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  #16  
Old 03-11-2020, 02:34 PM
doodahdoug doodahdoug is offline
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Wow, that is some crazy Walnut figuring and I love your 00 size guitars. Looking forward to checking this one out soon!
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  #17  
Old 03-11-2020, 02:47 PM
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I am truly at a loss for words on the beauty of this guitar fellas!!! I mean really, you have outdone yourselves.

Speaking as the owner of the very first Steve Kinnaird OO guitar, this size is about as perfect as it gets, very comfortable to play and yet large enough to still have a big full sound.

We have to make sure this guitar does not go back to Nacogdoches, it would be a sin!
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  #18  
Old 03-11-2020, 02:51 PM
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Oh boy that is really a snazzy guitar.
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  #19  
Old 03-11-2020, 03:17 PM
SJ VanSandt SJ VanSandt is offline
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Ryan and Steve, I stole some of these photos to share on my FB page - hope you don't mind!
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  #20  
Old 03-11-2020, 08:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nemoman View Post
Whoooo-weeeee--that is beautiful, fellas!
Can't wait to see it and play it and hear it!
Nothing quite like an In 'n' Out Burger guitar!
Thanks Kevin! When I close my eyes and play this guitar, I can hear the patties sizzling on the grill. And oh! the aroma...!

Quote:
Originally Posted by doodahdoug View Post
Wow, that is some crazy Walnut figuring and I love your 00 size guitars. Looking forward to checking this one out soon!
Thanks, dddoug, we are anxious for you to play it.

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Originally Posted by TomB'sox View Post
I am truly at a loss for words on the beauty of this guitar fellas!!! I mean really, you have outdone yourselves.

Speaking as the owner of the very first Steve Kinnaird OO guitar, this size is about as perfect as it gets, very comfortable to play and yet large enough to still have a big full sound.

We have to make sure this guitar does not go back to Nacogdoches, it would be a sin!
Tom, thanks for the continuous inspiration to make these things. And you know this instrument exists because of B.I.G. We would love for this guitar to find its soul mate there.

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Originally Posted by j. Kinnaird View Post
Oh boy that is really a snazzy guitar.
Thanks bro, I'm hoping you like it when up close and personal.

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Originally Posted by SJ VanSandt View Post
Ryan and Steve, I stole some of these photos to share on my FB page - hope you don't mind!
Works for us, Stan!
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  #21  
Old 03-11-2020, 08:59 PM
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Smile Walnut Burger...

The Walnut Burger Guitar is devastatingly beautiful!!!

Whooeeee....

Have FUN at BIGer

Save travels to all

Paul
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3 John Kinnaird SS 12c CUSTOMS:
Big Maple/Cedar Dread
Jumbo Spanish Cedar/WRC
Jumbo OLD Brazilian RW/WRC

R.T 2 12c sinker RW/Claro
96 422ce bought new!
96 LKSM 12
552ce 12x12

J. Stepick Bari Weissy WRC/Walnut

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  #22  
Old 03-11-2020, 09:13 PM
alohachris alohachris is offline
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Default Question RE: Use of Flat-Cut Grained B&S Woods For RW Guitars

Beautiful Guitars!

I've wanted to ask these few questions for many years based solely upon enjoying this forum & your instruments. I'm just curious, is all.

I've seen so many flat-cut backs & some sides used on your & your brother's guitars. I wonder, have they remained stable through the challenges of seasonal humidity changes & intensely dry indoor heating systems? Have they been able to travel well or survive an occasional stage ding without cracking? Especially the rosewood guitars?

If I were still able to build, I'd definitely make a four-piece, straight-grained back before I'd ever use such a flat-cut Madagascar or other RW on any guitar back. In fact, I did, using 4"+ wide, quarter-sawn fingerboard & recycled stock for the box as Brazilian & other rosewoods like Madagascar & Honduran RW became rarer to find in acceptable grains for musical instruments. And historically, most other luthiers would as well. Is wood choice today driven primarily by the desire of the customer or simply by the limitations of available supplies?

What special designs or luthierie techniques do you do to keep those flat-cut backs & guitars stable? Are you a stickler for shop humidity, brushing on a lot of finish inside the box, or even using veneers like many do for sides or what?

Again, very beautiful & detailed instruments. Good picking' too.

alohachris

Last edited by alohachris; 03-11-2020 at 10:15 PM.
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  #23  
Old 03-12-2020, 03:19 AM
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Gorgeous 00 guys. You keep cranking out the beauties! I look forward to auditioning this one.
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  #24  
Old 03-12-2020, 08:43 AM
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Alohachris,

To answer your question succinctly is no we have not seen any repair work due to a flatsawn back. Of course Steve has only been building instruments for the last 40 years. The vast majority of these were for people in our local climate until the last 15 years or so when our business became much broader (truly worldwide).

Two things:
1.) Despite the pictures that might catch your notice, still a majority of our instruments are built from straight grained wood.

2.) One benefit of building high-end customs is the care that the customers show to their instrument. Unlike mass produced instruments where variability is minimized and the expectation of little home care is expected, we believe our clients protect their investment by keeping their guitars properly humidified at all times.

Over time, we have made adjustments to some of our instruments due to environmental changes, but as far as I can remember, none have been a back issue.

We do stabilize and season our wood for years before building typically. Only twice in our production has a back “potato chipped” to a point where it became unsuitable for use. In those situations, we laminated the back to stabilize it. While stability is always a concern, we have yet to see issues that have made us consider not using gorgeous pieces of wood.
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  #25  
Old 03-12-2020, 10:30 AM
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Here's the video for the Lutz/Claro Walnut 00 made for the 2020 BIG show.

