? Haha

I was wondering the exact same thing!

[SiliconValleySJ]

Originally Posted by Marcus Wong

Looking real good! I am confused about one thing though.... are my eyes playing a trick on me - why are there 2 different end wedges? Haha

Originally Posted by Nemoman

I was wondering the exact same thing!

Nemo and Marcus, I thought the same thing too. I asked Drew and it is the same guitar. Definitely quite an optical illusion sort of thing going on with the angles!

[SiliconValleySJ]

And now even more choices. I spec'ed out ebony for the fretboard, but Drew wanted to get my thoughts on all options. Left to right- light HRW, dark wavy grained HRW, dark straight grained HRW, consistent black Ebony, grained Ebony with some color variations.



I'm personally debating between black ebony and the grained ebony as my gut reaction, and starting to lean toward grained ebony with a bit of brown coloration. Because it has Olson doves, I wanted to go darker, but I think the streaked ebony could be a nice subtle accent. (I am also going with ebony for the bridge for sure because of the tonal qualities of what I'm trying to achieve)

What do you all think?

[SiliconValleySJ]

So we did go with slightly streaked ebony. I still need to provide the green light, but Drew found a nice ebony set (below) with subtle straight grain streaks.

We talked at length about the possibility of using HRW for both the fingerboard and bridge, including the tonal effects of HRW. His particular set is quite dense, but in his mind is still much closer to BRW in terms of tone and density than ebony. He agreed that based on what I wanted, ebony's mass was the right thing for the tonal qualities I wanted, and this HRW wouldn't do it. (Though it was the perfect back and sides... he had some primo BRW--see Alan's posting--but still recommended this particular HRW set over BRW)

Back to the ebony. Originally I was going for something more wavy... or perhaps even wild like this option:



But I think we've both settled on this set. Whole set of fingerboard, bridge, veneer and then veneer with naphtha:



The subtle plus straight felt more "classy" in the end. Elegance > wild, though there is a part of me that loves the wilder ebony...

[mikealpine]

Love the Ebony, either set would have worked, but the rich darkness is beautiful!!

[SiliconValleySJ]

Originally Posted by mikealpine

Love the Ebony, either set would have worked, but the rich darkness is beautiful!!

Thanks Mike, much agree. Rich and elegent just felt right, but still not a perfectly black set of ebony--I think it'll be just perfect.

The downside of these custom guitars is that I want to keep making more changes. Here's another that will cost me a little bit more (and now I'm over budget--sigh), but I wanted a back headstock veneer in HRW to match the body. It'll be a simple veneer with no purfling or binding, but I think it looks a bit better than just seeing the 5 piece laminated neck.

Drew had 3 options. Option 1 matches the sides, options 2 and 3 match the back. I'm leaning toward #2, but here they are with and without naphtha:



Just waiting for a picture with the back in the same photo so I can make sure the colors work.

[Howard Klepper]

Originally Posted by ExpoTom

I found out that Drew Heinonen was Jim’s last apprentice and is building an Olson-esque SJ with the same bracing pattern as a template--authorized by Jim. He also apprenticed with Dana Bourgeois and has experience with guitar voicing, something Jim doesn't do. So here was a luthier who could build with the same bracing but then try to voice to achieve what I was looking for.

I'm confused by this, since other Olson fans here (especially CPABolting) have sworn that Jim voices every guitar individually. Can you explain what Drew meant by saying Olson doesn't do voicing?

[SiliconValleySJ]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

I'm confused by this, since other Olson fans here (especially CPABolting) have sworn that Jim voices every guitar individually. Can you explain what Drew meant by saying Olson doesn't do voicing?

Sure, though this is actually something Jim himself told me which was then later confirmed by others, and not necessarily Drew. (See also Jim's recent video interview) This is my personal understanding that I relate here.

The context is that I asked Jim for a specific variation of his tone to match one his prior builds and he said he could not do it because there was nothing special done with that prior build. (I was expecting that this build had certain voicing applied because the tone was quite different than other cedar/RW SJs)

As I learned, Jim tries to build his guitars as consistently as possible. He uses the same specs. Bracing patterns are very uniform. After applying the braces, there is cleanup work and shaping--that clean up creates very minimal variation from guitar to guitar. The precise building yields an Olson-esque tone. That tone is a known quantity with slight EQ variations across his guitars. For the most part, the variations are not the result of something he strove to build. (though perhaps in some cases it could be, but even his video interview confirms his general approach)

Jim attributes tonal variations primarily to each piece of wood being unique. As far as I know, he has not individually tapped or used a tuning technique in the same way that some other builders do. (e.g., a Somogyi apprentice, for whom voicing is very serious business)

That's not to say it's a factory approach, but Jim isn't necessarily voicing toward some ideal. Using Jim's words, "Over the years I have learned that ever player has there own ideas about what is their "favorite". To me they all exhibit the "Olson sound" and only a bit of EQ difference between guitars. I can't even tell you one is "better" than other."

(Not trying to start a firestorm as I know other builders are like this too, including Del Langejans, who built my personal #1 guitar.)

Sorry about any confusion!

[SiliconValleySJ]

And that second (middle) option of the HRW back veneers with the actual back--naphtha on both.



I like how it has the straighter grain of the darker, center section of the HRW back. Looks almost like an extension of the center of it. (Option 3 looks like an extension of the side section of the HRW back)

I think I've pretty much weighed in on all options now--just a matter of Drew finishing it now! (Except the bridge pins... I wanted to wait until it was pretty much done before I chose between bone or buffalo horn)

[SiliconValleySJ]

Another quick update and plug for Drew. Drew's standard headstock shape is quite pointy on top, and it was one of the few things I didn't like as much aesthetically. When we first started, I asked if he'd be willing to round it out on top a bit. In my mind, that's a big ask for a young luthier because it can dilute his brand. He was totally willing to entertain it then.

Now we're at that point. He cut out 3 models for me. Left to right, it's his standard, then a middle-ground, and then a very rounded design:



I ended up opting for the middle version. It still felt like a Heinonen, but a lot less sharp. (I even asked him to shave it down just a tad more)

I liked both the center and right versions, which surprised me. I thought I would easily prefer the right version, which ended up feeling more Applegate-esque, but I really did like the center one.

[SiliconValleySJ]

We're starting to near the finish line. Love it so far. I've shown everyone the ebony selections. Here is the fingerboard bound with W/B purfling and then the inlay routing is done and ready for the doves:



And the cutouts of the dove from the green abalone. Coincidentally, the green abalone sheet Drew bought had quite a bit of blue in it actually... It wasn't planned since it's "you get what you get" from the supplier, but I'm not complaining as it matches the blue paua more closely than I had planned. Pleasant surprise:



And here are the Olson doves inlaid:



And the entire neck. "Olson" doves, but still very much a Heinonen look modified for me. Love it:



And finally, the back veneer in Honduran RW on top of the 5 piece laminate:



Clean up work on the neck, the joint, and then off to the finish booth. It's hard to complain that I'm getting mine so soon considering that I only ordered this baby a few months ago.