AL PETTEWAY VIDEO UP!!! J. Kinnaird Graybeard Build: Lucky Strike x African Blackwood

[j. Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by Nemoman

Really excited to see both of these come to life.

Love the size and shape and the wood selections!

Thank you Nemoman for the kind words and for following along with the build.

[Tim McKnight]

That’s some mighty fine wood there guys! I look forward to following along and seeing what you come up with.

[Hanter]

Originally Posted by Tim McKnight

That’s some mighty fine wood there guys! I look forward to following along and seeing what you come up with.

Tim! Honored to have you riding along for this build. Your brand new Fretboard Revival will be put to good use on this guitar. The fretboard material, we're gonna keep the suspense for now, but its a stunning one!

[Hanter]

Check out the Lucky Strike in Greybeard rim!



Greybeard Lucky Strike Rim.jpg



Now since the top is a rather special piece of tonewood, I wanted to spend a little time to talk about how fortuitously this came to be.



When I visited John he generously offered to show me some of his inventory. We got to check out some wonderful wood - (Absolutely Black and Hidden Green) Brazilian, Ancient Two-Toned Bog Oak, Creamy Master White Engelmann, Tunnel 14/15.... I was already kinda feeling bad for making John walk in and out of his workshop because we were hanging out on his porch but then he said "hey I just got in a stash of something pretty special, you might fancy it". Out came a (pretty big) stash of redwood and there was a hush of silence. When I laid my eyes on the very first set, I knew I had to have it. It was literally game over. Lo and behold how beautiful can wood get!?!??! And when I tapped it, it was almost like magic.... sustain that went on forever, bells and gongs and whatnot seriously. I flipped through the stash and my mind was spinning, because each one was as captivating as the other. I simply couldn't decide!



So John's in possession of a stash of 8 (minus 1) Lucky Strike Redwood tops at the moment. It literally just came in before I visited him, and the first owner of these tops (if you discount the Carters of course) is a very well-respected and revered luthier as well. In fact, he was the sole and exclusive luthier Alicia Carter sold her Lucky Strike tops to in the first few years of Craig Carter's passing. So over the past couple of decades, this man had accumulated close to about a hundred sets of absolutely top grade Lucky Strike directly from Alicia Carter, and has built many a guitar from these sets (he sold some sets independently to other luthiers and enthusiasts looking for LS as well, but never marketed them openly). Apparently, he was like down to his last 11 sets, and now 8 of them are with John. The last 3 sets are in his personal reserve collection and perhaps he has something planned for them. But anyway.



These 8 sets have been in careful storage over the past 20 odd years. They are all perfectly quartersawn, and the variance in visual character can be seen throughout the selection. Whether its the dark stripey center/sides, the clean and perfect set, the charismatic with gentle bearclaw, you name it, you got it. I obviously went for the one with a little more character, the imperfections always speak to me more, but trust me, it was a very very difficult decision, one of the hardest I had to make this year! Every set was exemplary and regardless of the individual qualities, the medullary silking was present in abundance across the entire top on each set.



Greybeard Lucky Strike 1.jpg



My hands were trembling I swear! This was on John's porch.



Greybeard Lucky Strike 2.jpg



A closer pic.



I apologize for the lack of resolution to really appreciate how wonderful the silking is, and how fine and tight the grain lines are. If you are interested and ask politely, I know John can take and upload pictures of pretty high resolution *wink*.



After I had made my final selection on the top I promised John I would write a bit about this special stash of LS, because I guess it's pretty much the end of the line for something of such quality (as far as I'm aware). And the AGF loyalists deserve to hear about this! I believe John's thinking of taking 1 to Woodstock and I think Jamie's kinda put his name down on 1, so we are talking ermmm... 5 left???? Please don't quote me these things can change in an instant.



Anyway, I want to leave you guys with an "article" written by the original owner of the LS. Its a real labor of love as he put it, and as far as I'm concerned, it will help me appreciate this wood so much more when the final product is delivered.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LS Redwood Log



It was Alicia's Carter's (now Alicia Adams) husband Craig Carter who did the vast amount of the redwood salvaging for Mattole River Tonewoods, not Alicia herself. Craig, a former professional classical guitar teacher and performer, planned to spend the last years of his life building fine classical guitars. Craig got involved with salvaging storm-downed redwood trees and 'lost' logs in order to facilitate what he considered to be the most noble of uses for these majestic trees: to become the voice of a musical instrument. Over the course of his salvaging career, Craig had the opportunity to sample wood from around 100 likely-looking redwood logs, several of which he chose to and was able to successfully salvage. After working with all of these trees, the LS log was the one that truly spoke to Craig, and the one that he personally chose to make soundboards for his own classical guitars. Consequently, he sold very little of it. The LS was not the first log Craig salvaged -- rather it was the one out of a hundred he personally chose to build with from a large selection of outstanding candidate logs. Nor was it a 'stump', as some people have claimed.



