I 2nd that motion.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

You never know.... learn a few scales and you may find yourself headed past fret #3!! :D

Well it's not that I never play past #3 (most recently Ben Taylor brought me up into double digits), but am I in need of a life-time fret up there? Well let's just say there's a reason people are paying to go see Tim instead ;)

I hear you on that +1 on Tim.

I guess you are getting excited about your Burner getting rolling. What are the specs on what you are building?

You bet. My first custom, but it's still a year out. I'm not planning on being back in the States before 2012 so I figured there was no rush and maybe I could pick it up in person.

The specs, well the meddling in the minutia has died off a bit in the last few months ;) but so far we're here:

Body: Burner MS model w/ florentine cutaway
B&S: 2 piece ABW w/sap
Top: AAAA Carpathian Spruce
Neck: 5 piece w/ koa binding & ebony position markers
Koa bound headstock w/ABW overlay
flamed Koa on body & headstock
ABW bound soundhole
Rosette: tbd - they're going to play with the scorched rosettes a little
Pickup: LR Baggs LB6x
Tuners: Gold satin Gotoh 510 w/ebony buttons
Ameritage case

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/...e4d383_o_d.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/...2df0be_o_d.jpg

Man...that was good...I need a smoke :D

That ABW is amazing!

[Dear Keith
this is Paolo writing
I am from Rome, Italy, 54 yo, acousic player
I DO love Olson guitars, like yo I see

i own many, all SJs
and your drea is absolutely stunning
maybe the next one for mr will be thr same

My Olsons are :
JTSM indian cedar
indian adirondack cutaway (sold)
brazilian germa full abalone (sold)
brazilian cedar, with braz fingerboard and bridge (on Jim's website)
brazilian cedar cutaway £Stealth" (on Jim's website)
brazilian master sitka (incredible)
pernambuco german (on Jim's website)
brazilian "the beam" german (incoming)

So ... I need a differnt shape ... a dread cutaway

Have you ever tried Jim's jumbos ?

Thanks
Ciao
Palo

Keith; Respectfully I wish to post on your behemoth thread and suggest that commissioned guitars are not about showing off, but about the showy guitars. IMO, some posts have been couched or backpedaled envy. This human emotion is not what makes me read. The guitars in the pics are really gorgeous. Additionally, I am enjoying your updates and the subsequent discussions. Your posts are drawing BIG attention to Olson guitars. Wonderful thread with your posts of the dreamy Olson you have commissioned. I read the posts on this section of the forum often and post less seldom. I see a truly grand guitar between yours and Jim Olson's collaborations.

I previousely owned a used Olson SJ. I purchased it only a year after beginning to play guitar (less than 7 years ago). It was truly a spectacular instrument. As I played on thru my novice stage I found my musical path being directed towards the acoustic blues. The Olson SJ was not working for me at the time. I sold it to a local pro player and made the player a good deal. I was very sympathetic to the pro perhaps not being able to reach deep enough into their wallet for such an instrument they really desired. A part of me also really wanted the instrument to be played and appreciated by expert hands. I have heard that guitar played many times in public. It does sound great in this pro's hands! The guitar purchase, for me, was an error in timing. I needed to have gained some better plaing skills and have a clearer direction of the music that I am passionate about. That guitar was not an error, rather, what lead me to purchase it was in error.

Olson builds quite THE guitars. I must add that he is well respected by his peers. Many luthiers I have met or cooresponded with reflect upon his methods, outcomes or approaches. By example local luthier, Charles Hoffman is very complementary of Mr. Olson's approach to building and his customer centric approach. I admire his business acumen and sensibilities with his unique product.

Thanks again for sharing your build. Please post often about the showy guitars. I am enjoying the show and at times the theatre of repsonses.

Best wishes, Eric -

I had to read what you wrote twice to get your meaning if I got it right. I think what you are saying, which I would agree with, is that this particular thread and probably most of the threads that people put up, is because they are genuinely amazed about what their luthiers are building, and really want to show to others just about what amazing work is being done. Not about being boastful or anything like that, but about the craftmanship.

