Leach Millennium III - Davis Walnut with Millennium Redwood Top for Keith

[BBWW]

Originally Posted by FromDreams

I understand you have something special planned for the most amazing set of tortoise shell "Tree" left on the planet, also for CPABOLTING (Keith). Look forward to hearing about that.

Amazing Tortoise shell! Sigh

[JoeCharter]

Originally Posted by harvl

That's a beautiful rosette. What a clever combination of marquetry (or whatever it's called) and abalone.

[harvl]

Originally Posted by JoeCharter

That's a beautiful rosette. What a clever combination of marquetry (or whatever it's called) and abalone.

It's actually a standard rosette but I replaced purfling lines with abalone. I thought it was a cool look too.

[FromDreams]

Harv... your work is spectacular in so many ways. The detail on the headstock is exquisite. I am sure that you are best friends with a jeweler's saw. I understand you are Martin's go to guy when it comes to inlay work...and I can see why.

Congratulations on Voyage Air's affiliation with Fender guitars....I saw the story on Shark Tank.

Getting back to your approach to building....did you start building guitars because of your love of inlay or was it because you discovered that you loved inlay and guitars were a great canvas for your work?

I am intrigued by the Venus with the tortoise shell "Tree" mahogany... I have no doubt how special it will be and I am sure it will rival the 1.5 millionth Martin.

I did notice how the two different sides on the top of the 1.5 millionth Martin were different shades...I am presuming that it was a runout scenario...I personally believe that there is plenty enough of good wood out there so that this is not the outcome.

[murrmac123]

Harvey, you are something else ...outassight, dude ...

Not that I am ever going to share your unhealthy predilection for the zero fret, but in all other respects ...amazing.

[harvl]

Originally Posted by murrmac123

Harvey, you are something else ...outassight, dude ...

Not that I am ever going to share your unhealthy predilection for the zero fret, but in all other respects ...amazing.

Thanks, as for the zero fret... Chet Atkins once told me that all guitars should be made that way... until I hear otherwise from a higher authority I think I'll side with Chet. Besides it saves me time to cut more inlays

[harvl]

Originally Posted by FromDreams

Harv... your work is spectacular in so many ways. The detail on the headstock is exquisite. I am sure that you are best friends with a jeweler's saw. I understand you are Martin's go to guy when it comes to inlay work...and I can see why.

Congratulations on Voyage Air's affiliation with Fender guitars....I saw the story on Shark Tank.

Getting back to your approach to building....did you start building guitars because of your love of inlay or was it because you discovered that you loved inlay and guitars were a great canvas for your work?

I am intrigued by the Venus with the tortoise shell "Tree" mahogany... I have no doubt how special it will be and I am sure it will rival the 1.5 millionth Martin.

I did notice how the two different sides on the top of the 1.5 millionth Martin were different shades...I am presuming that it was a runout scenario...I personally believe that there is plenty enough of good wood out there so that this is not the outcome.

I started building guitars because I couldn't sell banjos... I started out with banjos and that of course led to doing inlays... a banjo without inlays isn't a banjo... (I think I have exceed the limit of the number of times you can say banjo in a post about guitars and not banjos, banjo posts should be limited to one or at most 2 uses of "banjo" )

Yea the Martin top was unfortunate but I think it tells you something about how new runout being a concern is... guys who have been building for years never really looked at it as anything more than wood being wood... hard to teach an old dog new tricks..for a builder it can be a bit of a crapshoot. I have a soundboard here with run out at about 10 deg which is in the area of concern for structural and yet it's invisible to the eye... I only noticed it because of a splinter on the edge, on the other hand I have a soundboard that is probably a few 10ths of a degree and it's very noticeable... but only after finishing... That’s why I love redwood... no surprises!

Harv

[FromDreams]

Well I am most certainly of the school that when the cost between tops with runout and without are slight, and even if were double to have one without visible runout, it is in relative measure, not a lot of dollars and is very disappointing when the end visual result is a two colored top.

There are way too many examples I have seen even posted on luthier's websites...as if the two color top does not exist..

[ZekeM]

Banjos huh. Hmmmmm interesting. Do you know many people in the banjo making field? I do work for a few of them. Steel guitars too but those are slowly dying off. Do you still do banjos or have you decided there is not a big enough market there?

[BBWW]

Yeah, Harv's pretty good. :-) This one is on mine.

[nobo]

Lovely work! Stunning piece of walnut on the back there too - is there a story behind "Davis" walnut? What walnut species is it? Looks to be more in the claro camp than bastogne or black (?)

[harvl]

The Davis wood was a Claro tree from Davis Ca. the only real story behind it was that it had a very dramatic combination of colors and figure (called “tinfoil”) that set it apart from the more common “fiddleback” figure and browns and grays. I just got a couple sets from the same guy that has the tinfoil but has a secondary pattern I’ve never seen.. and I can’t really come up with a descriptive term.. it’s like a very subtle chatoyance behind the rest of the figure...

Harv

[nobo]

Thanks Harv - certainly looks amazing! Bet it sounds lovely too. I'm a bit of a walnut-a-holic, and this is making me want another one! (I suspect my Kostal will end up being be German spruce or adi over some type of walnut).