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The EDWINSON "De Profundis" : EPC-F1 Ancient Glacier Sitka/Bois de Rose
Stephen Sheriff of Edwinson Lutherie recently began work on a new build for me. It is his "Performance" model (EPC-F1 means Edwinson Performance Cutaway-Florentine style #1). It will have a multi-scale configuration. This is Steve's largest body size with a 16 3/16" lower bout. It will be voiced for fingerstyle playing. 13 frets to the body. Here's a quick spec sheet: Top: Ancient Glacier Sitka Spruce from Alaska Specialty Woods (approx. 2850 years old) Back and sides: Bois de Rose (dalbergia maritima) Quarter-sawn and well-seasoned. Bindings: Lignum Vitae Fretboard: Bois de Rose Bridge: Bois de Rose Neck: Indian Rosewood Tuners: Alessi hand-hammered Sterling Silver/Polished Bone Nut/Saddle: West African Hard Ivory Bridge Pins: AST titanium Multi-scale: 25.25"--26" spread, 9th fret parallel Nut width: 1 13/16" Saddle spacing: 2 5/16" Florentine cutaway--this will feature a Florentine that Steve has only done once before--it has a sharper angle than his more popular florentine, but it seems like the perfect choice for the overall look of this instrument.
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Instruments: 2022 Dake Traphagen 12F Slope Dread--Torrefied Carpathian Spruce/Snakewood 2016 Darren Hippner "Torres" classical model--German Spruce/Pernambuco Commissioned: mid-2024 Michel Aboudib MA-J Fanfret--Western Red Cedar/Bois de Rose late-2024 Michel Aboudib--TBD Last edited by GaultierRedon14; 02-09-2016 at 04:56 AM. |
#2
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Congrats on the new build....this will be great to watch...I will be following closely. Steve does great work and you certainly have provided great substrate for him to work with for sure.
To.
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PS. I love guitars! Last edited by TomB'sox; 02-02-2016 at 04:20 PM. |
#3
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Back in Spring of 2015, I began discussing a build with Steve. At one point, I told him I wanted the guitar to "fit in" with this scene from this painting titled, "The Love Song"...
Steve replied, "I think we can make something that fits in that tableau". So, that has been part of the general theme for this guitar--something kind of antiquated, dreamy, maybe with a Gothic touch. Here is a picture of the back/sides after Steve processed them, showing a fresh picture of the color and grain pattern. Double sides of Cocobolo. The sides bent and blocked with the "old-school" Florentine cutaway. The style of the Alessi tuning machines.
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Instruments: 2022 Dake Traphagen 12F Slope Dread--Torrefied Carpathian Spruce/Snakewood 2016 Darren Hippner "Torres" classical model--German Spruce/Pernambuco Commissioned: mid-2024 Michel Aboudib MA-J Fanfret--Western Red Cedar/Bois de Rose late-2024 Michel Aboudib--TBD Last edited by GaultierRedon14; 02-08-2016 at 10:22 AM. |
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Thank you, Tom! Yes, a little hard work and a little serendipity has provided us with a pretty amazing set of tonewoods to work with! He and I are really excited beyond words to be getting this underway at last.
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Instruments: 2022 Dake Traphagen 12F Slope Dread--Torrefied Carpathian Spruce/Snakewood 2016 Darren Hippner "Torres" classical model--German Spruce/Pernambuco Commissioned: mid-2024 Michel Aboudib MA-J Fanfret--Western Red Cedar/Bois de Rose late-2024 Michel Aboudib--TBD |
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Congrats on getting this one underway--beautiful woods and an awesome model and shape. Really looking forward to seeing this come together!
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2013 Stehr Auditorium (Carpathian/Myrtle) 2015 Stehr Auditorium (Adi/BRW) 2020 Baranik Meridian (Blue Spruce/Manchinga) 2020 Wilborn Arum (Tunnel 14/Coco) 2021 Kinnaird Graybeard (BC Cedar/Bog Oak) 2022 Kinnaird CS Student Build (Adi/Padauk) 2023 Kinnaird FS (Italian/Koa) |
#6
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Yippee...
I've been waiting for this build to kick-off ever since my last visit with Steve, when I had the good fortune to observe these rare and beautiful tonewoods for myself. I'm sure that it's been a dreadful wait for you GR14, but now you can sit back and watch Steve's magic evolve. I fully intend to make a trip up to Birmingham soon, and see the progress in person...maybe even a couple of trips before it's all said and done... 😏 Congratulations GR14 |
#7
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Man, cool choices! From the builder to the wood and tuners. Even lignum vitae!
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Congrats!!!
I have been waiting for this one to get started too! What a fabulous combination of woods. I always love to ride along for Edwinson builds. Steve is so passionate and deeply connected with both, client and instrument build...it's just a joy to watch and see what is ultimately birthed out of the relationship.
Congratulations!!!
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_____________________________ Jeff _____________________________ Edwinson EPS "iCrucified" [2011] Edwinson Consort "Spirit" [2016] THGCo. 000-Concert "Chi Rho" [2019] Taylor 514e FLTD [2013] Taylor 714e [2016] Martin OM-21 Ambertone [2017] |
#9
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Yep, the ball's rolling on this new project... The Spirit guitar, which many of you have seen in the previous thread, is quietly curing in an out of the way corner, and will soon be ready for all the finish sanding, rubbing out, buffing, and final assembly. I'm pretty excited about that; so is Jeff, no doubt. But in the meanwhile, this new project is getting off to a great start.
