Stephen Kinnaird '16 (Sitka/Oregon Myrtle OM) - Page 8

TomB'sox · #**106** 06-14-2016, 02:49 PM

Haha, there are times in a relationship when not sharing everything is probably the best call, I am making that call here....I am not sure my "K" will be glad to hear this info....we thought we were moving to paradise hahaha.

nacluth · #**107** 06-14-2016, 02:53 PM

You are. Don't tell her about the scorpions. Texas is paradise. You're going to love it.

TuckerRE · #**108** 06-14-2016, 11:18 PM

You didn't put silk'n steel strings on it, did you Ryan?!

nacluth · #**109** 06-14-2016, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TuckerRE

You didn't put silk'n steel strings on it, did you Ryan?!

No, but if that's what you want I'll put them on before I send it to you.

TuckerRE · #**110** 06-15-2016, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nacluth

No, but if that's what you want I'll put them on before I send it to you.

On the rumored '00'...please!

Steve Kinnaird · #**111** 06-15-2016, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TuckerRE

On the rumored '00'...please!

For real? We'd brace it very lightly, locking you in to a limited range of strings...

TuckerRE · #**112** 06-16-2016, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

For real? We'd brace it very lightly, locking you in to a limited range of strings...

In could live with that!

nacluth · #**113** 08-01-2016, 08:10 PM

Wow, a month and a half without any posts!

Has anyone else been busy for the Santa Barbara show? I'm going to try to be better now that we've got some guitars to the finishing stage. I hope you'll follow along through our next couple of fun projects.

Taking a break from our "shop" guitar series, Steve and I are very happy to build a guitar with a stellar piece of Panamanian Rosewood that we purchased a couple of years back. We've been dying to use it, and when a fellow AGF'er wanted to commission a rich sounding OM, we were very excited when he picked this back and sides set. We're pairing it with a creamy Italian Spruce top over a deep body. We're expecting great things from this guitar!

A shot of the back being glued up. Dead quartersawn rosewood with a rich full bodied wine color.

...and the clear creamy Italian top:

I'll get some more pics up very soon!

TomB'sox · #**114** 08-01-2016, 08:53 PM

Boy is that a nice back and top, my goodness gracious, they look perfect!!!!

jim_pridx · #**115** 08-01-2016, 11:24 PM

Those tonewoods are looking very familiar........

nacluth · #**116** 08-02-2016, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Boy is that a nice back and top, my goodness gracious, they look perfect!!!!

Thanks Tom! I figured that you would appreciate the Italian top over a tropical rosewood. Feel free to offer any thoughts about potential tone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim_pridx

Those tonewoods are looking very familiar........

I hope so Jim! This beauty will be heading to your neck of the woods very soon.

I just want to take a second in a public forum to share my great appreciation for Jim. Shortly before his build was supposed to kick off in earnest, my youngest daughter needed to spend most of her first month in the hospital. Almost as soon as I got back to work, Steve's dad went through a final fight with cancer that lasted several months. Through all this, Jim has been exceedingly patient - and even beyond that - very kind as he has continually deferred the enjoyment of his coming guitar. We want to say thanks!

And now, you probably just want to see more shots of the guitar.

A look at the trimmed up back:

nacluth · #**117** 08-02-2016, 10:33 AM

Very early, we knew that we wanted to pair the rosewood with a contrasting binding. After several choices, Jim decided to go with Golden Koa - an elegant choice against this rosewood. We also wanted to concentrate on "woody" tones as opposed to the blacks and whites of many modern designs. Jim, was looking for a fairly simple design plan, but one thing lead to another in our design discussions...

Most truly custom builds have at least one rabbit hole to explore design-wise. For this guitar it was the rosette. We started off with a simple radial rosette:

And then the discussion began that it might be a good idea to add some koa pieces in - somewhat asymetrically. The thought was this could draw in the koa from the binding into a unique piece. We started somewhere around here (there's actually some pieces of Pau Ferro in there too):

But while we thought we were headed in the right direction, we decided to drop the size of the koa pieces and add more:

After sleeping on it for a night or two, we knew more work needed to be done. Again the patience of Jim (noted above) was remarkable. Luthiers through sheer experience have a much better view of how nice something will look in its rough state. We try our best to assure the customer that they are not making a terrible mistake, but the customer has to have faith. A lot of communication is important. Many potential design changes were discussed, but the idea struck to add many more smaller pieces of koa into the ring:

This began to give some life to the overall structure to me. (I'm sure you, potential guitar designer, would have a different rabbit hole, but you will have one.) As in the shot above, the original plan was to border the rosette with strips of koa inner and outer. However, it came to the point where we thought this might be a little overkill. We decided some custom purling of Indian RW/Koa/Padauk might tie all elements in more succinctly:

More of the amazing rosette trip later...

jim_pridx · #**118** 08-02-2016, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nacluth

I just want to take a second in a public forum to share my great appreciation for Jim. Shortly before his build was supposed to kick off in earnest, my youngest daughter needed to spend most of her first month in the hospital. Almost as soon as I got back to work, Steve's dad went through a final fight with cancer that lasted several months. Through all this, Jim has been exceedingly patient - and even beyond that - very kind as he has continually deferred the enjoyment of his coming guitar. We want to say thanks!

You're very welcome, Ryan, but regardless of how badly one desires to get his or her guitar, our personal issues always come first. Being patient was the very least I could do. And, it's been very enjoyable working with the two of you!

And yes.....the infamous rosette.....haha! Well, maybe not infamous, but we certainly went through a few rounds of discussion and images with it. All in all, though, I love how the different woods complement one another. I'm sure this will be a fabulous instrument!

Steve Kinnaird · #**119** 08-02-2016, 11:54 AM

My thanks as well, Jim. We are on the downhill slope, and things are looking nice. By the way, your box had a loud report (fireworks lingo which seems appropriate) when we lit the fuse.

jim_pridx · #**120** 08-02-2016, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

My thanks as well, Jim. We are on the downhill slope, and things are looking nice. By the way, your box had a loud report (fireworks lingo which seems appropriate) when we lit the fuse.

You're welcome, Steve, and thank you! I like "loud," and I love the "fireworks lingo!".....

I have a hunch that its tone will be right up there with the best of them, too!