Forgetting to Post

I forgot to post some pictures of guitars that got finished last year. Well, actually, I forgot to take pictures of a few as well but here are some pictures of a Steel String that got completed a couple months ago.

This is a Martin D-18 Style Dreadnought with Honduran Mahogany back and sides and a Carpathian Spruce top. Making the faux tortoise pickguard from scratch is one of the other fun projects that is part of making a steel string guitar as opposed to the nylon / classical type.

Recent Completed Instruments

Here are two non-classical guitar builds I recently completed. I got to make a new mold for a triple 0 size guitar and made my first eight-string ukulele. Both turned out great and I think were exactly what the clients were wanting.

This triple O size guitar is a great fingerstyle instrument. It was lightly built using a fairly scalloped X bracing, giving it a traditional voice, rich with lots of overtones and color and meant to be strung up with lighter gauged strings. EVO Gold frets and matching gold hardware go with the simple or “spartan” style binding scheme. The flamed maple gets to be the star. It is a short scale but the fret board dimensions and string spacing are custom to fit the client’s playing style. A K&K Pure Pickup was also a good fit. I really love the way this guitar turned out. It’s a simple but, I hope, well executed guitar that is a real player.

The eight string ukulele was also a really fun project. It makes a really full sound; like two ukuleles playing at once. It is a full sound that is really great for voice accompaniment. I really loved the showcase of North American materials. The Walnut was highly figured and the hand cut inlays add so much to the overall look. We had decided on using this specific set of tuning machines with vintage looking bronze plates and then decided to carry that motif into the inlays that went into the fingerboard, headstock, and the back of the neck. It is a fairly traditional shape and we carried that motif throughout. The walnut really shines.

A Love Letter to St. Lucia

This is a really unique custom instrument for a customer who is a fan of St. Lucia (the island) and wanted a guitar that expresses that feeling. Every detail is a product of that collaboration. We started with a small jumbo sized instrument with African Blackwood and Redwood. We also designed the custom inlays that show off the Pitons, St. Lucia’s iconic mountains, in abalone and reconstituted stone as well as inlays that express the shape of the St. Lucia flag. That motif is carried down the fretboard in abalone and all the way to the custom pinless bridge that also boasts a bright burst of abalone. There is an arm bevel and binding in beautifully flamed maple and that is dressed up with gold hardware and EVO gold fretwire. I really like the asymmetrically carved heel and back of the headstock. The final touch was the installation of a K&K Pure Pickup. I also want to thank KOZM Guitars for lending his services in cutting the bulk of the inlays which saved me many hours work hunched over cutting inlays by hand.

Also, a nice accessory for most any bridge, but definitely required for this pinless design was a nice top protector to keep from dinging the top while changing strings.