Sadly, Craig was diagnosed with leukemia in July 1994, and died of such in December 1996. After the diagnosis and initial conventional therapies, Craig and Alicia made a trip to India to seek Ayurvedic treatment for Craig, who had been given 4 – 6 weeks to live. With the Ayurvedic treatment, he lived for 2-1/2 years. As Alicia put it, 'Those years were filled with his passion to get well and START BUILDING GUITARS'!



Regarding the naming of the logs, Craig and Alicia didn't refer to what is now known as the 'LS' log as the 'LS': they called it 'Craig's Log'. It was not Alicia, or even Craig, who named the LS the 'Lucky Strike' log, it was classical luthier Jeffrey Elliott, after he was given the chance to build with this amazing wood. A substantial number of truly fine guitars have been built by various builders with wood from this log.



As Craig’s wife and sidekick for some 18 years, Alicia had quite a bit of exposure to the musical instrument world. After Craig’s death, she was left with no way to support herself. Craig’s idea was that she continue his redwood soundboard business. With the help of many friends, notably neighbor and business partner Ken Young, Alicia founded Mattole River Tonewoods, offering impeccably milled soundboard sets in many grades from several salvaged redwood logs. As Alicia put it in an initial 1999 Mattole River Tonewoods mailing:



''My main passion is to save this wood for musical instrument builders. It was the loss of 8’ of Craig’s LS log (lying in a road easement) to fence post hunters that galvanized me to devote myself to saving this and other such wood. Ken and I put over an hour of handwork, of focus, into each set. We think the crafting of sets that exactly follow the growth patterns of the wood will make a difference in the sound produced and the strength of the set. Those of you who are looking for master grade LS sets, will not find any listed here. We have a waiting list for LS master grade sets. If you wish to be put on the waiting list, please let us know. We are filling LS master grade back orders as we are able. Note that we cannot accept orders for more than three LS master grade sets due to the very limited availability and high demand for these sets.''



Alicia, Craig and Ken hand-split all of their billets from naturally-downed or salvaged old-growth redwood. Each billet was carefully jointed and resawn to provide vertical grain with virtually no run-out. Matched sets had the V-ing corrected. All matched sets and pieces were planed and checked for splits. All ends were sealed with paraffin to protect the wood.



Of course the LS log could be expected to produce tonewood sets of varying quality -- some of the log was rotten, after all. But overall, the quality of the wood from this log was extraordinary by any standard, and Alicia, Craig, and Ken Young all processed their tonewood sets with more care and graded their wood more critically and with more integrity than any wood supplier I have ever come across. They themselves would reject any set for their 'Master' designation that wasn't truly 'Charismatic' (their word) in their honest opinion. Their full description of their Master grade material was 'Truly outstanding sets, loaded with silk. The grain is straight and generally graduated with the finer grain toward the center. When present, color patterns are symmetrical and attractive. Charismatic.'



As a builder, I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to start working with this material years ago, immediately after it was brought it to market. Once Alicia saw and heard what I had done with it, she offered me first choice on all of the best material she was able to mill from the LS log billets, and basically, for three years I have bought every Master and AAAA grade steel-string size set of this material that was available directly from Alicia. And I'm glad I did! In fact, while I build in a number of different tonewoods, the vast majority of my guitar orders include LS redwood soundboards. With every guitar I build from it, I am mindful of and try to pay respect to the spirit of Craig Carter and his wonderful wife, Alicia, giving each instrument all I have to make Craig and Alicia proud of the fruit of their labors. It truly was a labor of love on their part.

[islandguitar]

Hanter, thank you so much for the wonderful post! The pics are gorgeous! I'm so pleased to gain more insight through your writing on the LS Redwood as I'm fortunate enough to have a Doerr Legacy in this tone wood. It was Tom's final set and so that also meant a great deal to me that he would offer it for my build. This is the most complete writing I've found on LS, so I'm grateful that you've provided this. Under finish, the wood is spectacular as you most certainly know. It's history and distinctive qualities are sure to add to any guitar. The original tune in my signature "Fretful" is played on my Doerr.
Looking forward to following your build.....wonderful!
Regards,
Fred

[Nemoman]

That is some gorgeous redwood, Hanter--congrats on having it for use in your build. thanks for sharing the story and the experience.