I find great entertainment in watching what someone else is buuilding, regardless of whether it is anything like what I would want or even if it is as plain jane as it could be. I am enjoying the restoration thread on the 1943 Martin that is going on in the other forum, and enjoy going to Frets.com to see what Frank Ford is working on.

I find it so curious how some people want to pass judgement on me and assume things about me when they really have no clue. The guitars I have are directly related to the endless sacrifices I have made, getting up for work at 3 am most days to get in early, to work hard, to spend endless hours in addition to my day job buying and selling guitars, which has made most of the money that paid for all the guitars I have and really just over the last two 1/2 years. Such are the critics of the world and you just have to accept that is the way that it is.

Thanks again for your words, Olson guitars really are amazing.

You do have quite the collection. I have a dread IRW/Sitka and it really is an amazing sounding guitar. I am super excited about this new one and my band mate is super excited to get my old one. I have never tried any of his jumbos but when I visited, I talked to him about a jumbo on behalf of my band mate who really would like one. I have no doubt they are amazing.

If you ever get to Florida, look me up you are welcome to check out my dread. I am sure you will be amazed by it. And in reality, if someone from AGF shot me a note and said they were going to be in town and could they come by and play a guitar, that would probably be okay as long as they had clean hands and no belt :D

I might just pop you a note if I come and visit family next year as planned - would love to chat and get the chance to just hold an Olson and hear its song.

P.S. My belt is off and I've started washing my hands already ....:D

I'll be visiting the States for a while in 2012 and I'll be between Naples (family) and Gainesville (friends) plenty. I'd love to stop through Tampa on the way and compare our Burners.

Not a problem at all.

Thank you Keith
My story with Jim Olson starts from my love and addiction for James Taylor, as many of us.
I bougth a JTSM, indian-cedar "that" guitar, and a cutaway indian-adirondack.
They were incredible.
This buy was done in the same period for 2 Ryans : a Mission brazilian-cedar, and a Nightingale cutaway madagascar rsw-german.
The Olsons with no doubts are guitar for me much more than Ryans.
I don't like to say "better" when you are in the Heaven.
So I decided for the 3rd, a Brazilian rosewood finally, with cedar top, with brazilian rosewood fingerboard and bridger, inlays everywhere.
Because of the euro-dollar ratio I was able to order another, exactly the same but with a german top.
They arrived in 2008, and really pusshed me in a different planet.
Then I started my trip "outside" jim (who perfectly knows this).
I mean Jeff Traugott, Ervin Somogyi, Kim Walker, Ed Claxton, Mario Beauregard, Michi Matsuda, Roy McAlister, Bashkin, Shenk, ...
A long and crazy and ... expensive ... period.
Buy, try, sel, buy, change, ship, buy ...........
At the end of that period I found that FOR ME :
- Olson guitar are absolutely incredible guitars, maybe they do not do "everything", but in some corner of guitarplaying they kill everyone
- Kim Walker guitars are absolutely wonderful guitars. Done with the traditional models in mid, Kim has found his own sound and feel and approach. Very difficult to say in words. They excell in everything. Incredible
- Beauregard and Claxton are different, but "in the same side of the guitar building world", sensitive, modern, own voice, feel, very different from Olsons and Walkers, very very nice
- the others are obviously incredible guitars. I repeat, there is no "one better than another" but they don't fit my taste as the Olson and Walker and Beauregard and Claxton.
In any case, among those brands, as maybe happens for you, there is one guitar "queen" and one guitar "madame" ... a joke to say that the brand is important, yes, but the single instrument may have an alchemy which brings it to the top.
In my experience it happened with brazilians, and also with a special SJ from Jim Olson done with Pernambuco back and sides and german spruce top (on 1st page of sold section of Jim's website, the last one with simple inlays).
But my Olsons are all SJ, and it is one year that I am thinking about a different shape Olson.
So I found your dread, in this last batch where is also another brazilian SJ for me.
I'd like to feel the different between a jumbo and a dread.
I mean ... I've played and owned many many dread and jumbos.
The difference between an Olson dread and jumbo.
And a Olson dread how much is different in comparison with a traditional dread (Martin, ...). Here maybe you can help me.
If you like to talk to me in private, or send to me e-mails or photos, you are welcome
I am [email protected]
Ciao Keith ..
Paolo