Kinnaird West 000-12c Port Orford Cedar & Koa

[Carpinteria]

Beautiful work, gentlemen! Dave

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by Carpinteria

Beautiful work, gentlemen! Dave

Thanks Dave, I appreciate you dropping by.

Steve

[nootis]

Originally Posted by BlackKeys36

Gluing the back:

The Watusi machine appears to have handles! Are the handles a new add-on, or were the handles already on the mold for this model? For the OO, I recall saying, "You should make some handles to hang on to."!

[Dogma]

So you don't say which kind of wood it is that was chosen for that stunningly cool headstock overlay. Inquiring minds and all...

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by Dogma

So you don't say which kind of wood it is that was chosen for that stunningly cool headstock overlay. Inquiring minds and all...

I’ll jump in here as John is engaged in family obligations today.
That headstock overlay is curly Koa—which might argue a lack of imagination, but it is a remarkable piece. So let’s not argue!

SK

[BlackKeys36]

Somewhere along the line I decided I wanted to do something different for the soundport. It evolved from it being bound to possibly being a different shape. My wife and her mom have always kept Plumeria and i knew that was one of the flowers used to make leis (which my Hawaiian Koa would love wearing...obviously) and that it could potentially make a pretty/interesting soundport shape.

I sent Ryan this picture of a flowery soundport and this pic of the plumeria flower I wanted to try to model it after:




We went back and forth on whether to have the "ports" be the petals or the negative of the pedals:



Behind the scenes the guys came up with this:






Inlaid:



And...

Some box shots with the ports cut in the pedals:




Ports from the inside...admittedly they will potentially let out a little less sound, but I'm not concerned with that in the slightest, absolutely love the design, and it is way better than what i envisioned:

[MThomson]

Beautiful craftsmanship in the sound port. I like how you got there too. I think it's all the little details that really make the guitar yours.

[j. Kinnaird]

That’s really clever!

[SJ VanSandt]

I love that sound port! Spectacular build altogether.

[TomB'sox]

Fantastic inspiration, design, and execution!

[Steve Kinnaird]

Thanks all for the kind words. This idea of John’s was one of those requests that challenges you by taking you out of your comfort zone. Irving Sloane and Art Overholtzer never wrote about inlaying Plumeria flowers in perfectly fine Koa sides. But now that the room has stopped spinning, I comfort myself with the realization that I’m not making a Wilborn Nautilus! That looks hard!

[Dogma]

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

That headstock overlay is curly Koa—which might argue a lack of imagination, but it is a remarkable piece. So let’s not argue!

SK

I think it argues "design continuity!" And yes, remarkable indeed.

[iim7V7IM7]

Artful n’ functional (Kudos)…

[Guitars44me]

Beautiful from stem to stern!

That Koa is spectacular, and the port is so 😎 cool!

What a LOOKER, and it will sing too! These guys have it going ON

Enjoy this!!!

Paul

[Jamiejoon]

I have been trying to wait until Tony has done his thing to comment on the koa under finish, but wow that guitar is going to look amazing. Hurry up so we can see!