When I started building in the late '60's and early '70's, there was very little information available on the craft (before Irving Slone's "classical Guitar Construction"), and no supply houses at all that I was aware of. So I used to go down to the beach and collect shell for making my inlay. Then I tried sea shell stores, and eventually thin slabs of MOP and Abalone became available, and now there is Ablam and there are a host of small businesses cutting pearl both by hand and with CNC machines. While I take advantage of the slabbed materials and also Ablam on occasion, I have continued to hand cut the inlays on all of my work save one, a collaboration with Larry Robinson back before you'd heard his name, most likely.
A week ago, my daughter Laurelyn and her beau, Josh, celebrated the 1st anniversary of their meeting by taking a trip up the California coast a couple of hundred miles. They dropped her dog off here on the way, and when they picked him up on the way home they had a box of Red Abalone shell parts they had beachcombed. They gave me a couple of nice pieces.
Today I got a bit nostalgic, and decided to turn one of those pieces into a logo for the current build. Aside from the template, the tonewoods, and the neck dimensions, Jmat has not specified much on this guitar, and has said he'd defer to my choices. This is great for me as there is more freedom, room for expression, and more fun.
The guitar has received its first coat of varnish a few minutes ago, but first I took these pictures
