My sublime new Tom Sands M12

[TomB'sox]

In March of 2020 this amazing guitarist and Tom were set to be in TX for us to enjoy and then we all know what happened.

Maybe someday we can make that happen. Wonderful guitar and player in this thread!

Thanks for sharing Will.

[Will McNicol]

Originally Posted by cigarfan

You make it look so easy! What a beautiful song!

Thanks very much indeed, and thanks for listening!

Originally Posted by Carpinteria

The clarity of tone is impressive. Very nice, and beautiful playing.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

In March of 2020 this amazing guitarist and Tom were set to be in TX for us to enjoy and then we all know what happened.

Maybe someday we can make that happen. Wonderful guitar and player in this thread!

Thanks for sharing Will.

Ah Tom, I still think about what could have been! We were so looking forward to that trip. I do hope another opportunity to meet you and share music will present itself at some point in the future In the meantime, all the best for your upcoming B.I.G.!

[K20C]

I don’t usually follow build threads because it makes me want guitars I know I’ll never own. But, I’m glad I stumbled upon this one. I just listened to, then purchased, The Botanist. The combination of your musicianship and that guitar is magical.

[Will McNicol]

Originally Posted by K20C

I don’t usually follow build threads because it makes me want guitars I know I’ll never own. But, I’m glad I stumbled upon this one. I just listened to, then purchased, The Botanist. The combination of your musicianship and that guitar is magical.

Well that's lovely to hear - thank you. And humble thanks for purchasing the tune as well - really appreciate the support.

--

Now I assure you that I'm not planning on bumping this thread with every new release on this guitar, but this one was too fun not to share, plus it shows the guitar in a very different context to the posts previous...

So here it is with horn section!



Tremendous fun, and a real delight to work with such outstanding musicians. And they are: Trumpet: Tom Walsh. Alto sax: Emily Francis. Tenor sax: Yasmin Ogilvie. Trombone: Geza Molnar. And the horns arrangement was lovingly crafted by Emily.

I do hope you enjoy!

W

[cigarfan]

Wow! Now that was fun.

[Merlemantel]

Originally Posted by Will McNicol

Tom went over to Canada to attend a finishing course with the fabulous Canadian luthier, Michel Pellerin, and took my guitar to be used for that course. Here are a couple of pics of them cracking on together:





Tom said he managed the thinnest polyurethane finish ever.



Apparently they were rather pleased with the results:



The guitar (and Tom) made it back home to the UK for the final construction, fretwork, etc, and then the ever-so-exciting phone call was made that he’d be able to drive down to my place to deliver it…

So here we are together on Saturday just gone (15th April), almost a year-to-the-day since choosing the woods, and as you can imagine it was like birthdays and Christmases all coming at once. Cheesy grins all round I say!





And here are some quick phone pics of some of the details:







The tuners are Tom’s signature Schellers which match the shape of his headstocks. Most cool indeed, and beautiful to use.



We’ve named the guitar Juno as it very much feels like a sibling to Jupiter. And here they are, sitting happily side-by-side:



And that about does it for the photos for now. I’ve only had time to do a quick recording so far, but I wanted to share it as well as the sound of this thing is just out-of-this-world and I can’t put it down! The video below has no EQ or reverb, just me in Open Cmaj7 playing a tune of mine called An Autumn Moment in front of my setup of three Sontronics mics.



I’ll share more when I’ve had time to really dig into the recording side of things.

I’m exceptionally grateful to Tom for this instrument - it really is a masterpiece and one I simply cannot wait to compose, perform, practise, record, and just generally spend hours getting to know.

Any questions let me know, and I hope you enjoyed the post!

With all the very best, and many thanks,

Will

I have been binge watching Tom's Youtube videos this evening. It is nice to see some of his work, and not just wood tapping - kidding. He is so entertaining, and as it turns out, he builds a great guitar!! Even with that phone video, it is clear that this guitar can really sing!!! Congratulations.