SJ, You DO NOT look sleep deprived...
 

I would wake up early too! Haha. What a beauty!!!

Steve K, very nice playing! And another stunner guitar.

Beth, sending good thoughts! May your Dad have a smooth transition and may you be well and happy. Glad you are playing!!!

A wonderful Thanksgiving to all. My but we have a LOT to be thankful for!!!

Paul

Thank you Paul, and indeed everyone for the very kind response.
And, thank you Stan! It has been lots of fun working with/for Stan, and a pleasure having him not too far away. You get to know a person a little bit better when they can stop by your shop, talk wood, look at options and discuss preferences. It makes the collaboration that much easier, the results more predictable. And swapping songs last night was a blast!
Come back any time Stan...we'll leave the light on for ya!

Steve

We experienced a little trouble dialing in the action, but I changed out the saddle and nut today and it's now great. Glad you provided me with options, Steve and Ryan! I took a pic but it came out huge (again) so you'll have to scroll back a bit - I think there are pics with both the plain unbleached bone and the dyed bone - I'm going with the whiter one.

With just a few hours of play-time, I'm not ready to give a real review of the sound of this guitar, but I will talk about some first impressions a little. Bear in mind that I got this guitar to play finger-style, despite the fact that I am not a finger-style player. I am going to need to grow into this instrument, so a real evaluation may be months away. Also take into consideration that this is my first redwood - almost the first I've ever played. I didn't really know what to expect.

Wow - I think I talked myself out of . . . let me go play it another hour, then I'll tell you what I think!

Wow. Hold your luthier in suspense. ;)

I can't tell if I'm just hearing with my eyes and nose but this guitar sounds . . . spicy. In a cinnamon and cloves sort of way, not chiles and cumin. Maybe that's overtones? I don't know. (Maybe I ate too much pumpkin pie yesterday.) The open low E and A strings ring with wonderful depth - the low end and mid-range are very resonant and yet there's a wonderful clarity too - I like this sound a lot. The unwound treble strings sound a little underpowered sometimes, by comparison, but that may be me and my inexperience. I think I over-trimmed my fingernails today (but not my thumbnail), and that may be making them sound muted. If I strum a chord with the back of the nail the trebles sound bright enough, and well balanced. Well - still learning. Overall, I'm pleased with this pretty little thing - very pleased. I'll report more as I learn more.

You have a beauty there, Stan! Maybe with the different sound and texture, the Kinnaird will inspire you to a whole new level! Loved the selfie with the guitar :)

Beth, hopefully you can find some more opportunities to enjoy time with your Dad.

Ken

Thanks, Ken! It's already inspiring me: I've learned one new fingerstyle arrangement and have a stack of others to tackle! I've always been mostly a strummer, with a little rudimentary Travis-picking thrown in, so it's a new challenge for me, and I think this guitar is just the ticket for it.

I threw a little guitar party today: had some friends over to play my new Kinnaird and to do a little A/B/C comparing. But we were having too much fun swapping songs and stories to be systematic. Everybody loved the new guitar, but they loved the others too, and I think after a while no one was paying much attention to what they were playing. I meant to take pictures but forgot, as usual. Here's a shot of the three guitars I took to the party:

https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net...f7&oe=5C7C33F3

Sorry it's so huge. I never know how my Facebook posts are going to come out here.

Despite the chaos of a party jam, I was able to do some evaluation. When I was playing it, I was loving the new FS on many songs. It really shone on the "You Never Give Me Your Money" medley from Abbey Road, and on "The May Day Carol." It works fine for strumming, lightly, but not so much for boom-chuck bluegrass. I knew that all along, and since my Allison dread is a top-notch banjo killer, I knew it didn't need to be. I find the sound of this new one seductive - almost intoxicating. It is definitely going to get most of my practice time for the foreseeable future - except when I'm learning a new fiddle tune.

Wow ... didn't that Redwood turn out nice! Love the video of you playing it Steve (nice picking) ... sounds solid and complex at the same time ... love it!!!

Thank you, David, for checking this thread out. I love to see how you great luthiers support each other. If I have accidentally cast doubt on how great this guitar is, all anyone has to do is go back to Steve's video to see just how good it can be in the right hands.

I'm working through Doug Young's book, "Understanding DADGAD" and loving it. This guitar was build for just such tunings. I'm only up to page 22, and I need to go back and memorize a few of the examples to get the picking patterns intuitive, but I hope to finish chapter one today.

A little update on this new Kinnaird. I got tired of taking baby steps in DADGAD on this guitar and, after about a week, pulled it back up to standard tuning so I could practice some old favorites. I don't know if I just needed time concentrating on very basic stuff (like how to make a C chord ;) ) or if the guitar just needed some time to find it's voice, but I am now officially in awe. There's not a thing I can do on a guitar that doesn't sound better on this, and I know it can do more that I can't yet do - but I will. This morning I practiced "Forked Deer" and "Bonaparte Crossing the Rock Mountains" and they have never sounded sweeter, or played easier. No, I'm not going to take it to bluegrass jams - I promised myself I wouldn't do that - but I think I will practice fiddle tunes on it at home: for one thing, it stimulates me to try new approaches, new sonorities.

Well, maybe it's not for everything. The lead break on "Back In the USSR" definitely goes better on the telecaster. Mississippi John Hurt songs might sound better on this guitar, but they wouldn't sound right. So it won't be my one and only, but it will definitely make me neglect my others if I'm not conscientious. I'm very much in love.

Stan, we appreciate the glowing report, but especially that you are bonding with your new guitar. May it serve you well, and inspire to new heights.
Try "Lime Rock", or maybe even "Tennessee Stud" and see if they work on the FS. Thanks again,
Steve