Buddy Holly Project

[clinchriver]

Vince picks with everybody around Nashville. Those guitars will get around town..........

[Howard Klepper]

Dovetail mortises cut, necks fitted. Next is sanding and prepping for finish.

[japple]

What a treat for you Howard. Vince Gill is a great picker and both he and his wife are talented musicians. Excited for you and to see how this will end.

[heavyg]

will the guitar have the leather pickguard?

[Billy Boy]

What a wonderful thread to follow, Howard...thank you very much for sharing this with us...absolutely marvelous!

[Howard Klepper]

Heavy g: Buddy Holly made a tooled leather jacket for his J-45; not just a pickguard. We are having replicas made, and each guitar will have one.

Buddy borrowed some leather tools and made it himself. Talented guy.

Buddy put the names of his hits on the sides, and planned to add each new hit record, but had not gotten around to it when he died--the hits were coming too fast.

The guitars I'm building will each have "Not Fade Away" on the jackets.

[heavyg]

I guess that jacket will muffle all the hard work you put in to making it sound
fantastic, but I understand its about the history, is it permanent or does it come off easy.

[Howard Klepper]

Originally Posted by heavyg

I guess that jacket will muffle all the hard work you put in to making it sound
fantastic, but I understand its about the history, is it permanent or does it come off easy.

You kind of nailed the weird thing about building these: the sound will be muffled, and also 75% of the guitar will not be seen. So I'm working on the finish, and making sure little details will be perfect, and wondering what the point is. Well, I guess the answer is that I do it either for pride, or for the museum curator who will take it out of the jacket in 100 years and notice how clean my work was.

Buddy sewed his on, and it's doubtful that it can be removed without the leather falling apart. The reproductions have jackets that are zippered in the back. I've encouraged Vince and Amy to take the jacket off sometime, so they can hear what the guitars actually sound like.

[jt1]

Cool stuff, Howard. But, remember, I've only got limited rights to those pics of Buddy's original guitar. Please don't share them without asking me. Really.

In any event, 25% of Klepper tone and visuals will still be sublime. I've played the original and all of the copies (though my playing of the copies is at an end). Those leather covers do less damage to tone than one would imagine. This is especially true of the original which is a stunning sounding guitar, even with several pounds of leather covering it.

[Howard Klepper]

Ooops. Thought those were public domain. I'll take them down.

New link is to a repro jacket. On a Gibson more-or-less repro guitar.

[jt1]

Thanks, Howard! I'm sure that was my fault for not letting you know. Christie's let me have the use of those photos so that we could get the details of Buddy's guitar and cover right.

Please keep those progress reports coming!

[Howard Klepper]

In the spray room, where there are long periods of just waiting. The color coats are all on, as well as several clear coats. Here's one body and neck.

[heavyg]

thats just beautiful, I hate to see that covered up, but you know what they say......I forgot what they say.

[Howard Klepper]

Back after getting hung up for over a month by a flakey graphics guy who was supposed to print all my decals, and instead gave me week after week of broken promises. I try to do as much as possible myself, but a special printer is needed for metallic inks.

Anyhow, I got the decals elsewhere, and am back to the doing the last few coats of lacquer. Here's a headstock:

[cpabolting]

Howard... exceptional work. Love the doing it the right way dovetail joint LOL

So where do we stand on these bad boys?

For the holidays, I was wanting to be singing "I'm dreaming of a Pernambuco Christmas, just like the one I want you to build, where the wood is quartersawn, and the top is Adi, to pick those songs we love to hear...."