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  #181  
Old 12-27-2015, 11:44 AM
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JJI JJI is offline
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Default A beauty

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Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7 View Post
The Pinyon presents a remarkably thick, present timbre with sustaining overtones. It delivers authoritative, balanced power and harmonic content even in its in the upper registers of the fingerboard. The E and A strings are already developing a more powerful sonorous contribution creating a timbral balance. This will continue to develop with time and play as the guitar loosens up I suspect.

I took some early winter backyard shots...



Really a beautiful guitar.
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  #182  
Old 12-27-2015, 06:06 PM
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invguy921 invguy921 is offline
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It's a beauty that is for certain. The design is beautiful. I personally think that 12 fret cutaway guitars are just about the perfect solution to the search for tonality combined with playability.
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  #183  
Old 12-27-2015, 09:02 PM
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Really a beautiful guitar.
Thanks Josh...it actually sounds nicer than it looks...
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It's a beauty that is for certain. The design is beautiful. I personally think that 12 fret cutaway guitars are just about the perfect solution to the search for tonality combined with playability.
Mark's cutaway certainly helps, but the heel on a 12 fret guitar always stops your left hand sooner than on a 14 fret guitar (cutaway or not) . For example, I can fret on E-D-G-B and A-D-G-B string chord forms up to the 13th fret. On a 14 fret cutaway the same chords can be fretted two frets higher up to the 15th fret.
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  #184  
Old 12-28-2015, 05:47 AM
Gitfiddlemann Gitfiddlemann is offline
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Bob,
Hearty congrats on your pinyon, and now we share a bond!
It looks spectacular from all sides and angles, no surprises there. But the true magic lies ahead as you get to play it more and it opens up for you. That's when you discover that, underneath this pristine and aesthetically pleasing exterior, lies first and foremost a true player of a guitar, crafted with your tastes and sensibilities in mind, which is always Mark's goal from day 1. Those priorities never get shifted.
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The guitar while balanced, is slightly treble dominant at this point in its development."
In time, you'll come to really appreciate that aspect of Mark's build. The man knows what he's doing. I was happy to read somewhere in your posts that you let him take the lead on most of the decisions. Very smart move. It will really pay off for you enjoyment wise.
Have fun with all these new acquisitions, and especially your new pinyon (I'm biased!) You're a lucky guy indeed.
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  #185  
Old 12-28-2015, 06:23 AM
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Thanks Andre...

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Bob,
Hearty congrats on your pinyon, and now we share a bond!
It looks spectacular from all sides and angles, no surprises there. But the true magic lies ahead as you get to play it more and it opens up for you. That's when you discover that, underneath this pristine and aesthetically pleasing exterior, lies first and foremost a true player of a guitar, crafted with your tastes and sensibilities in mind, which is always Mark's goal from day 1. Those priorities never get shifted.

In time, you'll come to really appreciate that aspect of Mark's build. The man knows what he's doing. I was happy to read somewhere in your posts that you let him take the lead on most of the decisions. Very smart move. It will really pay off for you enjoyment wise.
Have fun with all these new acquisitions, and especially your new pinyon (I'm biased!) You're a lucky guy indeed.
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  #186  
Old 12-30-2015, 04:49 PM
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Stunning ... just love it!
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  #187  
Old 01-04-2016, 07:11 AM
Blanchard Blanchard is offline
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Default Thanks

Just wanted to say thanks to Bob for posting this thread and sharing our guitar making adventure with everyone. It was heart warming and inspiring to see such positive comments from clients, friends and fellow luthiers.

After three years of not attending guitar shows, I’ll will be resurfacing at the new show in Santa Barbara, California this coming Fall. I hope to see some of you there !!

All the Best,
Mark
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  #188  
Old 01-04-2016, 08:51 AM
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Larry Pattis Larry Pattis is offline
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Originally Posted by Blanchard View Post
Just wanted to say thanks to Bob for posting this thread and sharing our guitar making adventure with everyone. It was heart warming and inspiring to see such positive comments from clients, friends and fellow luthiers.

After three years of not attending guitar shows, I’ll will be resurfacing at the new show in Santa Barbara, California this coming Fall. I hope to see some of you there !!

All the Best,
Mark
A super nice post to see, from Da' Man himself.

