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Old 03-17-2016, 06:08 PM
Mark Hatcher's Avatar
Mark Hatcher Mark Hatcher is offline
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Default Hatcher Koa ​Piña for TomB'sox build thread

I have the pleasure of building a Koa ​Piña parlor guitar for TomB'sox. Tom visited my studio in January and we picked out woods and I got to watch him play (and hear his daughter sing) and had a great talk about comfort, tones and expectations.

​Piña means "little pineapple" so a Koa parlor certainly seems right, doesn't it?



This will be the tenth guitar I've made from this billet (two more left). It has worked out so well that I bought some additional beautiful side wood to stretch how many guitars I could make. This billet has provided some great tone for the active backs I make on very light guitars. Here is a close up of the figure in the side wood:



Of all of the available domestic tonewoods I think most would agree the most exotic is Koa:





One of my favorite things about domestic woods is you can go see them when they are still trees. So naturally Koa shouldn't be an exception! Last November Karen and I went to Kauai and saw quite a few Koa trees while visiting. They say the best Koa tonewood comes from above 2,000 feet so we went to Waimea Canyon to check them out. They call this canyon "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific":



It is unlike the Grand Canyon in that instead of it being a deep hole in the ground, its sides go up 3,600 feet. We hiked down into the canyon and it wasn't hard to find the Koa trees:





Here is a picture of the lovely and ever patient Mrs. H taking a rest under a Koa tree:



And so we're off on a new adventure!



Hope you enjoy the ride
Mark
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Old 03-17-2016, 06:52 PM
AcornHouse AcornHouse is offline
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"Honey, let's go somewhere to look at trees."
"Uh, really? Ok."
"In Hawaii."
"For you, anything."
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Old 03-17-2016, 07:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AcornHouse View Post
"Honey, let's go somewhere to look at trees."
"Uh, really? Ok."
"In Hawaii."
"For you, anything."
Incredible! That's exactly how it happened
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Old 03-17-2016, 07:25 PM
louis lasky louis lasky is offline
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This exactly the guitar I'd order from you Mark. Can't wait to see how this takes shape!
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Old 03-17-2016, 07:51 PM
OddManOut OddManOut is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher View Post
I have the pleasure of building a Koa ​Piña parlor guitar for TomB'sox. Tom visited my studio in January and we picked out woods and I got to watch him play (and hear his daughter sing) and had a great talk about comfort, tones and expectations.

​Piña means "little pineapple" so a Koa parlor certainly seems right, doesn't it?








I love flamed maple, flamed mahogany...but no wood I have seen has the beauty of flamed Koa. Some examples of flamed walnut and mango come close, but Koa is the champ in my book.


Quote:


Hope you enjoy the ride
Mark
Beautiful wood from a beautiful corner of the Earth.
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Old 03-17-2016, 08:13 PM
Marcus Wong Marcus Wong is offline
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Such a beautiful set of Koa! Wonder what Tom sees in it...
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Old 03-17-2016, 08:41 PM
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Thank you Mark for starting this thread. I am very happy that this guitar is coming to fruition. I think after spending a lot of time here in the custom section of the AGF and following all the build threads and reading all the posts from the luthiers that most of us could come up with a word or two to assign to each builder, sort of a word association. They all have their own characteristic, at least in my mind, that one might associate with them. For Mark, for me, it is his ability to choose woods that all come together to form a beautiful expression of colors and depth and texture...wood art one might say. Then when Dennis AKA Cigarfan brought his two Hatchers to my house one Saturday morning, I was amazed by the sound and the sensitivity to touch they exhibited. I knew at that time, if I could swing it, I would like to have Mark build me a guitar to compliment my Kinnaird SJ.

One very nice thing is that Mark is only 3 1/2 hours by car from my house allowing us a chance to drive over, see the shop, have some lunch, talk guitars, and what was super fun for me, get a crash course in tapping and tones. He gave me several samples and son of a gun, I got to where I could really hear different tones and even sustains in some woods and not others. We selected the Koa for beauty (the back is one thing, but the sides are from another world man, maybe from the end of the rainbow in that picture Mark posted) as well as the many different notes I found in that piece. The same is true for the top, I felt like if I had a little longer, I could have found a complete scale in that top.

Needless to say, this is very exciting topped off by the personalization that really comes from meeting the man face to face handshake to handshake and touching the raw materials. I have very much left the design of this guitar up to Mark (at least after we had general discussions of likes and dislikes, sound, comfort etc) and have complete faith in him based on his body of work exhibited in this forum. He has some nice little surprises in store for the design elements that I hope you all like...I can't wait to see them in action.

A special thanks to the aforementioned Dennis for taking time to drive well out his way for me to meet him and his Hatchers....I don't know Mark, but maybe a marketing fee for Dennis hahahah.....

Thanks everyone for following along as Mark builds this little Pina for me.
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Old 03-17-2016, 08:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcus Wong View Post
Such a beautiful set of Koa! Wonder what Tom sees in it...
Beauty buddy, plain and simple, beauty....no animals lurking that I can see. I do know the sides look like Mark opened a can of golden paint and poured it down the sides....

Hope you are well and continuing to play play play!!!
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Old 03-18-2016, 09:19 AM
mountainguitar mountainguitar is offline
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Wow! Another TomB'sox thread! And a Mark Hatcher thread! And beautiful Koa and Hawaii pictures! I think this one might qualify for a title of "Heaven."

This will be a wonderful thread to follow-
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Old 03-18-2016, 09:46 AM
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And you can feel "good" about it. I just read in one of my National Geographic Magazines that they began reforesting Koa many years ago. There are now many more large trees than there were due to that effort. Not as sustainable as Oak, Walnut or Maple, but WAY better than it used to be.

Enjoy

Chris
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Old 03-18-2016, 12:04 PM
Pat Foster Pat Foster is offline
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That's some outstanding koa. Kind of poetic that it comes from one of the most extraordinary spots on earth.

Pat
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Old 03-18-2016, 12:23 PM
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Mark and Tom--been looking forward to this one, and with the woods and the people involved, it looks sure not to disappoint!

Thanks for taking us along on the ride...
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Old 03-18-2016, 12:34 PM
jaymarsch jaymarsch is offline
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Another enticing Hatcher build thread! This looks like a winner for sure.

Best,
Jayne
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Old 03-18-2016, 12:49 PM
bubbaprime bubbaprime is offline
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Congratulations, Tom! And Mark!
This one has the beginnings of legend written all over it. Looking forward to the journey and Mark's fabulous photojournalism of the build process. Thanks for sharing.
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Old 03-18-2016, 01:45 PM
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Very good to see this thread as well. For Tom, I can easily see the appeal, for the last Koa guitar that Mark had built really had my juices flowing too. This will undoubtedly turn out great. I'm looking forward to following along.
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