#31
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John Slobod has been a friend and frequent participant in the Luthiers Exhibit during Guitar Week at the Swannanoa Gathering since 2006. Often, he would ship guitars for the Exhibit well ahead of time, and I would get to spend a few days playing and photographing them. Consequently, I have LOTS of photos of Circas, which I offer here.
1. My first Circa was #33, an OM in red spruce over Madagascar rosewood. This guitar is currently for sale in the Classifieds. You can find more pictures and my exhaustive review and history with this magnificent instrument here. 2. My second Circa was this 00 in Italian spruce over Macassar ebony, an exquisite little fingerstyle guitar. There are more pictures and my review here. One notable feature of this guitar is the headstock inlay pattern. In my review I described it this way: ”For the inlay, in homage to the 00’s pre-war Martin heritage, I had always liked Martin’s original 1902 torch design, but found it a little too ‘busy,’ so I scanned it into Photoshop and went to work snipping here and there to create my own pared-down custom version. That was sent off to Dave Nichols to be inlaid, with instructions to use pearl that was fairly uniform in hue.“ John asked my permission re-use the design, which I readily gave, and he recently told me that he’d used it on 12-15 other guitars (including the three shown for Justonwo, esaplone and Teleplucker) and it proved popular enough that both of us had seen it replicated on other builders’ instruments. Rather than dump all my Circa photos all at once into this thread, I’ll post them an instrument at a time. I hope you enjoy these superb examples of John Slobod’s genius. Here's one more. 3. 00 12-fret (beeswing mahogany)
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Jim Magill Director, The Swannanoa Gathering Guitars:'07 Circa OM, '09 Bashkin 00-12fret, '10 Circa 00 12-fret, '17 Buendia Jumbo, '17 Robbins R.1, '19 Doerr Legacy Select, '12 Collings 000-28H Koa. Pre-War guitars: '20 0-28, '22 00-28, '22 000-28. Mandolins: '09 Heiden Heritage F5, '08 Poe F5 , 1919 Gibson F-4, '80 Monteleone Grand Artist mandolin, '83 Monteleone GA (oval),'85 Sobell cittern. Last edited by jmagill; 08-28-2022 at 05:11 AM. |
#32
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Great photos, Jim. Thanks for sharing. And thanks for creating that fantastic torch!
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Circa OM-30/34 (Adi/Mad) | 000-12 (Ger/Maple) | OM-28 (Adi/Brz) | OM-18/21 (Adi/Hog) | OM-42 (Adi/Braz) Fairbanks SJ (Adi/Hog) | Schoenberg/Klepper 000-12c (Adi/Hog) | LeGeyt CLM (Swiss/Amzn) | LeGeyt CLM (Carp/Koa) Brondel A-2 (Carp/Mad) |
#33
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Quote:
4. OM (Brazilian reclaimed from the roof beam of a house. Musta been a nice house...)
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Jim Magill Director, The Swannanoa Gathering Guitars:'07 Circa OM, '09 Bashkin 00-12fret, '10 Circa 00 12-fret, '17 Buendia Jumbo, '17 Robbins R.1, '19 Doerr Legacy Select, '12 Collings 000-28H Koa. Pre-War guitars: '20 0-28, '22 00-28, '22 000-28. Mandolins: '09 Heiden Heritage F5, '08 Poe F5 , 1919 Gibson F-4, '80 Monteleone Grand Artist mandolin, '83 Monteleone GA (oval),'85 Sobell cittern. |
#34
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Amazing photos, Jim! I love the piece of BRW picked for the headstock overlay here.
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#35
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5. D with 'Martin Simpson' style cutaway made for Steve Baughman (Brazilian rosewood)
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Jim Magill Director, The Swannanoa Gathering Guitars:'07 Circa OM, '09 Bashkin 00-12fret, '10 Circa 00 12-fret, '17 Buendia Jumbo, '17 Robbins R.1, '19 Doerr Legacy Select, '12 Collings 000-28H Koa. Pre-War guitars: '20 0-28, '22 00-28, '22 000-28. Mandolins: '09 Heiden Heritage F5, '08 Poe F5 , 1919 Gibson F-4, '80 Monteleone Grand Artist mandolin, '83 Monteleone GA (oval),'85 Sobell cittern. |
#36
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Jim, I've always loved this one
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My latest double CD: Massimo Santantonio Ensemble with Gevorg Dabaghyan, duduk "Rome to Yerevan, and back" (amazon.co.uk) |
#37
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Yum!!!
What a magnificent bunch of guitars!
Can’t wait to see more…. Whew! Hope you are all having a blast playing these Cheers 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 |
#38
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Of course I've got my favorites, but I've never played a bad Circa. If such a thing exists, John won't tell me where...
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Jim Magill Director, The Swannanoa Gathering Guitars:'07 Circa OM, '09 Bashkin 00-12fret, '10 Circa 00 12-fret, '17 Buendia Jumbo, '17 Robbins R.1, '19 Doerr Legacy Select, '12 Collings 000-28H Koa. Pre-War guitars: '20 0-28, '22 00-28, '22 000-28. Mandolins: '09 Heiden Heritage F5, '08 Poe F5 , 1919 Gibson F-4, '80 Monteleone Grand Artist mandolin, '83 Monteleone GA (oval),'85 Sobell cittern. |
#39
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6. Slope-D w/slotted headstock (koa). Some real eye candy here. Sounded as good as it looks, too.
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Jim Magill Director, The Swannanoa Gathering Guitars:'07 Circa OM, '09 Bashkin 00-12fret, '10 Circa 00 12-fret, '17 Buendia Jumbo, '17 Robbins R.1, '19 Doerr Legacy Select, '12 Collings 000-28H Koa. Pre-War guitars: '20 0-28, '22 00-28, '22 000-28. Mandolins: '09 Heiden Heritage F5, '08 Poe F5 , 1919 Gibson F-4, '80 Monteleone Grand Artist mandolin, '83 Monteleone GA (oval),'85 Sobell cittern. |
#40
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That one is absolutely sick!
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Circa OM-30/34 (Adi/Mad) | 000-12 (Ger/Maple) | OM-28 (Adi/Brz) | OM-18/21 (Adi/Hog) | OM-42 (Adi/Braz) Fairbanks SJ (Adi/Hog) | Schoenberg/Klepper 000-12c (Adi/Hog) | LeGeyt CLM (Swiss/Amzn) | LeGeyt CLM (Carp/Koa) Brondel A-2 (Carp/Mad) |
#41
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Wow. Maybe the best looking 12-fret dread I've seen.
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#42
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Plainest Circa ever?
Jim, this latest batch of pictures is on a par with all the others.
Here are some pictures of what may be the plainest Circa in existence, my humble OM-18.
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____________________________________________ 1922 Martin 0-28 1933 Martin 0-17 1974 Alvarez/Yairi CY120 2010 Baranik Parlor 2013 Circa OM-18 2014 Claxton OM Traditional 2014 Blackbird Rider |
#43
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Humble OM-18 indeed! Mesmerizing mahogany and I’d swear there’s a little bearclaw in that top! For some of us, what looks like the plainest is actually the most timeless.
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#44
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Couldnt agree more. Gorgeous.
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#45
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OM-18
Everything you need, and nothin' you don't. Beautiful mahogany. Nice!
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Goodall, Martin, Wingert |