Looking forward to SB even more...
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  #189  
Old 01-04-2016, 06:39 PM
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Thanks so much for both your patience and for sharing your design/build process with me and in turn the forum. Now that this thread has concluded, don't be a stranger around here. I look forward to following your next build thread here! I also encourage any of you attending the Santa Barbara Acoustic Instrument Celebration to stop by Mark's (aka Da' Man...) table and audition his guitars.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blanchard View Post
Just wanted to say thanks to Bob for posting this thread and sharing our guitar making adventure with everyone. It was heart warming and inspiring to see such positive comments from clients, friends and fellow luthiers.

After three years of not attending guitar shows, I’ll will be resurfacing at the new show in Santa Barbara, California this coming Fall. I hope to see some of you there !!

All the Best,
Mark
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  #190  
Old 03-10-2021, 11:01 AM
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YAY. . . another killer thread. These detailed descriptions are the very best.

TFPU!

(that's eKat for ThanksForPostin'Up)
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  #191  
Old 03-17-2021, 01:38 PM
eKat eKat is offline
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In an attempt to fill in a few blanks, here. . . let me add a little more to the crux of this human interest story.

Blanchard called me one day in early September, 2015 and asked me to go through his tops and read him the notations, written in pencil, on every single one of them. You see, the preliminary testing is done before any of them hit the shelves. There’s all kinds of data on each one; species, date of purchase, supplier, specific gravity, cross grain stiffness. . . yada, yada, yada.

DAY 1

I spent hours in that dark storage building going through our retirement fund (HA) and moving each top out to my van, into the sunlight. Then I sat there, on a frikken flip phone with a Plantronics headset and started reading the notations written on each one.

He had no idea how many tops were in there.

Maybe 15 minutes into it, I could feel him throwin’ up his hands, I know him all too well, so I paused, then he pleaded with me to just “box ‘em up” and ship them to him. I was all, "Dood! There are lots and lots of them."

JUST BOX THEM UP AND SHIP THEM TO HIM? What in, a shipping container?

I spent the rest of that day locating materials to build the shipping cartons. Our property, up here in the deepest reaches of rural Montana, is equidistant between a town of 58 and a town of 1027. I can’t begin to tell you how hard it is to find stuff up here and judging from how uncharacteristically hyper a certain luthier was, I knew I didn’t have time to order stuff from ULINE. So, just before dark, after major dumpster diving and asking for handouts at a few stores, I had all the recycled cardboard I was gonna need.

Having been shipping and receiving, as well as chief cook and bottle washer, for Blanchard Guitars for years, I still had a pretty sizable stash of rigid foam blocks, bubble wrap, stretch wrap, fiberglass strapping tape, clear sealing tape and a nice big bottle of fresh Titebond.

Good thing.

That was one spendy bunch of spruce!

DAY 2

I built padded shipping cartons and let glue dry overnight.

DAY 3

Well, long story short, I know, too late;

Anything you ship via UPS or FedEx has to be able to survive a 4 foot grounder without dying. Thank the GreatGoddessOfLuthier’sArt it was all covered by Heritage Music Insurance, but getting it all there unscathed really was job one. I had my work cut out for me getting it all stabilized, padded and packed in to the padded cartons. When all was said and done there were 3 boxes that weighed a ton and I schlepped them to the Montana Shipping Outlet in the great metropolis of Eureka, Montana. And the rest is history. . . oh yeah. . . except for the punchline.

I had no idea why said luthier was so hyper about getting all those tops so fast. The whole story didn’t come out until last winter when I was down at Blanchard’s for ski season. That’s when he was working with Bob to iron out the specs for his second Blanchard. He was photographing back and sides sets out on the back deck and we were yammerin’ about tops, when I saw the proverbial light bulb go off in his eyes when he says, “Kath, this is the guy whose top got wrecked in the Los Gatos shop.”

Wait. WHAT?

So. . . FIVE YEARS LATER, I got to hear the reason why he was so uncharacteristically hyper to get all those tops.

Way to bury the lead, dood!

MEN!

Last edited by eKat; 03-19-2021 at 06:04 AM.
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  #192  
Old 03-17-2021, 03:09 PM
Gitfiddlemann Gitfiddlemann is offline
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Kath, you're the best. So glad to come across your posts on a forum once again. You really elevate the community, even the ones in MT with only a few residents!
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  #193  
Old 03-17-2021, 03:21 PM
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I am happy to report my “Montana” replacement top for my Pinyon is still singing beautifully 5-1/2 years later...
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  #194  
Old 03-19-2021, 06:04 AM
eKat eKat is offline
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HA. . . thanks, Andre, it just so happens that some stories just need to be told and this was one of them.

AND. . . Bob, I’m stoked that your “Montana” top is still singing beautifully, that's what it all about!
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