Hatcher Studio '23

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by cigarfan

Gorgeous guitar. Can't wait to hear Dustin tickle the strings on this one.

Thanks cigarfan, I’m looking forward to that too!


m

[dcn]

What a charmer - so many interesting textures and tones. Congrats!

[John Osthoff]

Hi Mark,

Awesome details in the guitars. I really love the execution of all the forms. I have admired your 3-d headstock for years. Something I had thought about trying, a long time ago, but never got it from concept to model, to an actual design. I appreciate the time and skill that went into creating all the forms. I know I am not the only one that has commented on your photos too, but I will say again, nice work. My shop is never clean enough to take such "clean" shots.

I know we talked last year, and I would love to catch up in person sometime. I keep saying when things settle down a little which never seems to happen. Hope we can make it happen. You are always welcome at my place. (Mess and all) Cheers.

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by dcn

What a charmer - so many interesting textures and tones. Congrats!

Thanks dcn!

Originally Posted by John Osthoff

Hi Mark,

Awesome details in the guitars. I really love the execution of all the forms. I have admired your 3-d headstock for years. Something I had thought about trying, a long time ago, but never got it from concept to model, to an actual design. I appreciate the time and skill that went into creating all the forms. I know I am not the only one that has commented on your photos too, but I will say again, nice work. My shop is never clean enough to take such "clean" shots.

I know we talked last year, and I would love to catch up in person sometime. I keep saying when things settle down a little which never seems to happen. Hope we can make it happen. You are always welcome at my place. (Mess and all) Cheers.

John I admire your work as well. The trick in creating the illusion of a clean shop is turn all the lights off and use spot lights to only light the little clean area for the photograph

I'd love to come down for a visit. Let's pick a date!

Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

We are going with a Visesnut flight case for Dustin's Greta:



One advantage of the Visesnut case is the adjustable fit it allows. If you are traveling with another guitar around the size of your Greta you can easily set the case up for that guitar also. The case weighs about half what other cases weigh so it likely will become your favorite travel case.

I offer six different guitar models and three different Visesnut case sizes cover all six.





We went with the Taupe colored Premier case for Dustin. The color goes well with the guitar and they come with stainless steel twist latches.



The Visesnut cases have great neck support. There is a Velcro strap to stabilize the neck at the headstock plus the padded lid for the storage compartment adds additional neck stabilization.

Notice the rubber seal around the case opening. This adds humidity protection and protection from scuffs and scratches when taking the guitar in and out.



Dustin is also getting the optional soft cover. Most of the Premier cases color is painted on and show scratches easier than a molded in color. I recommend the soft case to help with that.
However, the soft case is great for any of the regular model cases because they add additional thermal protection and they are quite simply more comfortable to travel with.

Any of the case models come standard with back straps. The soft case has access pockets to attach the straps. It is extremely comfortable to go long distances with the padded guitar case on your back. The biggest issue people have with this set up is in the beginning you will find yourself stopping to open the case because it's all so light and comfortable you'll question whether the guitar is in there!

I pay a lot of attention to comfort when designing and making my guitars and the Visesnut cases extend that consideration to the cases my guitars come in.

Mark

[iim7V7IM7]

Another aspect of the soft case is Visesnut cases do not have integrated TSA compliant locks. You can use a TSA lock on the soft case zippers to secure the guitar during transit if it ever needs to be gate checked.

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

We are going with a Visesnut flight case for Dustin's Greta:



One advantage of the Visesnut case is the adjustable fit it allows. If you are traveling with another guitar around the size of your Greta you can easily set the case up for that guitar also. The case weighs about half what other cases weigh so it likely will become your favorite travel case.

I offer six different guitar models and three different Visesnut case sizes cover all six.





We went with the Taupe colored Premier case for Dustin. The color goes well with the guitar and they come with stainless steel twist latches.



The Visesnut cases have great neck support. There is a Velcro strap to stabilize the neck at the headstock plus the padded lid for the storage compartment adds additional neck stabilization.

Notice the rubber seal around the case opening. This adds humidity protection and protection from scuffs and scratches when taking the guitar in and out.



