Harvey Leach Southwest for TAMCO UK

[mesa]

Fantastic workmanship, Harv! Congrats to you and Trevor!

[harvl]

Originally Posted by murrmac123

Please tell me that the nut is going to be drilled for the strings (ala Voyage-Air) rather than just being slotted ...I realise that there is no mechanical reason why the nut should be drilled (unlike on the folding guitars) but the drilled nut just looks so cool with the zero fret. A slotted nut with a zero fret doesn't look quite so cool ...

I would have been happy to use the Voyage Air style nut had it been requested. I do agree that its a nice clean look. It is a bit strange to get used to feeding the strings through the holes though. I don't know how many times I strung up a Voyage Air in the early days and forgot to do it on at least one string... once you have kinked the string it can be a futile endeavor to try and fish it through

Harv

[harvl]

Originally Posted by MBE

Wow! That's a work of art, inlays and guitar both.

I wonder what % of harv's build time on this was spent on those spectacular inlays?

I never really keep track since I’m usually working on several different projects at the same time, going back and forth. If I were to guess on one like this one I’d estimate 60% of the time is inlay. That would included all the time going back and forth with design ideas with Trevor, drawing the patterns and then the actual cutting and inlaying. For what It’s worth... I make a lot more per hour on plain-jane guitars than I do on ones with a lot of inlay like this but I really enjoy the challenges of creating realistic scenes... almost an obsession. This guitar actually took a bit longer to build because the Manchinga is NOT bend friendly!!! I broke the first set and in the end I needed to laminate the sides to deal with “potato chipping” from the soaking process (I normally bend with little or no water) It was a good education that made me really look forward to my next 3 guitars which are all Tree mahogany (another “fun” wood to bend...) It’s a beautiful wood but... next time I don’t think I’ll do a venetian cutaway

[Trevor M]

Its here and it is truly amazing.

[J.R. Rogers]

I am speechless! Amazing work yet again, Harvey.

JR

[ZekeM]

Love it! That lizard seems to be floating above the pick guard. Awesome work Harv!

[harvl]

Thanks everyone! It was a fun project for sure.

The Gecko was an interesting bit of luck actually... I had the image open in one document in Photoshop, I cut and pasted it into a new document but hit "control V" twice... instant drop shadow... sometimes I just say "Thank You" and go with it

[Tony_in_NYC]

That machinga is sweeeeeet! Beautiful work as always Harv. Love the inlay.