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Old 04-29-2019, 08:43 AM
ericcsong ericcsong is online now
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Falls Church, VA
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Here is a video done at the Kostal Fun Factory with Bigfoot Guitars. This is a great video with two of my favorite builders. I'm honored to have guitars built by both of them!


If you only have time to watch a little bit of this video, check out 11:24 mark.

Copied and pasted from my NGD thread:

Wow, after playing this guitar, I am thoroughly impressed with Bigfoot Guitars. Karan Singh is building an absolutely fantastic guitar! I didn't want to write anything about it in detail in the first week or so because I didn't want to be caught up by the honeymoon phase of a new commissioned build. After the happiness has settled a bit, I wanted to share my review.

As mentioned before, Karan spent 4 weeks at Jason Kostal's shop learning about Kostal's philosophies and building style. Besides discussing the ins and outs of voicing a guitar, he also learned about how to build more efficiently and productively. The end result was a guitar that came at a VERY reasonable build time and also a guitar that shines for fingerstyle.

PART ONE:

Sound/ Tone
Upon first strum, the guitar immediately felt intimate. The more I would play, the more familiar the guitar felt. The guitar only being two days old when I received it already felt open, warm, and deep. It had a little bit of that Somogyi bass that I love so much. As I played it for two more weeks, the guitar has already opened up even more so. It is lively and expressive and has a wonderful dynamic range. It also is a harmonic monster! I am impressed at how much projection the Bigfoot has. I had a friend come over who has a very impressive collection and he was very impressed by the guitar. He preferred it over a $15k+ African Blackwood Handmade I had in the room and also mentioned how it reminded him of my Kostal. Some people have asked me how it compares to Jason's guitars, but I'll save that for another post Tone-wise, the Bigfoot surely delivers!

Playability/Action/Feel
The Bigfoot plays effortlessly up and down the neck. I remember during the build process asking Karan about his neck. That lead to an awkward conversation. When we refocused on the neck (of the guitar), he describes it as not too thick and not too thin. Its a size c shape which reminds me a lot of my Ryan neck. Is very comfortable to hold and play (for hours!).

Design/Size/Shape
I'm surprised how light this guitar feels for one built with double sides. The size of Karan's Modified Dread (15 1/6 lower bout) is about the size of my Kostal OM (which is a little larger than your typical Martin OM; 15.56” to 15”). I mentioned this in an earlier thread, but here are the dimensions again:

Length - 19 3/8"
Upper bout - 11 1/16"
Waist - 10"
Lower bout - 15 1/16"
Depth at heel - 3.75"
Depth at tail - 4.25"
Scale - 25"
12th fret body join,
18 frets total
1 3/4" bone nut width
2 1/4" string spacing at bone saddle

The guitar side by side with my Kostal Mod D looks like a smaller cousin. I do have a Kostal MDW coming this year so it will be interesting to see how they are related size wise. The Bigfoot's cutaway is a little sharper but all the lines feel very familiar. Karan has a french curve up top and all the appointments are very organic and work so well together. I love how the end graft matches the rosette and how the sharp lines of the rosewood remind me of some old growth Brazilian

This review is getting long and I feel like I'm not even half way through! You can follow more on this guitar in the Custom Shop section. I'll share about how it compares to other handbuilt guitars, thoughts on buying from a different country, and more!

Details coming soon…..
__________________
Eric

Omega Braz MJ, 2011 Omega MJ Braz Baritone
Ryan Cathedral ABW/Bosnian
Build thread: 2011 Kostal Mod D Brazilian/German
Build thread: 2019 Kostal MDW Brazilian/German
Build thread:2019 Bigfoot Mod D
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