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This is so cool. Looks like it will be a great guitar.
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Excellent work. Looks like this guitar is really coming together. It is special to watch a guitar lover (like us) throw himself into the mix. Appreciate you sharing all this with us. I feel like I have some sawdust in my nose.
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Day 5.5 (6)
This entry will conclude the build week and there will be a break for a couple of months while the guitar is off visiting the beautiful state of MI before returning with that glow that only Tony can impart.
On Day 6 we started the day by sleeping-in an hour and meeting at Dolli's Diner on the square in old downtown Nacogdoches. I've been in triathlon training mode for the last 18ish months and don't get many pancakes, but decided early in the week that this would be as good a time as any to indulge a little and have a good breakfast. The food was great and the conversation even better (I picked their brains about the Kinnaird vs Kinnaird friendly rivalry and we compared notes on their Scottish vacation vs my Iceland one). After significantly more tasty carbohydrates than I'm accustomed to we headed back to the shop to do some final prep and masking on the guitar and take some pics before sending it off for finish. Dolli's - https://imgur.com/Gzxc6A9.jpg We (mostly them) went through the relatively lengthy process of fitting the neck to the body making sure our scale length was dead on and that the center of the nut lined up with the center of the bridge. Speaking of nut, Steve puts the nut on the headstock so we notched out the veneer and sanded the angle to the bottom so that it was a perfect fit. We went with the traditional Martin-esque OM headstock rather than the Kinnaird headstock to help differentiate the student build and I softened the edges a bit to make it similar to the '31 OM-28A I sold a few months ago. https://imgur.com/HMJGn1f.jpg My (our) Creation - https://imgur.com/bMQkiTx.jpg "Cheese" Shots - https://imgur.com/WpHBSaP.jpg https://imgur.com/RDdYmw5.jpg My family came up for the weekend and my youngest managed to get in the picture, make it significantly better, and not break anything in the shop (that I know of). https://imgur.com/QJFMgdx.jpg AND, last but not least, a pic with the masters... https://imgur.com/q1YDDTG.jpg Oh, and you probably saw the koa peeking out from behind my rather large figure...after breakfast we spent some time shellac'ing some sets and....wow...just wow... https://imgur.com/8NQwTSx.jpg https://imgur.com/UbtvO65.jpg https://imgur.com/Bf8B1nT.jpg If you made it this far, thank you for following along! I'll be back in 8-10 weeks for final setup and to post some good "finished" pics. Thank you Steve, Ryan, and Billie for letting me into your home/business this week, treating me like family, and selflessly sharing your wealth of knowledge and experience with me throughout this build. You have a very special thing going in that small East Texas town and I sincerely hope many others have the opportunity to meet you guys, share the laughs and stories, and maybe even build a guitar. I get the impression you guys are well-loved in this community and have earned some very deserved respect, but I can say with confidence that whatever accolades you have received it isn't enough to be close to proportional to the time, care, experience, artistry, and master-level craftsmanship that you put into everything that you do. Your guitars are not only beautiful, but they inspire in a way that few others can; I can't get the sound of that mahogany OM out of my head :D. |
Looks like great fun! It has to be incredible to be working with Steve and Ryan, too! Can't wait to see the final product!
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John, it was a delight having you in our shop last week. Several times in this thread you mentioned being nervous, but that never showed. "Nerves" was what hindered me at first, and there is a sense of satisfaction in helping nudge someone over their own mental hurdles.
Thanks for coming, and being part of the team. Oh yes, and happy birthday! Steve |
What Jim said!
Quote:
This thread is just really about as heartwarming as it gets.... Just wait till it gets back with the Tony GLOW SALUD Paul |
What fun to watch! I own 2 Kinnairds (both DB OMs) and they are spectacular. I am sure this personally built piece will tickle you crazy. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed following along. Cute kid!
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I’ve always loved how music can bring people together and, here, how guitars can bring folks together, too. Congratulations on a beautiful story as well as a great guitar-build!