Dustin is also getting the optional soft cover. Most of the Premier cases color is painted on and show scratches easier than a molded in color. I recommend the soft case to help with that.
However, the soft case is great for any of the regular model cases because they add additional thermal protection and they are quite simply more comfortable to travel with.

Any of the case models come standard with back straps. The soft case has access pockets to attach the straps. It is extremely comfortable to go long distances with the padded guitar case on your back. The biggest issue people have with this set up is in the beginning you will find yourself stopping to open the case because it's all so light and comfortable you'll question whether the guitar is in there!

I pay a lot of attention to comfort when designing and making my guitars and the Visesnut cases extend that consideration to the cases my guitars come in.

Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7

Another aspect of the soft case is Visesnut cases do not have integrated TSA compliant locks. You can use a TSA lock on the soft case zippers to secure the guitar during transit if it ever needs to be gate checked.

Thanks for commenting. It is true the cases do not come with integrated TSA locks. The Premium line with a soft case would give you the option to use a TSA lock.
The latches that come standard on the Active series will work directly with the cable type TSA locks so you wouldn’t need to have a soft cover case for that purpose.

m

[Mark Hatcher]

Dustin's guitar is settling quite well since it has been strung up. It should be ready to ship pretty soon.

Meanwhile, the finish is going on the other Greta GA I have in the works. Here is a picture of the torrified back and sides with the first gloss coat on:



I'm not showing the top because this one will be French polished after the neck, back and sides are done.

As a reminder of which guitar this is here is what the unfinished top:



I'm getting rave reviews on the performance of the torrified Sugar Maple guitars I've been making so I am always on the hunt to build up my wood stock. I've have some beautiful curly billets right now which are large enough for my Piña parlor and Woodsman 00.

m

[Treenewt]

That sugar maple looks fantastic under finish Mark!

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Treenewt

That sugar maple looks fantastic under finish Mark!

It think it looks great too. Thanks!

M

[Mark Hatcher]

I made this guitar for Lonzo a couple years ago:





At this point we've worked together on a number of custom guitars and we pulled out all the stops on this one. You can see it has "The Tree" for the back and sides, Snakewood for the bridge, fretboard and headstock overlay and The Fiddleback Tree" wood for the binding and bevels.

I suggested we touch it up with a bit of an Art Nouveau motif. I sent these rough sketches for the end graft, sound hole, truss rod cover and rosette medallion:





We went forward with most of these:







Lonzo had a different idea for the sound port and asked if I could do it like this (along the lines of the end graft):



I said, "Sure!"





For those of you that read the titles of my posts you might be saying to yourselves, "OK, I see the cake but where's the icing?"
Well I can only insert up to 10 photos per post so I'm going to post the icing on the next post.

[Mark Hatcher]

When it came to the tuners the best we could do at the time was gold Waverly tuners with Snakewood buttons:



The Snakewood buttons go great with the other Snakewood trim and the gold goes well with the gold EVO frets.



Since that time I have gone over to using Scheller tuners and Lonzo took notice of that and asked me if upgrading to Scheller would be possible. We had some logistics to work out. While both Lonzo and Scheller are in Germany shipping the guitar back and forth to the USA would be expensive let alone the risk of the extra shipment.

Scheller is not a direct replacement for Waverly so there would be some work involved to get this done. Fortunately, German luthier Max Spohn was willing tear himself away from making his wonderful contemporary guitars to help out. Both Klaus and I admire his work and Max has a lot of experience working with Scheller and their wonderful tuners.

So we're back to sketches for these custom Scheller tuners. Drawings went back and forth between Lonzo, myself, Max and the artist at Scheller who did the final drawing:



Here are some close ups of her work:







In order to set the tuners into the headstock there were some modifications Max did to the hole diameter and positions of the existing holes.
Max plugged the existing holes so the bit wouldn't wonder and blocked the headstock slots to prevent tear out:





Max filled the old screw hole and in they went!





That was a truly enjoyable collaboration ending in a wonder result, icing on the cake!

Mark

[rule18]

Wow, that's really something. Such detailed work and a beautiful outcome.

[Nemoman]

Wow--what a successful collaboration!

Kudos to all involved!

[canuck7]

Truly beautiful tuners…Mark, you turned me on to Schellers and I had to put them on my K Yairi instead of Gotohs….