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  #26  
Old 03-12-2020, 10:41 AM
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Nice demo Steve...
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  #27  
Old 03-12-2020, 10:52 AM
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Smile Looks great!!!

Sounds even better!!!

Very Nice pickin' indeed...

"2.) One benefit of building high-end customs is the care that the customers show to their instrument. Unlike mass produced instruments where variability is minimized and the expectation of little home care is expected, we believe our clients protect their investment by keeping their guitars properly humidified at all times."

VERY TRUE! Not only do most owners of high-end custom builds keep them humidified and avoid temperature swings, but most of them never take the guitar out of the music room…

Unlike me. I have taken all four of John Kinnaird's customs to gigs as soon as I got them. And they've all kicked butt. I do have super gig bags and keep Bovida humidity packs in the cases. So far so good!

These guys really know what they are doing!

Yay team

Paul
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3 John Kinnaird SS 12c CUSTOMS:
Big Maple/Cedar Dread
Jumbo Spanish Cedar/WRC
Jumbo OLD Brazilian RW/WRC

R.T 2 12c sinker RW/Claro
96 422ce bought new!
96 LKSM 12
552ce 12x12

J. Stepick Bari Weissy WRC/Walnut

More
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  #28  
Old 03-12-2020, 08:51 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7 View Post
Nice demo Steve...
Thanks mucho, Bob. Of course, if this didn't sell at BIG, it was going to be shown at Artisan, where I had hoped you could kick the tires. However.... Ah well.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Guitars44me View Post
Sounds even better!!!

Very Nice pickin' indeed...

Yay team

Paul
Thanks Paul, you made the team grin from ear to ear.
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  #29  
Old 03-12-2020, 11:20 PM
alohachris alohachris is offline
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Default Excellent Response, Ryan

Aloha Ryan,

Thank you for your well-written, thoughtful response. My questions could have been misconstrued as trying to be snarky or negative. That was never my intent.

It's true, in luthierie as in everything else in life, YMMV. Your track record of making beautiful, durable & great sounding guitars cannot be denied, only admired. I really was curious about how to use those flat-cut woods.

At 75 now, unable to build or play anymore, my mileage included many years of repairing thousands of acoustic instruments, including many historic BRW Martins. I noted the grain of the cracked, well-travelled instruments. Then I applied those lessons to the 218 acoustic guitars, hundreds of ukes & other various & strange instruments I built over 40 years. I guess that's where my 'use quarter-sawn-woods-only' impressions have come from.

However, quarter-sawn, straight-grained hardwoods on backs will never provide the striking, incredible, natural beauty of your creatively designed & crafted instruments using flat-cut woods, as in your pictures. Curly Hawaiian Acacia Koa is one exception to that, IMO. I do know that most of your guitars are made of quarter-sawn woods. But I've always wondered if there was a trick(s) to using flat-cut backs & making them durable. And, if customers who order flat-cut woods know the risks.

When I first started sending instruments all over the world in 1970, even using all-quarter-sawn woods didn't save me from the fact that I could not afford to pay the electric bills to properly humidify a woodshop in wet Hawaii. So my early exported guitars sometimes cracked & moved all over the place, no matter the grain. I repaired them all & learned an important lesson: beyond using quarter-sawn woods, a luthier must humidify his shop or at least have a conditioned drying & set-up room, as expensive as that is out here. When I did that, I had more success with durability in my exported instruments.

Fortunately, I was mostly able to use very dense, flitch-matched, quarter-sawn, choke-curl Hawaiian Acacia Koa that I cut & milled on the Big Island, stickered, air-dried, then kiln-dried in the late 70's, early 80's. Because of demand, I also used BRW & other RW's on many guitars. BRW did not fare as well on the road with traveling musicians - more prone to move & crack.

As you wrote, many players today DO take better care of their guitars. Some (many at AGF) seem to obsess over them or even deify them. But most of those players do not play OUT regularly with them.

My generation of giggers (I played out almost nightly for 55 years) were not nearly as over-protective or doting on our instruments. We played guitars of any value in any environment (except the classical players). So different, huh? We were players first, not collectors. We weren't interested in hiding our custom (or not) guitars away in humidified cabinets, or only playing for recording, or occasionally breaking out a DADGAD tune that shows them off in AGF or Soundcloud video's - Ha! Our approach was that great guitars deserve to be played out & heard by others. EX: It would have been inconceivable for great guitarist Norman Blake to think twice about playing his unbelievable 1934 Martin D-18H in any setting. Or Alex DeGrassi not playing his huge-sounding custom Lowden F-35c or outstanding Traugott Model R at his gigs.

Additionally, many modern players here seem to go through custom instruments every other year or so. Never satisfied. Great for custom builders. But their ongoing, new guitar G.A.S. prevents them from realizing the full potential of any brand of guitar unless they play it in for a few decades, & not turning it over too soon. Playing a great custom instrument & holding on to it for many years IS where the "holy grail guitar" is truly to be found. A quiver of custom guitars won't get you "there." I mean, imagine how your great-sounding new Maddy OM will sound in 30 years, if maintained properly, doesn't crack, & is played regularly?!?

Here's Leo Kottke's take on the "holy grail guitar":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtUWKFwZ6mg

Sorry for rambling here. I'm just an old guy.

Stay healthy, Ok!

alohachris

Last edited by alohachris; 03-16-2020 at 04:06 AM.
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  #30  
Old 03-13-2020, 06:27 PM
Maxwellt Maxwellt is offline
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I just have to say that that 00 sounds great.
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