Another McKnight Build

[bk314159]

Originally Posted by bo1142

Thanks so much for sharing this build. It has been so awesome to see how much Tim and Mary put into each piece.

Thanks bo1142 - I totally agree.

Dru and kyle - and Mary - 900 photos is an AMAZING amount of photos - and much appreciated.

atty26.2 - thanks for your very kind words (do we have a marathoner here?).

StringMeUp - You're absolutely right about what I've been doing. I apologize for not being on-line, but trust me, I have a good a reason - that you already guessed.

sehnsucht77 - I know Tim has already answered your question, but I have to tell you the photos keep coming without asking. It's wonderful.

I will post my review in a day or two. I hope everyone understands I'd rather be playing and discovering the wonderful sounds of my new McKnight than typing.

Thanks for understanding!

BK

[StringMeUp]

Originally Posted by bk314159

. . . I hope everyone understands I'd rather be playing and discovering the wonderful sounds of my new McKnight than typing.

Heck yes we understand! I do not think anybody here blames you for wanting to play guitar rather than typing. Enjoy that beautiful instrument in good health!

[fitness1]

Originally Posted by bk314159

I hope everyone understands I'd rather be playing and discovering the wonderful sounds of my new McKnight than typing.



BK

I think my post count has gone done by a factor of 3 since last October when Tim and Mary showed up at my door

[Paul Ng]

AMAZING dedication and passion throughout the process. This thread makes me GAS for a guitar, thank God you're not in my country

Keep it up guys...blessings from Malaysia

[bk314159]

Originally Posted by StringMeUp

Heck yes we understand! I do not think anybody here blames you for wanting to play guitar rather than typing. Enjoy that beautiful instrument in good health!

Thank you so very much StringMeUp. You're very kind.

Originally Posted by Paul Ng

AMAZING dedication and passion throughout the process. This thread makes me GAS for a guitar, thank God you're not in my country

Keep it up guys...blessings from Malaysia

Hi Paul - I do believe they have delivery service from the US to Malaysia.

Originally Posted by fitness1

I think my post count has gone done by a factor of 3 since last October when Tim and Mary showed up at my door

Hi Todd - I can certainly understand why that would be true.

and now - my review ...

BK

[bk314159]

Review of my wonderful new McKnight Guitar
or
How I shot myself in the foot - twice - and I’m still standing!

My new McKnight Mini-Mac arrived a day early. Since I ordered this at the 2009 Healdsburg Festival, it’s been a long time coming. I unwrapped it slowly to savor the experience. A box inside a box and then a wonderful black cloth bag protecting the slick fiberglass case. There was also a “goodie” bag filled with: the sound hole cut out from my 1950 Redwood top, a discarded portion of my rosette, like pieces of my Ziricote back and shavings from my binding and purling. Also included were two sets of extra strings, an extra bone saddle, a truss rod wrench and various sized shims. To say I was excited was an understatement, but the fiberglass case was cold so I thought I should wait until it reached room temperature.

After an hour I couldn’t take it any longer, so I opened the case and finally saw my guitar. It was/is gorgeous. The fit and finish are immaculate. All the joints are tight and clean. There wasn’t a fingerprint to be seen. No dents or dings. Now with 900+ photos there shouldn’t be many surprises, but trust me it’s prettier in person. I was stunned by the fretboard. The 4 lines of purfling, the cocobolo binding and the inlay all seemed to fit (thanks Mary for the advise). Tim’s fretwork with the semi-elliptical endings is exquisite. Everything was as good or better than I hoped for.

Now it was time to tune her up. Where did I put my snark tuner? I got it into tune and strummed her a few times. Very pretty sound, but to be honest, it sounded a bit muted. I recalled that Tim said he left the strings that he used when he put the guitar on his ToneRite and I know how that process can kill strings. So about a half hour later, my guitar has new strings. It sounded better, but not as loud as I hoped. I kept playing for a while not knowing what to do. After about two hours I figured the best thing to do was to call Tim. As a luthier I can only imagine how hard it must be to spend two to three months working on a guitar, putting in all the love that they do and then to ship your creation. I’m sure they must feel some of the same anxiety we do. So after exchanging some pleasantries with Mary (I apologize Mary - you must have sensed I was a tad out of it), I spoke to Tim and told him while it sounds pretty, that my guitar doesn’t have the volume I expected. I’m sure this is not what Tim expected or hoped for, but one of the first things he said is “If you’re not happy with it I’ll be happy to return your money.” To say the McKnights are people of character is an understatement. While I appreciated his saying that, I really wanted to keep this guitar.

The first shot to my foot - During the building process, not only do you get photos from Mary, but there is also a running dialogue with Tim. In one of his e-mails Tim mentioned how amazing the LR Baggs Anthem Pickup sounded in a guitar that he delivered in Nashville. I generally don’t use an amplifier, but I figured if I was going to do this, let’s do it right, so I had Tim put in the same pickup. So why is this important? Tim suspected this might be the culprit. One of the pickups is a cloth covered wire placed under the saddle which Tim explained would act as an insulator. If I played through an amp most of the time this wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, I rarely do. Tim suggested I pull the saddle, undo the pickup, and place a shim in. While I love guitars, I’ve always let a technician do the “hard” stuff. After 20 minutes, with the help of Tim’s explicit instructions, my guitar now had volume! It was so much better. I was so relieved. Of course, I had to call Tim and let him know that he had solved the problem. While on the phone Tim mentioned one other item that I might want to try.

