English Brown Oak Parlor for TAMCO, UK

[Claretman]

Maybe one day it will reside in the County Palatine and I will be smiling at the Yorkie's just a dozen miles up the road ?????

Iain

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by maurerfan

Steve ...I may have missed it ... are you going with a stain for the oak (Haans used to stain his dark), or, a more natural finish? IMO, that top has fantastic character and would show beautifully as is .. or .. close to ...

Sorry Maurerfan, I was a bit unclear on that. When Trevor and I spoke about this next parlor, about the only stipulation he had was the shade: let's go darker. What struck me immediately was this set of brown oak, which would enable us to have a darker guitar while utilising a natural finish.
Anyway, no extra color to be added. The pic above is pretty close to finish color.
Thanks,
Steve

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by state-it

I've a customer not far from you Steve, down here in Sussex, that has named his house 'Kilburn'. And his house is filled to the brim with Robert Thomson's work. Items he and his late wife commissioned starting some 50 years ago.

Not to everyone's taste, but certainly interesting and very well built items (and highly sought after).

The practice of naming one's house is one more thing I find attractive about the British sensibility. My wife and I lodged at a B&B in Fort William named Per Ardua. I thought, I should call my own house that very thing.
And yes, the shop in Kilburn seemed to produce, still, work of very high calibre.

Steve

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by Claretman

Maybe one day it will reside in the County Palatine and I will be smiling at the Yorkie's just a dozen miles up the road ?????

Iain

Iain, I visited the website for the Duchy of Lancaster. Should have done so earlier! The Seal employs all the primary colors. Doh! I need a blue stripe in my marquetry pattern... Ah well. I'll send a blue marker in the case pocket.
Future owner can decorate as desired.


Steve

[Steve Kinnaird]

Soundboard! The decision was taken to use, once again, Engelmann spruce for this parlor. It functions magnificently in small-bodied guitars like this. The trick, though, was finding one without runout. Our first grab from the Engelmann pile had the same test numbers as the last guitar that went to TAMCO. But it was two-toned. Digging deeper uncovered a lovely piece with virtually no runout, here being glued together:




No pics of routing the rosette channels, but here the inner b/w/b piece is glued in place, and "clamped" with Brickhenge:





Next rings in, with Teflon spacer where the "Lancastrian" pattern will go. This spacer will be removed, and the process (used on back inlay) repeated to make the rosette pattern:




Thanks for watching,

Steve

[Steve Kinnaird]

Continuing on, this next shot shows the outer ring installed, Teflon spacer removed and first two tiles installed. If you squint, you'll notice that the red tiles were chosen to start on centerline, forming a chevron pattern:





And thus working around the circle, the Lancaster pattern is finished. (Thanks Iain for the idea!) It looks a bit fuzzy still because, well, it IS. The tiles are still proud of the top, in need of leveling. Once that's accomplished, the details will be nice and crisp:




Steve

[maurerfan]

Lovely work .. great symmetry .. on that rosette ... and very much in keeping with the Larson aesthetic, but in a tastefully updated way. I hope you're inspired to do more work like this ..

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by maurerfan

Lovely work .. great symmetry .. on that rosette ... and very much in keeping with the Larson aesthetic, but in a tastefully updated way. I hope you're inspired to do more work like this ..

Thanks again, and a big absolutely to your kind wish. Pretty soon we'll be doing something like this for R.Tucker:



He's getting a 12- fret 00, using the Indonesian rosewood you see pictured. Bob said he'd like something akin to his living room colors for the marquetry.
So--purple, green and light tan. 3 different iterations were done using these colors, and the one pictured here is leading the pack. Stay tuned.

Steve

[Steve Kinnaird]

Ok, let's finish this rosette.
The soundhole plug was removed, just kissing the inner b/w/b, and a piece of American Holly was bent to fit inside the hole. Here 'tis being glued into place:





And when leveled and cleaned, the rosette is complete:





Thanks for watching,

Steve

[TuckerRE]

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

Thanks again, and a big absolutely to your kind wish. Pretty soon we'll be doing something like this for R.Tucker:



He's getting a 12- fret 00, using the Indonesian rosewood you see pictured. Bob said he'd like something akin to his living room colors for the marquetry.
So--purple, green and light tan. 3 different iterations were done using these colors, and the one pictured here is leading the pack. Stay tuned.

Steve

You're building me another guitar?!

I've gotta stay on top of these things!

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by TuckerRE

You're building me another guitar?!

I've gotta stay on top of these things!

Yeah...well you know how these go...we'll get it done!

[Trevor M]

Fantastic rosette! I love it even more than the first one.

[Claretman]

Steven, just going back a step, the colour of that oak back is great which plenty of the "mouse man" furniture lovers around the globe would recognise in a heartbeat. Just a thought it could be called "Kilburn" ????. Keep up the good work

Iain

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by The Acoustic Music Co (TAMCO) UK

Fantastic rosette! I love it even more than the first one.

That's good enough for me, thanks Trevor.

Originally Posted by Claretman

Steven, just going back a step, the colour of that oak back is great which plenty of the "mouse man" furniture lovers around the globe would recognise in a heartbeat. Just a thought it could be called "Kilburn" ????. Keep up the good work

Iain

"Kilburn"...I like it. But not too Yorkshirian for you? Don't want to stir up the rivalry further!

Thanks,

Steve

[Steve Kinnaird]

Iain raised the idea of the name "Kilburn" for this marquetry pattern.
I like it, but in the spirit of democracy, would like to get your (yes, your) input as well. Wanna cast a vote?
Does this:




...evoke this:





???


Vote early and often. Help a struggling luthier!
And thanks again, Iain,

Steve