Stephen Kinnaird 2020 (Videos added page 10)
 

Plenty of fun things are going to be coming out of our shop this year, and we thought we would share a couple of them with you.

We will be attending the 2nd BIG show in a couple of weeks, but before we could finish the two guitars we are taking to that event, we needed to get this custom order out the door. It is a Bearclaw Sitka/Madagascar Rosewood 000. It has a lot of fun inlay that is based upon two previous guitars that we had done: one for cigarfan and one for Christie Cook - both of which have been featured here on the AGF.

We hope you enjoy this and our future contributions to this thread.




https://i.postimg.cc/5tHKpg5s/466-ED...F9-A5-C3-D.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/GtRML1Wf/9-B4-A...165496-CE0.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/B6HYfvVD/7-A960...4-D4-B86-B.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/vZZNxb4F/17586-...-E3-D34-A1.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/3wPSqGnY/2-A9-B...6-D51-C0-E.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Z5sDr2N9/C87-E3...33-DE1-D34.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/02f4Nb20/DB889-...0918-C65-D.jpg


Thanks for looking!

Beautiful Ryan! Yes, that rosette brings back Dennis's guitar for sure. That bridge is a lot different for you also isn't it? Love the little embellishment of the "K" also.

See you guys in 2 weeks!!! This guitar sounds great as always!

Whooweee!
 

Mighty Purty Indeed, and Steve's picking is a nice way to hear this axe. Sounds FINE !!!

Have fun at BIGer!

Paul

That's just gorgeous, Ryan! And sounds pretty nice, too. Y'all really do nice work!

David

Really pretty. The woods, the inlay, that bridge design and the sound are all first rate.I

Thank you Tom, and YES! we can hardly wait to see youse guys again. Our two new BIG(er) guitars are back from the spa, so we should have something to bring with us.

Paul, as usual your kindness is heart-warming. Thank you!

Many thanks, David. And to show our appreciation, a second bucket of cockleburs are waiting for your next visit!

Thank you brother. I wish we could bring this guitar to BIG, but it has to go on to its new home.
It will be so good to see you and Barb in a couple o'weeks!

Steve

Beautiful guitar and sounds like a million bucks. Wow. You guys build a mighty fine instrument!

See y'all real soon!

Beautiful guitar, Ryan. The bridge seems to be just the right complement. Where did you find that picker?!

Ken

Thanks Ken. Like one of our customers somewhere said, “Because it's custom made for any mother's son to be a guitar picker” in our neck of the woods. I found this picker on the side of the road and thought he’d be good enough. Thanks about the bridge. It’s close to one we did about two years back and thought it would be nice here.

Dennis, looking forward to a bear hug in just over two weeks!

Another one of JS's:

"Remember that guitar in a museum in Tennessee
And the nameplate on the glass brought back twenty melodies
And the scratches on the face
Told of all the times he fell
Singin' every story he could tell
And oh the stories it could tell
And I bet you it still rings like a bell..."

That is a great sounding OM. I was most impressed by the loud chords at the end. There's a lot of power under the hood there, even though the finger picking sounds sweet.

That is the truth! Steve and Ryan build AMAZING sounding guitars (in my opinion).

Don't you admire the way Ryan can drop a name without dropping the name? Remarkable!

That's encouraging. I was sure someone would take me to task for attempting to play "The Great Gate of Kiev" on six strings.

Jamie, thanks mate! I hope Bodark is behaving himself.

Steve

Here’s our most recent 00 that will be attending the BIG(er) show next week. It’s Lutz Spruce & Marbled Claro Walnut. We purchased this wood illicitly at an In ‘n’ Out Burger outside the Healdsburg Guitar Show (but don’t tell anyone). Hope you enjoy. The video has to be edited but will follow shortly.

https://i.postimg.cc/sfQs5RpB/4442-F...99-FE3-A43.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/t4dcFBSn/33458-...2-F22-D292.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/tRxGYNjW/534-CE...9-DFC769-B.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/j513Rm5m/536894...64-D03-BFE.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/wB0bG7d6/96-E44...69-BDD6-D7.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/HxnPDdpb/7-C795...D65-B44915.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/4ytDqs5B/6860-D...-A18-D98-B.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Dw3DW9gK/0124-E...95-C8768-A.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/PqtRy193/F9023-...-B56-D95-E.jpg


Thanks for looking!

