A McKnight Skinny Slope Dreadnaught for cigarfan

[cigarfan]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

Congratulations cigarfan, that looks like a fun guitar to play. Nice!
Mark

Thank you Mark! Like our builds together, I have enjoyed this journey immensely. Truly looking forward to playing this one!

Originally Posted by Godfather

Stunning guitar Dennis!
Congratulations and thank you to Both you and the McKnight’s for sharing this incredible journey with us.
Your design along with Tim and Marys execution on this build is one for the record books.
I look forward to hearing the recordings.

Appreciate your kind words. Glad you enjoyed following along. Wait till you see the pickguard on this beauty. Gonna be special.

Originally Posted by Rwpierce

Love it Dennis. You are on a roll my friend. If it sounds as good as it looks you will be in 6 string heaven!

Thanks Rob. Between this and my FT-0 I'm set for this year. Hope to have some samples up once I get to know her a little.

[cigarfan]

Thought you folks might like a closer look at our descending dove on the 12th fret.

[Treenewt]

Originally Posted by cigarfan

Thought you folks might like a closer look at our descending dove on the 12th fret.

Love it! Such a cool build Dennis!

[doodahdoug]

What a beautiful guitar Dennis. I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions and maybe a soundclip after you've played her awhile.

[SJ VanSandt]

That's a real stunner, Dennis! I love the piano key nut and saddle - who would have thought nut and saddle pics would be so much fun? I know you are going to enjoy the heck out of this one!

Stan

[Eire]

Originally Posted by Rodger

Tim is at the height of his luthierial (is that even a word?) powers!!!

The McEnglish professor will permit appropriation of the noun "luthier" to be converted into a heretofore unknown adjectival form. Heck, if James Joyce could invent words, why can't Rodger?!

A second on the Howard Wood Polish and Conditioner, btw.

Just a gorgeous guitar all around, Dennis. Tim's put a lot of extra elbow grease into this one, it looks like. Always catches my breath to see a polished guitar with wood shavings all around during the drilling for the Gotohs and the K&K. I'm just glad I wasn't in Morral when Tim was doing that to my guitars! Crossing my fingers we have a McJam so I can see and hear this one. Impressive. Thanks so much for bringing us along on the ride!

[Rodger]

Originally Posted by Eire

The McEnglish professor will permit appropriation of the noun "luthier" to be converted into a heretofore unknown adjectival form. Heck, if James Joyce could invent words, why can't Rodger?!

Thanks for having my back, Kurt!

[cigarfan]

Originally Posted by Treenewt

Love it! Such a cool build Dennis!

Glad to have you following along.

Originally Posted by doodahdoug

What a beautiful guitar Dennis. I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions and maybe a sound clip after you've played her awhile.

I will give it a shot!

Originally Posted by SJ VanSandt

That's a real stunner, Dennis! I love the piano key nut and saddle - who would have thought nut and saddle pics would be so much fun? I know you are going to enjoy the heck out of this one!
Stan

Indeed I am! Really looking forward to see her finished up this week.

Originally Posted by Eire

The McEnglish professor will permit appropriation of the noun "luthier" to be converted into a heretofore unknown adjectival form. Heck, if James Joyce could invent words, why can't Rodger?!

A second on the Howard Wood Polish and Conditioner, btw.

Just a gorgeous guitar all around, Dennis. Tim's put a lot of extra elbow grease into this one, it looks like. Always catches my breath to see a polished guitar with wood shavings all around during the drilling for the Gotohs and the K&K. I'm just glad I wasn't in Morral when Tim was doing that to my guitars! Crossing my fingers we have a McJam so I can see and hear this one. Impressive. Thanks so much for bringing us along on the ride!

Originally Posted by Rodger

Thanks for having my back, Kurt!

I am so looking forward to the next McJam, whenever it occurs, so you guys can give this guitar an audition. I truly believe it will be something special!

Look forward to seeing you both!

[Carmel Cedar]

Dennis, what a great build. Thank you for sharing it with us. Looking forward to your impressions after it's finished and you're settled in with it. I hope you can share the magic moment of receiving it via photo - will you meet with Tim live, or get it delivered?

Best wishes for a special guitar!

[cigarfan]

Originally Posted by Carmel Cedar

Dennis, what a great build. Thank you for sharing it with us. Looking forward to your impressions after it's finished and you're settled in with it. I hope you can share the magic moment of receiving it via photo - will you meet with Tim live, or get it delivered?
Best wishes for a special guitar!

Thanks Andy! My plan was to visit Tim for McJam and pick it up then but the virus has changed all that. Wish I could pick it up in person. But I think when Tim has it all set up I'll have him overnight it to me. Maybe I can convince my daughter to video the unboxing. We'll see. Regardless, I promise to work up some videos once I've settled in with "Slim."

[Nemoman]

Congrats on Slim, Dennis--can't wait to hear him!

[Kenneth Casper]

Piano ivory for a nut and saddle?! Nice! I had never seen ivory recycled like that before. Beautiful guitar. You are a fortunate man, Dennis!

Ken

[cigarfan]

Originally Posted by Nemoman

Congrats on Slim, Dennis--can't wait to hear him!

Thanks! You and me both!

Originally Posted by Kenneth Casper

Piano ivory for a nut and saddle?! Nice! I had never seen ivory recycled like that before. Beautiful guitar. You are a fortunate man, Dennis!
Ken

Have to say the piano key sandwich idea took me by surprise as well when we discussed nut/saddle. I look forward to hearing the result. And believe you me, I know how fortunate and blessed I am to have such a guitar coming my way!

[cigarfan]

Tim received some pics from the gentleman who is laser etching the pickguard. These are test laser cuts on wood veneer before etching the Tor-Tis pickguard.







Here is the etched pickguard packaged to ship back to Tim where the gold and silver leaf will be added.



Setup is complete with action set at .040" high e and .060" low e with no buzzing for fingerstyle attack (which is me). Normal action would be .070" and .090" respectively. This one should actually play like butter! Sanding the transitional relief into the fretboard allows Tim to set the action much lower than he has been able to achieve prior to that.





And here a set of saddle shims in case I want to raise the action if my attack wanders into the buzzing range. The McKnight folks think of everything!



With the guitar, the Mcknights send a "Guitar-in-a-bag" which contains various pieces of excess trimmed from tonewoods and rosette mosaic, along with a variety of other "stuff". You name it, it's in there!



And finally, the double box to keep the guitar from harm during shipping. It's a jungle out there!



I am guessing that my guitar will be in my hands by next week (no pressure Tim)!

[BEJ]

Just got through reading this thread, amazing the amount of stuff one can learn about guitar building by just reading the posts and it's FREE, hope to be able to use some of it in the next few months.

One of the great joys of this site is seeing and learning from the great masters of the craft like Tim and a lot of the others that post here. Hope we all can acknowledge and appreciate the long hours and sacrifices that went into becoming a true master of the craft, to be as good as some of these guys are doesn't happen overnight.

But then again, some just have something maybe they were born with or whatever, and don't need quite as long to be good and didn't struggle as long as most.