New Custom Build Collaboration: Edwinson and Pederson

[bubbaprime]

Hi AGF Peeps!

It pleases me beyond words to share the beginning of a new custom build that will include the collaboration of two fabulous artists. Steve Sheriff and Kevin Pederson will be working together to bring my next guitar dream to life.

Almost five years ago, Steve (Edwinson Guitars) built my first custom guitar, named the iCrucified Guitar for the theme I developed to represent my spiritual journey. I have played this guitar faithfully most every week with a small band that plays in my local church. The EPC model of Edwinson Guitars is the largest guitar that Steve builds and is great for "stand up" playing and performance, but is a little unwieldy for me to play on my couch or at the table when working on tabs or new material from home.

I started to dream of a smaller guitar several years ago and was introduced to the work of Kevin Pederson, through the forum, about that same time. Thinking of the skills of Steve as well as the great experience I had with him on my first custom build along with the fantastic inlay art of Kevin just seemed a winning combination to me, so after reaching out to them both and exchanging a few ideas, we've reached the point of making this dream and group of ideas into a reality.

The guitar will be Steve's Consort styled guitar, which is a 000 sized model and will feature the 13-fret to the body (20 total) configuration. The back and sides will be Ziricote with various Ebony embellishments and a beautiful AA Adirondack Spruce top.

Kevin has been commissioned for a couple of major inlay features to anchor the theme of this guitar, which is named the Spirit Guitar and will be represented by various elements fire, water, wind, etc. I anticipate some more surprises with Kevin's work, which we will plan to share as the project develops.

More details to follow, but this is our official launch of the build and thread.

Here are some of the pics of the raw tonewoods. I invite Steve and Kevin to share at will and at inspiration whenever they are so moved. More to come later!









Kevin's working idea for the inlay featured and anchoring the theme on the back of the Spirit Guitar.



More to come, thanks for sharing the ride!

[mikealpine]

This is going to be exceptionally enjoyable to follow! Congratulations!!

[TomB'sox]

This is just a fantastic idea...holy smokes, you must have some pull with these fellows....what a wonderful build you will have. Love the Ziricote you picked out, fantastic....

[Nemoman]

Awesome collaboration, Jeff! I'll be eagerly following this one to fruition--congrats!

[theEdwinson]

I'm the lucky guy here- not only do I get to build my good friend Jeff a second guitar, it looks like we are collaborating with Kevin Pederson, who you all know from this Forum. I am always amazed, astounded by Kevin's artistry. So having some of his inlay work on this guitar is sort of like being mentored by Leonardo Da Vinci. This should be a lot of fun!

[Joel Teel]

WoooooooHooooooooo...
Let the fun begin!!!

Hey...wait a minute, Steve. These plates look eerily familiar...

[mikealpine]

Originally Posted by theEdwinson

I'm the lucky guy here- not only do I get to build my good friend Jeff a second guitar, it looks like we are collaborating with Kevin Pederson, who you all know from this Forum. I am always amazed, astounded by Kevin's artistry. So having some of his inlay work on this guitar is sort of like being mentored by Leonardo Da Vinci. This should be a lot of fun!

Steve, you are very humble. The respect you show to your fellow luthiers is very special. I'm sure Kevin will also benefit from all of your hours of study and innovative building techniques. Way cool build.

[KevinLPederson]

I'm honored and very happy to be working with Steve on this guitar. I will put pics up as I go along .

Looking forward to this! Have a great week to come!

Kevin.

[Treenewt]

This looks to be spectacular in every way!

[J.R. Rogers]

Interesting collaboration! Looking forward to seeing this progress.

JR

[bubbaprime]

Thanks all, for sharing in the build of this wonderful guitar!

I had a busy few days with a quick visit to my son and his family...I'm a new grandpa this year and needed to keep the bonds developing. While I was away, a flurry of activity has taken place with the guitar. Steve, Kevin, and myself have had some opportunities to converse about some details of construction and the workflow, so the more intricate inlay work (Kevin's baby), can be completed where it best accommodates, Kevin's preference. So, we have joined the back using a pure black Ebony center with flamed Pyinma wood contrasting purfling strips. This was mailed to Kevin a few days ago and his work will begin in the not-to-distant-future.

Here are a few pics of the back set joined with the center strips.







Steve also sent along some rough stock from the flamed Pyinma for Kevin to incorporate as necessary for the framing of the medallion/inlay on the back.

[GaultierRedon14]

The Ebony and Pyinma wedge combination looks perfect with the Ziricote.

[prickards]

Oh my! This is gonna be good.

[theEdwinson]

About eighteen months ago, Cook Woods in Klamath Falls OR, one of my first-call exotic wood dealers, ran a special on this Southeast Asian wood I'd never heard of- Pyinma. I thought it would be great for bindings, purflings, inlay... so I bought a board. Since then, I've used it as a decorative embellishment on about eight guitars.

That one board I bought is getting pretty skinny. I think I'll need to buy another. The silvery-tan color and vivid 3-D flame goes with just about any other wood you'd want to use on a guitar- dark woods, light woods... And Cook Woods even offers full-size back and side sets of this wood from time to time. The board I have rings like a marimba bar when you rap on it; I suspect it would have similar characteristics to SE Asian ebonies if you used it for back and sides.

On the Spirit guitar, we'll be using Pyinma for the soundboard purflings, side and back purflings, and also on the fingerboard and headstock. When I sent the back to Kevin a couple days ago, I enclosed a nice Pyinma fillet, so he can use it in his inlay work also.

If anyone is curious about this wood, here's a link to the Wood Database.

[TomB'sox]

It looks fantastic so far, great set of Ziricote and the ebony looks fantastic....This is going to be beautiful, how could it not with the two talented builders working on it!!!!