Build: 2020 Ray Kraut 00, Swiss/Brazilian

[Nemoman]

Congrats on your new Kraut--it is so totally beautiful.

Ray is a true master!

[louis lasky]

yow, that is a dream guitar.

[Ukulele_Eddie]

When I admire this guitar, the word that pops into my mind is, "elegant". Everything looks just perfect. Congrats on a real gem!

Look forward to hearing your sound sample when you settle on preferred strings.

[Diamondave]

Worth the wait, what an awesome way to start the New Year...!!! Congrats

[Guitars44me]

Spectacular, Beautiful, and yummy!

This is certainly a lovely instrument, and what a swell way to start 2021!!!

Enjoy it in fine health and spirits

Salud

Paul

[Cocobolo Kid]

Valliant75, colins, cigarfan, Kenny B, Hanter, Nemoman, louis lasky, Ukulele Eddie, Diamondave, and Guitars44me, thanks for taking time to post such lovely comments. It means a lot to me. This guitar certainly is a great way for me to welcome the new year!

Colin, I tried to take close up shots of the bridge because Ray's pinless bridge design is one of the things that drew me to his guitars a decade ago. However, Ray oiled the bridge before giving me the guitar and it is still very dark. My photos make the bridge look black, which it is not. It is from the same piece of Brazilian rosewood as the fingerboard. Here are a couple of bridge photos that Ray took after he was finished carving, filing and sanding the bridge for this guitar.





The ball end of the strings sit inside the holes at the end of the bridge and are not visible when the guitar is strung, which is pretty cool. Ray also designed his pinless bridge to have exactly the same break angle as his pinned bridge. His pinless bridge is much more complicated and time consuming to make than than his pinned one. I prefer pinless bridges for aesthetic reasons mainly, and all of my acoustic guitars have them.

Thanks everyone for following along with this build thread. The build threads on AGF are a great source of enjoyment for me, and hopefully others have enjoyed this one.

[El Conquistador]

Wow John! I have been offline a couple of days and missed this. Congratulations! She's a beauty.


Steve

[mischultz]

If you were aiming for suck, you missed it by a wide margin.

[Dustinfurlow]

So great to see the finished photos of this beauty! I bet you are over the moon. Congrats and enjoy in good health, John

[jt1]

A stunningly beautiful guitar! Congratulations.

[Cocobolo Kid]

Thanks Steve (El Conquistador), mischultz, Dustin and jt1 for the kind words.

I am enjoying this guitar even more than I imagined I would. It is a treat for all the senses!