Edwinson, Coming Up For Air- 2019 Retrospective

[theEdwinson]

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Yes, I really wanted to keep that Maple guitar in Texas!

I'll make you a better one, Tom.

[theEdwinson]

Next up is the most top-of-the-line Zephyr 00 I have made so far. I built this guitar on spec for Tom's B.I.G. event. It is still available, and I just re-listed it at a steeply reduced price in the Marketplace board. This guitar features a spectacularly figured set of pre-CITES Brazilian rosewood for the back and sides, and a Bearclaw Sitka top from Alaska that was repurposed from a float log at a logging camp. Brent Cole, the owner of Alaska Specialty Woods, sold me ten sets of this Sitka, sequentially sawn from the same billet. He said the float log was harvested in the early 1980s. I still have a few sets left.
If you're looking for some excellent Sitka, Red Cedar, or Yellow Cedar tops for your stash, I strongly encourage you to check out Brent's offerings. It's all "good Karma" wood, never harvested from live trees, but recycled from wind-fall, standing dead trees, float logs, and other sources. ASW is a family business, and they will do you right!

Back to the Zephyr... The bindings, bevels, front headstock plate, and scoop cutaway are all trimmed in Marbled Macassar Ebony, and the purflings throughout are all Style one, three-line red/Zebra/red. The bridge, fingerboard, and front headstock plate are Gabon Ebony. The neck is Spanish Cedar, with Katalox and red veneer line center lam.

This Zephyr has dual side sound ports with sliders, so they can be played open or closed. This is the first time I've tried this on a double-ported guitar. It is very effective in shaping the tone and projection of the guitar. Somewhat counter-intuitively, I found that the lower bout port emphasizes the trebles and midrange; while the upper bout port gives a boost to the bass response. I think this feature gives the guitar an extra measure of versatility, especially if it is recorded or played live with high quality microphones. Full details are HERE in the Marketplace listing.

[mb propsom]

Friggin' gorgeous, Steve!

[Markkunkel]

Dear dear Steve,

You are one of those gifted, GIFT artists who just happens to build guitars. More fundamentally, you are a gifted human being and a deep gift to all who know you. My students here still talk of your visit to our class, and your obvious and deep passion for bringing life to careful beauty.

THANK YOU for being you.

Mark

[Treenewt]

Steve, I was literally thinking about your work a few weeks ago, wondering where you had been. This thread just made me smile. Your work boggles my mind...just spectacular craftsmanship! I would love to play one of your instruments one day...just so I could say I've had the experience! Maybe I'll get to make it to BIG the next time, and hope you can as well.

Thanks for sharing this. I really enjoyed reading it all.

[Ukulele_Eddie]

Some lovely guitars here. In particular, I loved the 00 and the maple. Pretty much anything with quilted maple makes me weak knee'd and melt. Some of the best luthiers in the uke community refer to me as Maple Whore Monnier (my last name) as I have a hard time say no to gorgeous maple! ;-)

I look forward to seeing what you bring to BIGer!

[Guitars44me]

Holy Smokes! What a beauty. Way to go!!!

So Glad you are back in the Saddle here. Love seeing the work...

Off to check the Mktplc listing.

Cheers and HAPPY NEW YEAR

Paul

[Lonzo]

that you haven’t been on my radar yet... but now you certainly are
.. dropped you a question via PM.
Just being curious
Wonderful lookin guitars.. and a lot of praise as well... are there any sound samples available by chance ?

[ClaptonWannabe2]

Originally Posted by theEdwinson

Thank you, Stan!
Some of the next guitars I want to feature were on display at Tom's B.I.G. show. The best part of that event was sharing lots of quality time with Stan and many other denizens of the AGF Custom Shop. We all had a great time.
At the other end of the spectrum from the simply appointed Zephyr 00 above is the most unusual guitar I've ever made. It was built for Ken H., my good friend and patron. He wanted me to really push the boundaries and come up with something special. He traded one of his custom guitars for a beautiful set of Tree quilted Mahogany for me to build with. We were also going to use one of my Tunnel 13 Redwood tops, but it turned out to have an invisible stress crack; so we switched to my last set of Lucky Strike Redwood instead.

This is the most "out there" rendition of my Eclipse Mod OM model. I like to think that maybe the owner, Ken, is a thousand-year-old wizard from Middle Earth, maybe a colleague of Gandalf; because this guitar would not look out of place there.

From inception to completion, the design ideas went through many permutations, and the project was a long time coming to fruition. Two months before the B.I.G. show, Ken said, "You know what I want. Let's finish this guitar." He asked me to just follow my whimsey and get it done. I committed to having it done in time for the show, and hand it off to him there. I just barely made that deadline, getting the guitar ready for prime time just a few days before Joel and I drove from Fairhope to Tom and Kathy's beautiful home in Spring Branch.
Those of you who attended the show have already seen this guitar; but for those who haven't, here are some pics:



This is a multiscale guitar with a scale spread of 25"- 25.75". It also features a sound port with a slider, arm and rib bevels, deluxe Style One binding and purfling, a scoop cutaway, and the "Trufurcated Heart sound hole cover, which is held in place with neodymium magnets- So, if any servicing ever needs to be done on the inside of the sound box, just pop off the heart. All the bindings and trim work are Cocobolo.




Below, oak leaf inlay on the fingerboard; a detail shot of the sound port with slider, and the quilted Maple mantle, installed in relief; also the Omega style open headstock, which Ken asked me to invent for this guitar. This headstock has since become my most popular headstock design. We also outfitted the Gotoh 510 Mini tuners with custom Ebony and Cocobolo buttons, made by Bill Wise of Charis Guitars.



Next, some photos from Tom B'Sox's B.I.G. show. Thanks for looking!

That is a "hold my beer" guitar. How many guitars have you made to get bored with it and make all of those changes? Hopefully pne day I will be skilled enough to tinker to 10% of that level.

[mb propsom]

Just stunning work, as always, Steve!