Al Petteway plays a little on Steve’s koa Mitchell with the Pablo package
 

The full pablo includes a manzer wedge, extensive bevels top and back, sound port, cantilevered fingerboard, adjustable neck, "D tube" neck reinforcement, carbon fiber braced neck block to eliminate top structural duties, and top bracing designed to encourage the upper bout of the top to sing

This will be a koa guitar with a cedar top and probably rosewood binding. The internals will mostly be Spanish cedar so that along with western cedar top should reward sound hole sniffing.

Here is the back

https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._095150-XL.jpg

So the back is Koa not Kia but I don't seem to be able to do any editing on the title line


Here is what I'm considering for binding and bevels. BRW

https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._145300-XL.jpg

And a handsome set that is! This will be fun to watch.

KBW

Thank you brother.

Here are the internal blocks in transition from alternating layers of Spanish cedar and thinner layers of padouk to something unitary.
Shop made Plywood?

https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._094340-XL.jpg

Voila. Laminated SC and padouk neck and heel blocks
https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._100404-XL.jpg

Oh YES!!!!, that is a sweet set of koa. By the looks of all the options, it would seem that the person that ordered this guitar said "alter everything". This will be fun to watch.

Looks like you are doing a clamp test here, a sample of every clamp in the shop on one job.

Steve has played all 3 of my JK Customs
 

Steve actually just asked for all the stuff John did for my new Custom, below. Just less the cutaway.

The Pablo Package is also 12 frets to the body, with comfy rounded bindings throughout when John does it for me! And it does include all his normal goodies which would often be extras from many builders: Hide Glue, wherever it helps tone, Jescar extra hard gold color frets, Gotoh 510 tuners, multi laminate Carbon Fiber reinforced super stiff neck. Beautiful head plate and backstrap with super strong duck tail volute. Also, John has now done four custom neck carves for me as I have small hands and am beat up after my lifetime of drumming and 26 years of solo guitar without backing tracks!

Folks, these instruments are OUTSTANDING in every way, and a monster value, too!!!

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=553751

Cheers

Paul

Hey, you can always add a cutaway later! :)

"Cutawectomy"
 

Didn't Steve K and Ryan recently do a "cutawectomy"? Hahahah

I need to call Steve M, and make him check this out! He rarely looks at his device, and his phone spends most to its time in an oven mitt in the back of the towel drawer. (lucky him!)

Cheers

Paul (Pablo)

Ha, there are lots of old clamps at work. Thanks for looking Bill.

Laminated sides. The inner layer is Australian Blackwood. It seemed more appropriate than using cedar. Lots of epoxie squeezed through the pores in the wood as you can see. Cleanup needed on both sides.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._110623-XL.jpg

Love those koa back and sides John....awesome!

And also the use of another acacia for the double sides. Do you notice the koa and the Oz blackwood showing similar characteristics for bending and general workability?

Col

Thanks Colins

I was thinking that Using acacia on the inside laminate would help conserve the koa tonal character. I did find that both layers bent pretty much the same way and that was remarkable considering how flamed the outside layer is.

Cleaner sides
 

I love the way laminated sides hold their shape outside the mold.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._100205-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._111447-XL.jpg

Outstanding John! Going to be one purdy geetar. Love the shop plywood neck and tail blocks. And quite a beautiful set of Kia (I mean Koa - at first I thought maybe you had gone into the car business but I see someone fixed it for you). I think you are going to make Paul a little jealous on this one.

Thanks Dennis

Maybe Paul will get jealous. Maybe he will order his 5th guitar just to stay ahead

All the lining opposite the players side where there are no bevels is laminated. I just prop my sides tightly into th he mold, cover the inside of the side with packing tape and using the sides as a mold glue up the layers.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._095138-XL.jpg

The other side of the guitar will have thicker deeper kerfed linings top and back. Here is a shot of two layers ganged up and a third partial
and tapered layer ready to glue to the area that needs to thicker.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._083329-XL.jpg

Everything is glued in square and then shaped by hand after the glue has dried. Knife and sandpaper.