Can you imagine what a thrill it is to work with these spectacular woods? How long has it been since anyone here has seen a gorgeous set of quartersawn Dalbergia Maritima (Bois de Rose)? It's about as scarce as unicorns these days! And if you've ever handled a set, you know why it's so highly regarded. This particular set we're using for this build is exceptionally fine. The QS, straight-grain figure, the deep burgundy/purple color, and the mind-blowing tap tone are just out of this world. This set of wood was originally sourced from Gilmer Hardwoods in Portland, OR. I don't know how long ago it was first bought from there, but it has to be more than a decade back... And then there's the ancient, glacial Sitka spruce top, from a tree that fell and became entombed in a glacier nearly 3000 years ago... WOW. Just WOW. This Sitka top has a great tap- about what you'd expect with primo Sitka- and it's stiff and fairly hard. I think it will make a very responsive top. And that exotic blue/green/grey mineral color is like a Gothic fantasy. I don't think anyone mentioned yet that this is going to be a multiscale guitar. The scale spread that Daniel decided on is 25.25" to 26". So it will be optimized for fingerstyle, and open tunings in the D- and C- based range. That is right in my own wheelhouse, so I'm going at this with great eagerness. Stay tuned, and watch this one develop! It will be a somewhat unusual looking instrument when it's done, but I think it will be both impressively regal, and dangerously sexy! Thanks for looking, and stay tuned! -Steve the edwinson
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Edwinson |
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Hey Steve, that is a handsome set of Bois de Rose.
And those tuners...mercy. This will be fun to watch for sure! Steve |
#11
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Steve likes to name his builds, and I'm happy to oblige.
I've added the official name of this build--"De Profundis", or "DE PROFVNDIS" with the "U" styled as a "V", which is common practice in Latin spelling. "De Profundis" is Latin for "From the depths (of the soul)". I took the idea from a collection of mid-19th century prose poems from Thomas DeQuincey titled "Suspiria de Profundis" which means "Sighs from the depths of the soul". In particular, one of the pieces titled "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow" is a favorite of mine--this is what primarily inspired me for the choice of the name. De Profundis is also the name given to Psalms 130 and it's a very commonly recited in liturgical services. I had this idea for the theme and mentioned it to Steve well before I found the set of Ancient Sitka. Both the appearance of the Ancient Sitka and it's story immediately inspired me to get it and use it for this build. I think it absolutely captures the essence of "De Profundis" in a visual way, and knowing it LITERALLY came "from the depths" of the Earth and is about as old as the Psalms just adds to how special this set of wood is for this guitar. So, this idea along with "The Love Song" painting which I posted above were the primary visual inspirations for me. I had originally planned to commission some inlays but once I had settled on using these woods, I thought it would just be a distraction--these woods capture the mood and feeling I had hoped for, without the need for a lot of dramatic embellishment. So, no, there won't be any unicorns/pixies/goblins/saints/cupids inlaid on the fretboard or on the back! Sorry if this is a bit of a rambling mess, but I wanted to give some explanation of the inspiration for this build!
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Instruments: 2022 Dake Traphagen 12F Slope Dread--Torrefied Carpathian Spruce/Snakewood 2016 Darren Hippner "Torres" classical model--German Spruce/Pernambuco Commissioned: mid-2024 Michel Aboudib MA-J Fanfret--Western Red Cedar/Bois de Rose late-2024 Michel Aboudib--TBD Last edited by GaultierRedon14; 02-03-2016 at 02:01 AM. |
#12
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Thanks Nemoman! Regarding the model and shape--I think it is a fairly classic "modern" body shape. It's not too stylized, if that makes sense. I'm particularly excited to have one of the very few larger sets of Ancient Sitka that can accommodate the 16+" lower bout of the EPC model. In fact, I decided against adding any bevels (arm/rib) in order to maintain every precious square inch of soundboard and back for full tonal potential. I love the "wall of sound" you naturally get from a larger soundboard.
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Instruments: 2022 Dake Traphagen 12F Slope Dread--Torrefied Carpathian Spruce/Snakewood 2016 Darren Hippner "Torres" classical model--German Spruce/Pernambuco Commissioned: mid-2024 Michel Aboudib MA-J Fanfret--Western Red Cedar/Bois de Rose late-2024 Michel Aboudib--TBD |
#13
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Quote:
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Instruments: 2022 Dake Traphagen 12F Slope Dread--Torrefied Carpathian Spruce/Snakewood 2016 Darren Hippner "Torres" classical model--German Spruce/Pernambuco Commissioned: mid-2024 Michel Aboudib MA-J Fanfret--Western Red Cedar/Bois de Rose late-2024 Michel Aboudib--TBD |
#14
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This is a fun thread to follow. Love the wood choices and the aesthetics! Too big of a guitar for me but can't wait to hear about the tone when it is completed.
Best, Jayne |
#15
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One of the features on this guitar that will be another first for me is that it will have a detachable arm rest, instead of the usual Ryan-style bevel. As Daniel said, we want to preserve every bit of that sound board for tone production. So we talked about an alternative, and got the idea of making an auxiliary arm rest that fits comfortably around the lower bout area, and will keep the right arm from damping the top while playing. Sort of the same idea as the John Pearse arm rest; except that this one will attach with imbedded neodymium magnets.
The first thought was to use small bolts and imbedded threaded inserts to attach the arm rest. But the magnet idea is more appealing for both functional and aesthetic reasons. I plan to imbed two magnets into the arm rest at strategic spots, and two receiver magnets inside the guitar, near the top edge of the lower bout. I went online and found a source for just about every type, size and strength magnet you could ever want, and I bought several different sizes of small disc magnets to experiment with. They will be arriving here later today. Neodymium is a rare-earth element, and the magnets made with it are the strongest magnets for their size that you can get. I will select the magnet combination that will hold the arm rest securely on the guitar, but can be removed instantly by gently levering it off the side of the guitar. I think I will line the contact surface with suede leather or thick felt, to prevent any marring of the finish.
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Edwinson |