Second shot to my foot - I read a line a couple of weeks ago that I found interesting, “The collector buys a guitar with their eyes. A musician buys a guitar with their ears.” While I’m neither, I’m probably more the former than the later. I love the look of ivory so I had Tim install an ivory saddle, an ivory nut and ivory bridge pins. In our conversation Tim explained how collectors of old guitars love the sound of ivory. He liken the sound to strings that are broken in, while bone imparts a sound of fresh strings. Since Tim had included a bone saddle I figured what do I have to lose? Once I made the change, it made all the difference. My guitar is now a canon. I “attempt” to play pieces by John Renbourn and he uses a lot of harmonics. This guitar’s harmonics are to kill for.

Now the beauty of its sound matches the beauty of the guitar. As I just mentioned, that volume is amazing. The s - u - s - t - a - i - n of the 1950 Redwood top is exceptional - everything I wanted. The bass is well defined and acts like a bass drum. The mids are well defined and beautiful. The trebles glisten. The Manzer wedge makes playing a full sized guitar so much more comfortable and I love the Luckenbooth side sound port. Since I don’t play for an audience, it’s wonderful that some of the volume is pointed in my direction. The overall sound is well balanced and now my guitar has the “McKnight” signature tone that I experienced at Healdsburg in 2009 (or at least what I remember and hoped for).

In spite of myself, I am now another very happy and satisfied member of the McKnight guitar family.

BK

[pitner]

I had the same experience with my Olson SJ. I bought it used and was impressed with the overall quality of sound but always wondered if the fishman under saddle pickup was a damper to the acoustic sound. Since I play out quite a bit I really needed the pickup so I had my tech pull the fishman and install a K and K mini with a new bone saddle. 20% improvement to my ears. Glad it worked out for you. I have been following the thread with interest and find Tim's workmanship just perfect. I won't have a under saddle pickup or shims in any of my acoustics due to this issue. I find the K and K great and also no batteries to deal with.

[sehnsucht77]

Originally Posted by pitner

I had the same experience with my Olson SJ. I bought it used and was impressed with the overall quality of sound but always wondered if the fishman under saddle pickup was a damper to the acoustic sound. Since I play out quite a bit I really needed the pickup so I had my tech pull the fishman and install a K and K mini with a new bone saddle. 20% improvement to my ears. Glad it worked out for you. I have been following the thread with interest and find Tim's workmanship just perfect. I won't have a under saddle pickup or shims in any of my acoustics due to this issue. I find the K and K great and also no batteries to deal with.

pitner: what preamp do you use with you KK? right now I either run through a KK pre or an A-Designs REDDI or an Avalon U5. looking for something for live use.

[Tim McKnight]

Hey Pitner,

Glad you enjoyed the thread. The K&K is a wonderful PU and we have installed dozens of them with most customers very satisfied with the performance. Under saddle PUs are great plugged in as they offer a more metallic sound to blend with a warmer sounding mic or under bridge transducer(s) ... BUT ... its a damper, an interruption between saddle / bridge / and sound board. Unfortunately there is just no way around it. As BK discovered, after the under saddle piezo is removed from the mechanical coupling chain it makes a huge difference in the pure acoustic experience.

[Tim McKnight]

Originally Posted by sehnsucht77

pitner: what preamp do you use with you KK? right now I either run through a KK pre or an A-Designs REDDI or an Avalon U5. looking for something for live use.

Do a search for a Red Eye pre amp DI box. They are custom built specifically to impedance match with K&K PUs. We have one and they are awesome as compared to other DIs we have tried.

[pitner]

My signal chain is as follows:
HBE CPR Compressor
Fulltone Fat Boost
Exotic Ac Booster
Cathmods Waterbox Chorus
Fulltone Tremelo
Sweet Mo Faux Vibe
VanAmps spring reverb
LR Baggs Para DI

This setup will work with both electric (san DI) and acoustic using the di and a/b switch can be inserted to do the with or without. I am using the baggs due to my Wife finding it at an auction brand new in the box for $20.00. I am sure others are better but for now the baggs is cool and paid for as well. My amp when I use one is a Schertler David for acoustic and a 40 watt Guytron head with a single 12" in an open back cabinet for electric. When I want real fine chorus I throw in a small leslie with speaker switching from my amp set up. Most of the time I gig with the small pedalboard mentioned above. My Goodall also has the K and K mini which really is a great way to do live amped acoustic stuff without a lot of fuss. So far I am pretty happy with my current setup, might add a fuzz for the electric.

[sehnsucht77]

@Tim and Pitner: thanks for the information.

[Tim McKnight]

Originally Posted by sehnsucht77

@Tim and Pitner: thanks for the information.

Glad we can help though it looks like pitner has a LOT more experience than I do with effects. That's quite a list of components to play with.

[cpabolting]

I have always been impressed with Tim and Mary's dedication to building fine instruments.

[sehnsucht77]

Originally Posted by Tim McKnight

Glad we can help though it looks like pitner has a LOT more experience than I do with effects. That's quite a list of components to play with.

indeed. my acoustic rig is spartan and only uses a voodoo pedal power, a tube DI, a chorus and a compressor.