Keystone SJ German Spruce / Cocobolo 2023 Build Thread

[Spoonerie]

Hi all
Long time viewer of this amazing forum here. I'm really excited to share with you my latest build which is a 2023 Keystone SJ German Spruce / Cocobolo built by the very talented and masterful Keisuke Nishi.

The journey started around the end of 2022 when I was looking for a nice acoustic for me to play fingerstyle and to be a songwriting companion/tool. Being based in Singapore, there aren't that many high end guitar shops and there were not that many nice acoustics for sale in the classifieds. I remember trying a Tom Doerr from about 2007 which sounded great and I was tempted to pull the trigger but inside me I wondered whether a custom build, albeit far more expensive, would do the trick.

At that time I visited Marcus Wong (The Golden Era Guitar)'s shop and tried out some really nice guitars. Nothing there really did the trick for me, alas. I explained to him what I wanted in a guitar: great overtones, sweet, lush. At that time, he also mentioned that he had a build slot with Keystone for 2023.

Having heard some amazing demos of Keystone guitars especially by Dream Guitars, and his impeccable reputation, I decided to pull the trigger and I paid the deposit to be on his list. It just so happened that I was visiting Tokyo for a holiday in 2023 so I planned to meet him to talk about the build and to select some woods.

Now, that was fun. Visiting Nishi-san's workshop in the outskirts of Tokyo was quite an adventure: you take a train about 1 hour west of Shinjuku, and Nishi-San very kindly offered to pick me up and drove me to his workshop. Over there, we had a nice chat about guitars, his building influences and philosophy, and I explained to him what I was looking for. I told him I wanted something with lots of overtones and lushness, definitely a rosewood guitar. He mentioned he had some lovely stashes of old cocobolo which were of very high quality, which we decided would be a good fit. As for the tops, he likes German spruce as he considers them to be of good power and clarity. He then brought out various wood blanks for the fretboard, headstock, and back, and I selected some woods with his expert tone-tapping and advice.

Some photos of my visit to Nishi-San's workshop are here. Very nice guy and quite funny too.











Fast forward till October and while I was away for business, the guitar finally arrived in Singapore.

Tone is hard to describe in words, but I think this guitar is very balanced; it has a good mix of overtones and fundamentals. Due to the body size, it's quite a mature 'deep' voice, with very good bass response. It's very responsive i.e. when played softly it's still quite loud, and you can still dig in as well. Lots of sustain, quite lush sounding, with a natural reverb; the note blooms and it sort of pulsates. It's got a nice sweet singing voice and some sparkly overtones. The attack is quite fast. I would also say there is a haunting quality in the mids.
It really excels when played with a capo as the shorter scale length brings out more sweetness.

I made the mistake of leaving the guitar out in the open in humid Singapore (RH of 85%) and the guitar started becoming very muffled with only fundamentals. After some dehumidifying, it's now starting to sound much better.

Keisuke-San says that his guitars open up dramatically even within the first few months, so I'm excited to see how much better it will sound! Will keep you all posted.

Photos here:

[nacluth]

Beautiful instrument all around. Thanks for sharing your story! I bet the visit to his shop was great.

[BlueBowman]

Lovely guitar and lovely story. Congrats on the build. Sounds like a great guitar!

[iim7V7IM7]

Congrats on your new guitar . May it inspire you for years to come…

[Guitars44me]

Originally Posted by nacluth

Beautiful instrument all around. Thanks for sharing your story! I bet the visit to his shop was great.

Me too! Enjoy it in fine health and spirits

Paul

[roberts]

Congrats! Kei's builds are something else. Spectacular!

[cigarfan]

Mighty fine lookin' build. Congrats. I like the trench through the center of the rosette. Unique!

[JustinTempered]

Beautiful instrument. I love Dalbergia retusa. Maybe my favorite wood. Absolutely gorgeous and rings like nigra.
Ask Nishi-san his views on having someone put a thin (one lb. cut) wash coat of shellac on the inside of the guitar. It won't completely inhibit moisture transfer into the wood, but will significantly slow it down. I have been doing it for a long time. Repeated episodes of rapid moisture transfer into a guitar caused by high humidity is really bad for a guitar.
I asked an "all star" builder panel about that a few years ago at a Sunday morning session at the Woodstock Invitational. Every single builder said they thought putting a wash coat of shellac on the inside was a good idea, and had no sonic downside if done properly.

Obviously, you wouldn't want to try to do that until the moisture content in the wood gets back to normal.

[JJI]

That really is beautiful.

[Jamiejoon]

Congratulations! Beautiful guitar, and just a wonderful set of Cocobolo.

[mountainguitar]

This is so cool! I love this guitar and that you were able to visit the shop and (let us peek in on your journey) was wonderful.

Enjoy this special instrument! Thank you for sharing this with us-

beth

[pandaroo]

I almost took that build slot off Marcus, plus his new build price is off the charts now. Congrats on a beautiful guitar!! You are going to have time of your life.

[Phantomkaitokid]

Congrats on the new guitar! Also super cool that you were able to meet Keisuke in his workshop and get a hands on experience. I was lucky enough to have a Mod D from him delivered earlier this year and it definitely has opened up to sound more dynamic so you're in for a treat!