Morgan Kelsey 2023

[Carpinteria]

As well as the design being unique, your workmanship is inspiring! Wow

[morgankelsey]

Originally Posted by srick

Beautiful!

Thanks, srick!

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

You did it again Morgan—fabulous craftsmanship! That’s a beauty.

Thanks, Steve - y'know, whenever someone says you did it again, I always see Mr. Magoo in my head saying, "oh Magoo, you've done it again" :-)
I imagine he would have been a terrible luthier though.

Originally Posted by Carpinteria

As well as the design being unique, your workmanship is inspiring! Wow

Thank so much, I appreciate it!

For the user interface, I used this pretty amazing piece of snakewood. The markers are brass with some some wood dust and epoxy filler.



Here is the neck attached and carved:





The client requested something pretty unique here too, they wanted the fretboard scalloped at the top to make some room for the thumbnail when playing artificial harmonics. Scallops this high up don't impact playability as the string holds taut over the chasm. It works pretty well, in some cases your right hand thumb will be over a fret, but in others it gives some freedom.

[morgankelsey]

Here are some glamour shots I took of this one before it was delivered:















Fan frets, tongue drums, banjo tuners, scalloped fretboard, three separate outputs -- this guitar was commissioned by Don Alder, who lives in Vancouver, BC. My wife and I had been planning on driving up the Pacific Coast Highway this year or next anyway, so we decided to combine the delivery with a vacation. We took my oldest daughter with us, flew to San Francisco, and drove up the coast.













It was a stunning journey, one I hope to repeat and highly recommend. Here we are at journey's end with Don, who was an incredibly gracious host. Don's playing is mesmerizing in person, he's one of those rare individuals who channel all the energy in the room and transmit it back to you.



It didn't take Don long to figure out how it worked, here he has the drums and the magnetic/mic pickups plugged into a little amp. This is just a phone capture, there will be a better demo down the road:

[morgankelsey]

The next build I'm working on is a spec build that I intend to bring to guitar shows next year.

This will be a 14-fret 15" Sitka and East Indian Rosewood guitar, with Koa bindings and some Cocobolo highlights. No cutaway, but I will do an arm bevel.

For the rosette I tried something new, and inlaid brass wire into Cocobolo:

[Haasome]

Beautiful work. I live a very short drive from Shelburne Falls and would enjoy meeting you and visiting your shop if you accept visitors.

[morgankelsey]

Originally Posted by Haasome

Beautiful work. I live a very short drive from Shelburne Falls and would enjoy meeting you and visiting your shop if you accept visitors.

Hi Paul, absolutely! I will PM you.