Pretty much a double entendre with the Lucky Strike name!

[Hanter]

Originally Posted by islandguitar

Hanter, thank you so much for the wonderful post! The pics are gorgeous! I'm so pleased to gain more insight through your writing on the LS Redwood as I'm fortunate enough to have a Doerr Legacy in this tone wood. It was Tom's final set and so that also meant a great deal to me that he would offer it for my build. This is the most complete writing I've found on LS, so I'm grateful that you've provided this. Under finish, the wood is spectacular as you most certainly know. It's history and distinctive qualities are sure to add to any guitar. The original tune in my signature "Fretful" is played on my Doerr.
Looking forward to following your build.....wonderful!
Regards,
Fred

Thanks for your comments Fred. I really felt obliged to share the LS story when I read the article myself, because it honestly struck a chord and resonated within me. I believe past, present and future owners of LS instruments should also take it in to understand the wood at a deeper level, hopefully the player emotes and creates even better music out of the wood!

BTW that was a masterful recording and lovely playing Fred...

Originally Posted by Nemoman

That is some gorgeous redwood, Hanter--congrats on having it for use in your build. thanks for sharing the story and the experience.

Pretty much a double entendre with the Lucky Strike name!

You bet Nemoman!

[Guitars44me]

Originally Posted by Nemoman

That is some gorgeous redwood, Hanter--congrats on having it for use in your build. thanks for sharing the story and the experience.

Pretty much a double entendre with the Lucky Strike name!

Amazing wood with a wonderful backstory. And we know John will pull every possible bit of TONE out of it, as well show off all its beauty!!!

Thanks for sharing this all with us.

BTW, my PABLO sounds better every day. Woohoo

Paul

[Hanter]

Let me share in more detail why I had such a hard time deciding.


Here’s John showing me the “finest” set which was kept in the previous owner’s personal reserve stash. No special feature to speak of but it’s really charismatic and has a real elegant allure to it.





Then I saw stuff like this fine example below, which Alicia Carter marked out “Special” herself. It has a subtle bearclaw/beeswing figure going on, which is really unusual but truly unique.





On the side marked “Special” you can also see the designation / serialization. Alicia Carter used filtch number / set number to differentiate each set so this one came from filtch 117 and set number 5. Mine is 106/3. The original owner and John has kept this convention.

You can also see the grading here. AAAA. It was noted that Alicia Carter used the strictest criteria in her personal grading, so I’m pretty sure that in today’s standards this turns up as a Master.

For those who like the “clean and perfect”. Check this out.



I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. The quality and variation here though is probably enough to whet and satisfy the most demanding of appetites! What a special day it was for me.

[Steve Kinnaird]

Good looking all around, guys. I tried commenting on the rosette from page 2 but couldn’t get the pic to reload. But I wanted to praise the design concept as well as the execution, and say I hope the finished product looks half as good!

[j. Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

Good looking all around, guys. I tried commenting on the rosette from page 2 but couldn’t get the pic to reload. But I wanted to praise the design concept as well as the execution, and say I hope the finished product looks half as good!

That rosette was remarkably easy to make brother. I’ll send you the plans and even the tools to make it with if you don’t think you can find a magic marker in your town.

[Hanter]

Let’s show some love to the back too!



This pic has me and John blessing the back with our fingers at the same time haha. The sapwood is not too much and should provide an interesting visual contrast. The colors really are interesting! 2 small wormholes that should be of no concern at all.





And John cleaned up the back and put it together with the top for the customary side by side shot. I think the combination is rather gorgeous.

[Hanter]

They say a picture speaks a thousand words.

What about a video with full commentary by John?



We will likely use this on the arm bevel, rib bevel and finger bevel with the fade in/out effect.... Certainly down the middle of the neck as a center laminate.... Probably will be featured on the heel cap, end graft as well.... and last but not least some full blown quilts on the back of the headstock.

Seriously haven't seen such dramatic color and quilt on maple before!

[BenjaminPaldacci]

Lucky Strike Redwood, is an incredible tonewood. I've never seen/touched anything like it.

Those soundboards are insanely great, you are a lucky man!

[Hanter]

Watching it come to life in the video when “magic spray” is used is rather mind-blowing and therapeutic (for me), but for those who don’t have 1 min to spare or can’t stand John’s voice (haha) here’re a couple of not-so-impressive pics of the mix-colored, highly-quilted, curly-figured spalted maple with some sapwood.




A little closer.