Whoooo-weeeee--that is beautiful, fellas!

Can't wait to see it and play it and hear it!

Nothing quite like an In 'n' Out Burger guitar!

Wow, that is some crazy Walnut figuring and I love your 00 size guitars. Looking forward to checking this one out soon! :)

I am truly at a loss for words on the beauty of this guitar fellas!!! I mean really, you have outdone yourselves.

Speaking as the owner of the very first Steve Kinnaird OO guitar, this size is about as perfect as it gets, very comfortable to play and yet large enough to still have a big full sound.

We have to make sure this guitar does not go back to Nacogdoches, it would be a sin!

Oh boy that is really a snazzy guitar.

Ryan and Steve, I stole some of these photos to share on my FB page - hope you don't mind! ;)

Thanks Kevin! When I close my eyes and play this guitar, I can hear the patties sizzling on the grill. And oh! the aroma...!

Thanks, dddoug, we are anxious for you to play it.

Tom, thanks for the continuous inspiration to make these things. And you know this instrument exists because of B.I.G. We would love for this guitar to find its soul mate there.

Thanks bro, I'm hoping you like it when up close and personal.

Works for us, Stan!

Walnut Burger...
 

The Walnut Burger Guitar is devastatingly beautiful!!!

Whooeeee....

Have FUN at BIGer

Save travels to all

Paul

Question RE: Use of Flat-Cut Grained B&S Woods For RW Guitars
 

Beautiful Guitars!

I've wanted to ask these few questions for many years based solely upon enjoying this forum & your instruments. I'm just curious, is all.

I've seen so many flat-cut backs & some sides used on your & your brother's guitars. I wonder, have they remained stable through the challenges of seasonal humidity changes & intensely dry indoor heating systems? Have they been able to travel well or survive an occasional stage ding without cracking? Especially the rosewood guitars?

If I were still able to build, I'd definitely make a four-piece, straight-grained back before I'd ever use such a flat-cut Madagascar or other RW on any guitar back. In fact, I did, using 4"+ wide, quarter-sawn fingerboard & recycled stock for the box as Brazilian & other rosewoods like Madagascar & Honduran RW became rarer to find in acceptable grains for musical instruments. And historically, most other luthiers would as well. Is wood choice today driven primarily by the desire of the customer or simply by the limitations of available supplies?

What special designs or luthierie techniques do you do to keep those flat-cut backs & guitars stable? Are you a stickler for shop humidity, brushing on a lot of finish inside the box, or even using veneers like many do for sides or what?

Again, very beautiful & detailed instruments. Good picking' too.

alohachris

Gorgeous 00 guys. You keep cranking out the beauties! I look forward to auditioning this one.

Alohachris,

To answer your question succinctly is no we have not seen any repair work due to a flatsawn back. Of course Steve has only been building instruments for the last 40 years. The vast majority of these were for people in our local climate until the last 15 years or so when our business became much broader (truly worldwide).

Two things:
1.) Despite the pictures that might catch your notice, still a majority of our instruments are built from straight grained wood.

2.) One benefit of building high-end customs is the care that the customers show to their instrument. Unlike mass produced instruments where variability is minimized and the expectation of little home care is expected, we believe our clients protect their investment by keeping their guitars properly humidified at all times.

Over time, we have made adjustments to some of our instruments due to environmental changes, but as far as I can remember, none have been a back issue.

We do stabilize and season our wood for years before building typically. Only twice in our production has a back “potato chipped” to a point where it became unsuitable for use. In those situations, we laminated the back to stabilize it. While stability is always a concern, we have yet to see issues that have made us consider not using gorgeous pieces of wood.

Here's the video for the Lutz/Claro Walnut 00 made for the 2020 BIG show.

Nice demo Steve...:up:

Looks great!!!
 

Sounds even better!!!

Very Nice pickin' indeed...

"2.) One benefit of building high-end customs is the care that the customers show to their instrument. Unlike mass produced instruments where variability is minimized and the expectation of little home care is expected, we believe our clients protect their investment by keeping their guitars properly humidified at all times."