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What a fantastic thread--congrats on such a wonderful experience!
And you'll have a world-class guitar out of it as well! It looks fantastic... OK--So thanks, now I have something new on my bucket list! |
This is so wonderful! You built a gorgeous instrument and how cool to be able to play what you built... Thank you for taking us along on this journey. The pics and commentary have been great! And your daughter is wonderful!! :)
We'll be waiting along with you while the guitar is at Tony's.... beth |
I think you're going to love that guitar.
I have a Lutz-topped S Kinnaird SJ, and the sound is... astonishing. I commissioned a LS redwood/ziricote OM from Kinnaird guitars early this year, and before I was through I ended up with three of his guitars: the redwood, the Lutz SJ, and a superb Sitka/African curly mahogany 12 string (the latter two being pre-built). All of them are lifetime instruments. |
Very cool thread and that guitar is destined to become amazing! Thanks for sharing this journey!!
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So cool...brings back many memories of my time building with Wayne Henderson, Spencer Strickland, Josh Reese, and Marty Howard at the Henderson School in Marion, VA earlier this year. I also have the Maple deep body Kinnaird OM used for the blind test with a mahogany and rosewood OM posted some time ago...stellar guitar. I may end up visiting Stephen and Ryan someday and building with them...it's a great time I'm sure. Thanks for sharing your experience!
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Final Setup!
Thank you all for the kind words!
After a couple of busy holiday months that my guitar spent a good portion of in Michigan, Ryan and I were able to coordinate a day for me to come back and do final assembly and setup last Friday. Aside from a couple of teaser pics where Ryan was careful not to show me too much, I had no idea what she would look like under finish when I walked in and I couldn't have been happier. (Finish came in at about .003) The B/S deepened in color with the sides taking on a very deep red/burgundy and the back being a hair lighter, but still very rich. The finish made the silking in the lutz really pop. This top is stunning today and will just get better and better with age. Ryan again showed other-worldly patience in watching and coaching me through tasks he could do in his sleep. After spending a few minutes admiring the finish, we started work on the frets... Level, crown, and polish the frets after waxing and taping off the fingerboard: https://i.imgur.com/YXDWjM2.jpg https://i.imgur.com/f0A22l2.jpg We then cut the saddle blank down to length and then carefully carved it to its final shape. This was more tedious than I anticipated and I ended up with a shape I wouldn't have guessed came from careful work with a couple of files and 320 grit sandpaper: https://i.imgur.com/HhBFPBE.jpg We then started from a nut that Steve and I had already rough cut to the right width and bottom angle and cut the string slots. We spent some time playing with the height of the saddle and nut to get the action closer to final height and then broke for lunch. After lunch we shaped the nut. This is one of Steve's jobs and though he offered to let me do it, he did the majority of the shaping: https://i.imgur.com/7J0lqnO.jpg https://i.imgur.com/z23GFxS.jpg After getting the nut and saddle close to final height we made a final truss rod adjustment and tweaked the action. I prefer something on the low side of medium action so I don't get fret buzz when I'm playing palm-muted flat-pick rhythm stuff and that's what we ended with. I didn't do a great job of snapping pics during the work on Friday, but took a few minutes before leaving East Texas yesterday to get some of the obligatory "leaned against a local tree" pics: https://i.imgur.com/G8Gue8n.jpg https://i.imgur.com/gqqTgR5.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Voj2Ch7.jpg https://i.imgur.com/9fxR6Ou.jpg https://i.imgur.com/u44B8J5.jpg https://i.imgur.com/65OVpEK.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PihMiXQ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/sgOc0Gn.jpg https://i.imgur.com/CK5LHfa.jpg I'll get some more pics of specific details over the next few days and if you have anything in particular you'd like to see don't hesitate to ask. I'll add some thoughts on the tone and possibly even throw together a quick video in the coming days after giving her a little more time. First impressions on that front are excellent though! |
Not bad looking for something that took about 6.5 days of shop time! We couldn’t have had more fun if we tried.
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