Very nice Bruce, your romantic side is coming through!

Hey, Bruce, just wanted to say, I was really glad to get to know you better over the weekend at Tom and Kathy's B.I.G. gathering. I've been following your work since 1999, when I first met you at Healdsburg, before I had made my first guitar. You are a modern legend, and deservedly so.
I'm grateful beyond ability to elucidate, for you sharing your craft wisdom in your lecture on Sunday. Everything you said about the contrast between Traditional and Modern has not only sparked a lot of self-reflection, but has also inspired me to begin moving more in a traditional direction with my own guitars. Thanks for making that parallel universe not only very inviting to explore, but also navigable.

I hope to bring a guitar to the next B.I.G. show that you will recognize as being directly inspired by YOU.
Thanks again, Bruce.

You are SOOO welcome, Steve. A very nice note, I might add. Hard to know whether I will be invited to the next BIG, but if I am, I will take the opportunity to see Austin instead of San Antonio. I have been in SA before, but never Austin. I hadn't realized they are so nearly equidistant from Tom and Kathy's.

I've always wanted to visit Austin too. It seems to be a town that would almost feel at home to dyed-in-the-wool west coasters like us. See you at the next crossroads, my friend!

Thank you!
 

Bruce -

The rose is beautiful. I am touched that you took the time to respond to my short musing with such a high level of craftsmanship. You knew well that this was not a "specification", or even well thought out request on my part, and yet you decided to invest yourself and make it a special experience.

Thank you Bruce.

jm

Good grief ... that's one gorgeous guitar Bruce!

Early on in our process, Jmat, you gave me license to interpret freely outside of the the specifics we discussed, so I was confident enough in making the Rose that it didn’t occur to me not to do it. I do have to wonder what I might have done if given more than a few hours notice. You’re welcome.

The set up is not complete, but I played the guitar yesterday for an hour or so. Prepare yourself for a new favorite guitar. The king is dead, long live the king. I will bring it to Artisan as a carry on or gate check item. The new Visesnut case is both strong and EXTREMELY durable.

oh wow, I will see you there!

Yes! The snout towards bottom. ...so appreciate the posts here Bruce, many thanks for the insight to your craft.

I saw this short video a couple of weeks ago, and today Kenny Smith gave me permission to use it to demonstrate the P Dred I recently made for customer Joe Helm. In addition to being an A1 picker, Kenny also once worked for Gallagher Guitars, and is still building today.

https://vimeo.com/329178910

Not finding that page, Bruce...

Here’s the correct link to the video...

https://vimeo.com/329178910

At the recent B.I.G. one of the participants brought along a genuine 1930 OM to show off as he surmised many there probably had never had the opportunity to play one. While that appeared to be true, it is not the case with myself, and I have played about a dozen of them. They are the inspiration behind most of my work, and particularly the 60+ Schoenberg guitars I have made.

While Schoenberg was ordering a steady stream of these Martin inspired guitars from me over the last 20+ years, I had agreed to make them exclusively for him. At this point, however, that project has been on his back-burner long enough that I have decided it is time to make a blatant OM derivative guitar under my own banner.

This one will be an facsimile OM-28, Adirondack over Brazilian Rosewood. As I tend to do on spec guitars, it will be from the more modest end of my wood locker, but that doesn't make it a piker by any means. The top will be from Hampton Bros. and is beautifully quartered and possibly w/o visible runout, and the BRW, while entry level in my stash, compares well in today's market.

I have joined the plates and installed the rosette in my facsimile OM-28:

http://mojoluthier.com/LP19/289/top1.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP19/289/back1.jpg

Looks like really nice BRW to me!

Looking forward to watching it come together...