VERY TRUE! Not only do most owners of high-end custom builds keep them humidified and avoid temperature swings, but most of them never take the guitar out of the music room…

Unlike me. I have taken all four of John Kinnaird's customs to gigs as soon as I got them. And they've all kicked butt. I do have super gig bags and keep Bovida humidity packs in the cases. So far so good!

These guys really know what they are doing!

Yay team

Paul

Thanks mucho, Bob. Of course, if this didn't sell at BIG, it was going to be shown at Artisan, where I had hoped you could kick the tires. However.... Ah well.....

Thanks Paul, you made the team grin from ear to ear.

Excellent Response, Ryan
 

Aloha Ryan,

Thank you for your well-written, thoughtful response. My questions could have been misconstrued as trying to be snarky or negative. That was never my intent.

It's true, in luthierie as in everything else in life, YMMV. Your track record of making beautiful, durable & great sounding guitars cannot be denied, only admired. I really was curious about how to use those flat-cut woods.

At 75 now, unable to build or play anymore, my mileage included many years of repairing thousands of acoustic instruments, including many historic BRW Martins. I noted the grain of the cracked, well-travelled instruments. Then I applied those lessons to the 218 acoustic guitars, hundreds of ukes & other various & strange instruments I built over 40 years. I guess that's where my 'use quarter-sawn-woods-only' impressions have come from.

However, quarter-sawn, straight-grained hardwoods on backs will never provide the striking, incredible, natural beauty of your creatively designed & crafted instruments using flat-cut woods, as in your pictures. Curly Hawaiian Acacia Koa is one exception to that, IMO. I do know that most of your guitars are made of quarter-sawn woods. But I've always wondered if there was a trick(s) to using flat-cut backs & making them durable. And, if customers who order flat-cut woods know the risks.

When I first started sending instruments all over the world in 1970, even using all-quarter-sawn woods didn't save me from the fact that I could not afford to pay the electric bills to properly humidify a woodshop in wet Hawaii. So my early exported guitars sometimes cracked & moved all over the place, no matter the grain. I repaired them all & learned an important lesson: beyond using quarter-sawn woods, a luthier must humidify his shop or at least have a conditioned drying & set-up room, as expensive as that is out here. When I did that, I had more success with durability in my exported instruments.

Fortunately, I was mostly able to use very dense, flitch-matched, quarter-sawn, choke-curl Hawaiian Acacia Koa that I cut & milled on the Big Island, stickered, air-dried, then kiln-dried in the late 70's, early 80's. Because of demand, I also used BRW & other RW's on many guitars. BRW did not fare as well on the road with traveling musicians - more prone to move & crack.

As you wrote, many players today DO take better care of their guitars. Some (many at AGF) seem to obsess over them or even deify them. But most of those players do not play OUT regularly with them.

My generation of giggers (I played out almost nightly for 55 years) were not nearly as over-protective or doting on our instruments. We played guitars of any value in any environment (except the classical players). So different, huh? We were players first, not collectors. We weren't interested in hiding our custom (or not) guitars away in humidified cabinets, or only playing for recording, or occasionally breaking out a DADGAD tune that shows them off in AGF or Soundcloud video's - Ha! Our approach was that great guitars deserve to be played out & heard by others. EX: It would have been inconceivable for great guitarist Norman Blake to think twice about playing his unbelievable 1934 Martin D-18H in any setting. Or Alex DeGrassi not playing his huge-sounding custom Lowden F-35c or outstanding Traugott Model R at his gigs.

Additionally, many modern players here seem to go through custom instruments every other year or so. Never satisfied. Great for custom builders. But their ongoing, new guitar G.A.S. prevents them from realizing the full potential of any brand of guitar unless they play it in for a few decades, & not turning it over too soon. Playing a great custom instrument & holding on to it for many years IS where the "holy grail guitar" is truly to be found. A quiver of custom guitars won't get you "there." I mean, imagine how your great-sounding new Maddy OM will sound in 30 years, if maintained properly, doesn't crack, & is played regularly?!?

Here's Leo Kottke's take on the "holy grail guitar":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtUWKFwZ6mg

Sorry for rambling here. I'm just an old guy.

Stay healthy, Ok!

alohachris

I just have to say that that 00 sounds great.