#181
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A beauty
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#182
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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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"A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold." Woody (aka: Mike) FOR SALE: Kinnaird Brazilian!! |
#183
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Thanks Josh...it actually sounds nicer than it looks...
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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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |
#184
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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. Quote:
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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Best regards, Andre Golf is pretty simple. It's just not that easy. - Paul Azinger "It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so." – Mark Twain http://www.youtube.com/user/Gitfiddlemann |
#185
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Thanks Andre...
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |
#186
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Stunning ... just love it!
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David Wren |
#187
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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 |
#188
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Looking forward to SB even more...
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Larry Pattis on Spotify and Pandora LarryPattis.com American Guitar Masters 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists Steel-string guitars by Rebecca Urlacher and Simon Fay Classical guitars by Anders Sterner |
#189
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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.
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |
#190
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YAY. . . another killer thread. These detailed descriptions are the very best.
TFPU! (that's eKat for ThanksForPostin'Up) |
#191
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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. |
#192
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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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Best regards, Andre Golf is pretty simple. It's just not that easy. - Paul Azinger "It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so." – Mark Twain http://www.youtube.com/user/Gitfiddlemann |
#193
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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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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |
#194
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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! |