|
|
#121
11-26-2016, 10:11 PM
|
|||
|
|||
Here are a couple more pics of Phil Heywood playing my EVA UM at the Twin Cities Guitar Show put on by Tim Reede. Tim did a great job!
  Phil was great too!!! More to come! Kevin. |
|
#122
11-28-2016, 07:13 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Couple cool tid bits to point out. Here is another neck detail. Unique to my guitars.
  Some cross cut bubinga for the purfling/binding/purfling channel. 
|
|
#123
11-29-2016, 05:06 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Mark Lemaire played my demo at Santa Barbara. Here is what he had to say:
"I showcased this guitar for Kevin at the Santa Barbara Acoustic Instrument Celebration back in October, and was sorely tempted to buy it for myself. A beautiful and unique design. A word on the volume and bass response: Mr Rogers said "offset soundhole location gives a better response to the player, putting the output of the guitar closer to the player’s ear." While this is true, Kevin and I experimented with and compared the JM and the UM, and this design is louder than the JM to the audience as well. It's just big. A beautiful achievement visually, but also a real step forward in acoustic output. Thanks, Kevin!"   See you all soon! Kevin. |
|
#124
11-29-2016, 09:46 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Late to the show here Kevin... Great looking design; hope I get to try one out one day...
|
|
#125
11-30-2016, 11:50 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Thanks. Kevin. |
|
#128
12-03-2016, 07:54 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
  Quote:
Kevin. |
|
#129
12-03-2016, 08:09 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Cool detailing!
 This is walnut and is instrumental in the primary recipe of this guitar. I'll comment more on this later. Time to work!!! Kevin. |
|
#130
12-03-2016, 08:38 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Sounds like all the rosewoods, including East Indian Rosewood, are going on CITES Appendix II as of Jan 2017, which restricts international trade of these woods, complicating free trade. It will require paper work for people wanting to purchase and use this wood. Seems like a lot of hoops to jump through and extra paper work in exporting guitars. I think the trade in the US won't necessarily be restricted with people already owning this wood. If I need to be corrected on any of this please feel free to do so. Details and protocol aside, its going to be restricted.
The good news is that I've been engineering my EVA UM model with walnut exclusively so far. Walnut is beautiful and its plentiful in the US, its not restricted. I can see that with other species being restricted that it could cause walnut to increase in price if others gravitate towards it. Only time will tell on that. I will have unrestricted access to this native beautiful wood though. I'm not sensing any advantages here in "exoticness", just that I've been "tuning" my EVA UM model with walnut. So I'm getting a good grasp on its addition to the 'tone soup' in my EVA UM. I personally think the top, besides the strings, is the most tone generating and coloring part of the guitar. There is so much possible variation, especially from builder to builder, that its pretty hard, imo, to categorize a wood with a "specific tone". As I build, in my experience, I'm learning that density is a major tone colorant. I've even had my thoughts on this "seconded" when getting a chance to talk to people like Jim Olson. I don't know Jim in a personal way, but I've had a chance to visit his shop a couple times and what he said was pretty much what I'd been figuring out. I won't quote him, but I'll just share my thoughts. The top, in all its possible variants, is producing a dichotomy of tone from "trebley" to "bassy"...and I'm not revealing anything new here...but the tighter the top, either through a top left thicker or heavier bracing, produces a more trebly guitar. A top that is "loosened" up will produce a bassier tone. For the builder, its knowing where this balance lies and how to manipulate to that outcome (where that might be in each piece dimensionally) - regardless of the wood species. I've found out, through experience, it can only be through experience, that one can find this out (hahahaha...). Hence, I am "tuning" my EVA UM with similar materials in each respective component to get the outcome to fall into a hopeful successful range. I'm looking for repeated results. Not "this one worked", "why didn't this one?". As I've mentioned in this thread I've kept track of all the weights and deflections, I've used the same neck woods, the same walnut back and sides woods and Bear Claw Spruce top wood. I've done the same bracing scheme with keeping track of the brace weight. I've deflection tuned the parts. I've made jigs to do a normal neck set on my adjustable neck on each guitar so that the string height is virtually the same coming off the top at the bridge. The torque on the brace and top can be similar this way. So my neck angle is the same which means my bridge height is the same...as well as my saddle height. Another thing I've been doing is something similar to "torrifying" my wood, basically without the pressure. I've done a lot of reading on the old Martin Guitars that sound so big and awesome. I'm just doing a more natural process. It's "Kevi-fied" haha...Some people think this is gobbly goop vodoo...but take a piece of bread that is moist and put it in your oven for an hour on 250 or so...trust me the cell structures will change because the moisture will be cooked out. No longer is it pliable and bendable, its now brittle and will crumble. Certainly not taking the wood to this extreme, but this example shows that slowly getting the final moisture out changes the outcome of the bread. Then when the wood is dried down and the cell structure is "new" it can go back to a normal environment during construction. Understanding humidity and how it affects the woods is another part of the experience. I'm no expert on any of this and I'm not trying to come off like that, but just trying to share some of my experiences. I'm just trying to make the results more appealing to my customers. Hope you all have a good evening. I'm usually a sentence or two and a couple of pics...I'll be back to that soon...and let this do the speaking!  Thanks for reading. Kevin. |
|
#131
12-14-2016, 07:58 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Too bad about the Memphis Show. I was hoping it would have a successful second year.
I needed a couple things to happen before I could personally go, but I was going to unveil a smaller EVA UM model at this show had it come to pass. In any event, I'll be designing and sharing this newer model here. I think it will be an eye catcher, and an ear catcher as well. Kevin. |
|
#132
12-30-2016, 07:12 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Got a call from a fellow and we are making the plans to use this wood for his guitar.
 More details to come...but imagine that wood in this pic!!  Wow...it will be stunning. I'm happy for this guy. I've got one other piece like this if someone might be interested. Hope you all have a prosperous New Year! Kevin. |
