No wonder
 

No wonder you are charged up! Woohoo!!!!

Cheers

Paul

My wife who has to put up with looking at a lot of guitar parts thinks this peghead might be her favorite piece ever. High praise from the luthier's wife.

A most amazing work of art.

That's gorgeous. As silly as it sounds, for some reason I simply love those little colored accent dots on the headstock. Sort of like the spice in a dish - just a tiny something that gives it all its flavor.

Congrats Dennis, the whole think looks great. And to have it all done by Larry Robinson, the came guy commissioned by Martin for some outstanding anniversary work, come on, that is just cool!!!

Just a thought; you have the same dots in the rosette. You could make them blue to match the headstock & fretboard. But I'm sure you're already contempating that .....
Steve

I just read this entire thread and all I can say is WOW! This will be the most beautiful guitar I have ever seen. I am a "no bling" kinda guy but this is simply amazing Dennis. There truly is magic going on at Kinnaird Guitars and from everything I have read about their builds, it is going to sound as amazing as it looks. Keep the updates coming.

Man is that pretty! Congrats on another fine piece of the puzzle!

I must admit, I have been quite puzzled how a torch inlay was going to work with your TOL, but that is absolutely amazing!! Could not be more perfect, the way they belong together!

Beautiful!

Thanks for the kind words, all!
Yes, the "torch" and the TOL are a classic combo, and in these elements have an earthy simpatico.

Steve

Oh my goodness Dennis, this is looking fantastic. WOW!!

The neck ...
 

Ryan and Steve have been busy today. The first shot shows the fitting the purfling into its channel. Then the Ebony binding is applied. The detail work on the TOL is just extraordinary.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2839/...0a807b_o_d.jpg

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2945/...96214c_o_d.jpg

Then the shot of the day. You can almost imagine six strings hovering over this baby!

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2911/...0aeffb_o_d.jpg

Just amazing, Dennis--the TOL is beautiful, and the colors really bring it to life!

The flowers for the fretboard markers fit in so well with the scheme.

Totally awesome--you gotta be thrilled! Congrats and kudos to you and Steve, and Ryan, and everyone involved! (Except USPS)

Two thumbs up from me, if I had more I would give you more! This shop is smokin!!! Turning out a lot of top class stuff!!!

Oh wowzers! Would you look at that! Guitar art and craftsmanship at its finest.
The theme is just in time for spring too!

On a side note, USPS has been flaky lately. Had two packages (incoming and outgoing) that were delayed by almost a week for no reason at all. Tracking shows sorting facilities have been passing the packages around like a hot potato. Fortunately, nothing got lost. But I'll be avoiding using them moving forward.

I appreciate you folks following along and all the wonderful comments. Steve and Ryan are top notch. And as Tom said, you know it's going to sound good so you can relax and enjoy the building process. Fun to watch!

Hats off to Larry on the fretboard and peghead inlays. Stellar work!

Progress ....
 

Here Ryan gets his exercise for the day. I remember seeing the action shot when he was doing this to Tom's OM. The top linings are ground to radius. As you can see Ryan has taken a break to dry the sweat from his forehead.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2898/...f6b3ce_o_d.jpg

Then we have some progress on the rosette. The resourcefulness of these guys just astounds me. In this photo Steve creates a template from one of the torch elements and lays them on top of the Maple blanks as a guide for cutting.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2857/...2b412d_o_d.jpg

To create the dots, Steve doesn't have a cutter small enough so he made one from a piece of silver tubing, filing several notches in the end to cut into the wood. After drilling in, the band saw is used to release the dots from the block. Genius!

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2818/...d86660_o_d.jpg

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2845/...edc4c6_o_d.jpg

Here are the pieces placed on the Ebony ring for ideas. Now comes another few rounds of design discussion. You just never know what these guys may come up with. Stay tuned!

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2836/...e5318f_o_d.jpg

That is looking great Dennis. Before I get into all the design elements, I am just astonished by the back wood....Geez that is gorgeous.

Now, the other stuff....you used the work resourcefulness, I concur completely. When Ryan was building the end of my fretboard and setting it up for the inlay, he had to do stuff they had never done before and either figured out something that would work or made a tool to do it...now Steve is making a wood punch from scratch, from silver no less, to the correct diameter! These guys are amazing.

The rosette looks beautiful right now as is, so I can't wait to see it as more elements are added in.

Isn't this so much fun to see your dreams coming true before your eyes. To watch Steve and Ryan work together with your ideas to bring dreams to life, it is so rewarding.

Thanks Tom. I have the same feeling when I get a glimpse of that back. Wowsers!

Steve and I agree, the rosette was getting pretty busy. I think we are talking a little simpler still complimenting the other elements on the peghead and fretboard.

Something more like this. Hope you don't mind ... I used your label for the mockup. This really draws in elements from the peghead.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2835/...3c0a91_o_d.jpg

I certainly agree, this guitar commission journey thing is a real joy.

Congrats on your new geetar! Can't wait to hear that baby!

None of my business of course, this is yours, but I almost think that is too many dots....wonder how it would look with one set of three dots between each flourish and then at the top by the fretboard, have half a flourish like your inital mock-up did?????

Such incredible workmanship! Wouldn't dare imagine how long the inlays took :eek:

Oh man, it's coming together...! So sweet...

Rosette runoff ...
 

Thanks guys. Appreciate your comments. And thanks Tom for the advice. I think you definitely have a point.

After much back and forth I think we have a winner in the rosette finals. This will be my vote. Let's see what the guys in Texas have to say.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2847/...2cbc14_o_d.jpg

And just for fun (and because I can) another look at that beautiful piece of Madi!

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/599/3...d15a29_o_d.jpg

Your revised rosette looks great, Dennis!

It is all beautiful!!!

Stunning in every way Dennis! Gorgeous rosette, love the Madi.

Yes indeed. That rosette gets my vote. It looks less busy to me with the dark red oysters than the six dots. Really nice design. Can I vote twice?

As a matter of fact ... since your vote is the same as mine, you can (now let me mark that down ... JK two ... there we go)! ;)

Stunning in every way Dennis.