So if Higuerilla is a tonewood from South America and koa is from Hawaii; maybe Hyundai and Kia are the new tonewoods from Asia!

LOL
You know i don't think I typed Kia. I’m pretty sure i typed Koa and my phone changed it. On the other hand, the I and O are right next to each other and well.... I’d rather blame the phone.

Profiling the back
 

The top of the guitar is pretty flat and so will take the lining prior to being profiled since that operation does not remove much wood, but the back needs to be profiled first and then have the lining applied. So using this spinning disk not only Is the taper being sanded back to front, but in this case A manzer wedge is getting sanded in as well. The disk is a hemisphere so in addition to all that, the finished surface will have a hemispherical profile.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._123819-XL.jpg

It’s hard to take pictures with one hand and hold this rim with the other onto a spinning disk but hey you guys deserve my best efforts.

Mission accomplished. Good fit.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._124403-XL.jpg

Da back.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._083746-XL.jpg

And the top
 

Needs a little more cleanup but you can see the bracing pattern

https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._110749-XL.jpg

Nice--Dos Equis bracing!

Hmmm....
 

I am not sure what we could do to top the one coming any day now... but I wager John still has some cool innovative stuff up his sleeve!

But I am already way ahead, with FOUR of John's Customs. Steve will have two.

Anyone else with four?

I may have to sell one, and a couple KILLER 90s Taylors, too, as a roof is in the cards for this Spring. Wah!!!

Off to play the Brown Bomb for some Fat Slide Goodness...

Cheers

Paul

FINALLY!
 

Well I guess better late than never..........(indicates a long diatribe).
Anyway, after being advised by Pablo that there are pictures and info about my guitar on here, I figured out where here is and how to get here, no mean feat for one as tech challenged as me!
I am, as always, astounded by John’s incredible skill, craftsmanship and artistic sensibility.
For those of you who have not played one of his creations, well, uuuuhhhh, hmmmm, I just don’t know what to say!
Y’all probably know the depth and extent of Paul’s ever and ongoing guitar collection. Well he and I have played, ( A vs. B), against most all the known guitar brands, Martin, Taylor, Santa Cruz, Ryan,.....................
We also had the added benefit of the amazing Cindy, Paul’s beautiful life mate. Cindy has the most amazing ear for sound that I have ever experienced. Along with Paul, Cindy and my meager skills, we determined that some were close, but none surpassed John’s guitars for pure sound making. (Too many commas). Comma comma down doobee dooobe do down down writing stuff is hard tooooo do.
Beauty, ( more commas), playability, comfort, sound and value!
I am sure that in John’s genetic past, there is a Dryad in the family tree. He is the premier wood whisperer of our time. His guitars don’t whisper, but he whispers to them to make them all that they can be!
Meanwhile, (,) back to my guitar, it’s going to be the BOMB of all bombs! No cutaway for more sound. Rare and fabulous whispered woods. A huge, beautiful sound making machine.
Get ready Pablo, you won’t want to A vs B with me!
Many thanks John!
Anyway() I am really excited to get my hands on this one.

Comma, comma...
 

"Comma comma down doobee dooobe do down down writing stuff is hard tooooo do."

Well put, Steve!!! Hahahaha

John reported today he did not want to ship the Big Gun off. Says it is quite something!!!

Interesting, as he has never sounded so confident before, and all his guitars are KILLERS

Glad you remembered how to work your "glowing wrecktangle". Hahaha

Come visit soon!

Happy Monday evening to all

Paul

Wow, nothing is being held back on this one!!!!! Congrats Steve

I’m blushing.
Hopefully this guitar will live up to its billing:)

Prep work for the sliding mechanism that hold the nuts that the neck bolts attach too. I wanted something a little harder than Spanish cedar as a bearing surface so a strip of Brazilian rosewood should do it. This Chanel that I should have cut before the block was glued to the sides, will be the home for A sliding internal block.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Steve-mar..._081747-XL.jpg