Edwinson 2021- Coming Up For Air

[Carpinteria]

Looks great, Steve! I’m eager to see what design elements you build into it! Dave

[mikealpine]

Steve, while the new guitar back set looks awesome, I have to say I only just listened to Dustin’s demo. The richness from all three models amazed me and I can’t believe you went home with any of them. I wish I played the small guitar because that sounded so much bigger. As you know, I was incredibly impressed with the MBW guitar, but the all sounded fantastic.

[Sage97]

I wish I can play like that to hear the full potential of my Edwinson. But, I still enjoy mine every time I play those cowboy chords.

[theEdwinson]

Originally Posted by Sage97

I wish I can play like that to hear the full potential of my Edwinson. But, I still enjoy mine every time I play those cowboy chords.

C'mon Ernie, I have a pretty nice collection of your music in my iTunes library that you have sent to me over the years, and it is all mesmerizing. Your guitar playing is the perfect accompaniment to your extraordinarily soulful singing, and it's the perfect balance of your voice and your guitar. No more needs to be added, or subtracted. Honestly, I don't know WHY you aren't world-famous! Maybe because you're so humble...?

[theEdwinson]

Originally Posted by mikealpine

Steve, while the new guitar back set looks awesome, I have to say I only just listened to Dustin’s demo. The richness from all three models amazed me and I can’t believe you went home with any of them. I wish I played the small guitar because that sounded so much bigger. As you know, I was incredibly impressed with the MBW guitar, but the all sounded fantastic.

You're very kind, Mike. I was a little surprised by the Malay/Adi guitar. When I first strung it up, it was as dry as a California lake bed- all fundamentals, no color coming out... Seriously, I was strongly considering leaving that guitar at home. But just three days later I took it out of the case to tweak the setup, and something amazing happened! It was mostly in the mids and trebles at first- but suddenly it was blooming with overtones, all the way up the neck. It was barely awake on the first day of the show, and on the second day, Dustin put his magic hands on it, and WOW, that guitar suddenly woke up and discovered what it is and what it is supposed to do. I'm also convinced that YOU put some of your own magic in it too, when you played it several times. That was an immensely gratifying development. I bonded with this Performance SC more than any other guitar I've made this year. I wish I could afford to keep it. I was actually glad that I get to hang onto it for awhile.

And with the Asian Blackwood back and sides and Adi top, this is only the very beginning of the tonal maturation curve.
I also have to give an unqualified but emphatic endorsement to D'Addario Nickel Bronze strings (.012- .056 light-medium) which I strung this guitar with. If you haven't tried these strings yet, get a set, and tell me how they sound on your guitar. I think they're awesome.

[theEdwinson]

Originally Posted by Carpinteria

Looks great, Steve! I’m eager to see what design elements you build into it! Dave

Hi, Dave,
I'm eager to see how this guitar develops also. Today I'm going to join the plates and pick out a top set. I'm thinking of keeping this guitar fairly elemental, not much if any bling, just a straight-up Modern OM player guitar. We'll see...

[Sage97]

Originally Posted by theEdwinson

C'mon Ernie, I have a pretty nice collection of your music in my iTunes library that you have sent to me over the years, and it is all mesmerizing. Your guitar playing is the perfect accompaniment to your extraordinarily soulful singing, and it's the perfect balance of your voice and your guitar. No more needs to be added, or subtracted. Honestly, I don't know WHY you aren't world-famous! Maybe because you're so humble...?

Thank you Steve. I am just truly impressed with playing styles like Dustin's.

[SprintBob]

Originally Posted by Sage97

Thank you Steve. I am just truly impressed with playing styles like Dustin's.

Originally Posted by Dustinfurlow

Was so great to meet you and play your guitars finally, Steve...All three of these beauties really blew me away...superlative performance guitars with looks and tone to match. Hope you had safe and smooth travels back.



All the best,

This is totally cool!

[theEdwinson]

Still using a little time between paying gigs to dream up some new guitar builds, with the aim of exhibiting them somewhere in a year or so, and not getting caught flat-footed… So far, I’ve got this Eclipse OM with Pernambuco back and sides; and I found what I think will be a perfect tonal complement for it- an Adirondack top that rings like a bell. It has somewhat wide grain spacing, and perfect stiffness both ways… and a beautiful, even, pale ivory color. I have not decided on whether it will be a cutaway OM, or other features yet, but I’m open to suggestion. Right now, it’s like being a painter, preparing a canvas, before deciding what to paint. Should it be a portrait of Mona Lisa’s less homely sister? Or maybe a picture of dogs playing poker? So many choices!
Anyway, here’s the back and top side by side. They appear to agree with each other, don’t they?IMG_3226.jpg
Closeup of the Adi top and the Pernambuco back…IMG_3228.jpg IMG_3229.jpg

[theEdwinson]

The next canvas I’m preparing is for a Consort 000 guitar. In the spirit of the season, I’m putting together some Autumn colors.
I’ve had these woods for six or seven years now, wondering what to build with them. After sitting on this egg for all that time, I think I finally hatched an idea. It’s a “Crazy Red Flame” Redwood top, paired with this wildly figured Padouk back and sides. Please, will someone who has objective sensibilities tell me, is this really cool (or hot), or is it just sick and wrong on every level?IMG_3221.jpg
Now look at this Redwood (YES, that IS Redwood!) and tell me, have you ever seen anything like it?IMG_3224.jpg
And now the back and top together:IMG_3222.jpg
Do you think these woods will play well together, or will they eat each other alive? BTW, I’m picturing using dark, figured Indian or Brazilian Rosewood for bindings, trim, bridge, fingerboard…
Should I check myself into rehab, or just go with this theme and hope for the best?

[theEdwinson]

IMG_3233.jpg IMG_3225.jpg

[Steve Kinnaird]

Wow…it looks like that wood was retrieved from a deep space probe.
Couldn’t have grown on this planet.

[mikealpine]

Originally Posted by theEdwinson

The next canvas I’m preparing is for a Consort 000 guitar. In the spirit of the season, I’m putting together some Autumn colors.
I’ve had these woods for six or seven years now, wondering what to build with them. After sitting on this egg for all that time, I think I finally hatched an idea. It’s a “Crazy Red Flame” Redwood top, paired with this wildly figured Padouk back and sides. Please, will someone who has objective sensibilities tell me, is this really cool (or hot), or is it just sick and wrong on every level?Attachment 62372
Now look at this Redwood (YES, that IS Redwood!) and tell me, have you ever seen anything like it?Attachment 62373
And now the back and top together:Attachment 62374
Do you think these woods will play well together, or will they eat each other alive? BTW, I’m picturing using dark, figured Indian or Brazilian Rosewood for bindings, trim, bridge, fingerboard…
Should I check myself into rehab, or just go with this theme and hope for the best?

Steve, I’m more into contrasts; with a figured back like that (which is gorgeous), I’d go with something more evenly colored in the redwood or even red cedar family. You can do something to compliment the back in the rosette.

[Nemoman]

The pernambuco and adi look like a wonderful pairing together--I like the idea of doing an elemental guitar with these woods.

That padouk is crazy wild--quite the set! I'm with Mike on this one--I think a nice even-grained top would be the way to go. I think with the crazy-figured redwood, it could be a bit of overload. But the sound could be glorious--just my take.

[SprintBob]

One thing I’ve not seen anyone mention about Steve’s guitars is the neck shape. My Edwinson seems to have the most fretting hand friendly neck shape of any of the guitars I own. It just works so well for the shape of my hand. It’s not that my Doerr and Froggy are hard to play but my left hand just seems to not have to work quite as hard with my Edwinson.