Official Luthiers Forum!

A local guy is selling a guitar hand crafted by Larry Hagmann in Waimanalo Hawaii.
Very interesting looking instrument, that appears to be maybe Redwood and koa.

Have any of you heard this name before?

Only the guy who played JR on Dallas....

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Wasn't he an astronaut with a GTO convertible and a hot girlfriend?

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jw ( o)===:::

Major Nelson, yeah that was the one.

No, I have not tried calling that phone number on the label.

Unusual heel cap, and even more unusual drilling of holes behind the bridge.

Looks like a Spanish heel. Binding on the back of the headstock??

Pat

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Pat

I'm having a hard time understanding that bridge design. Are the strings fed through holes in the top?

How can you tell it's a Spanish heel? I suspect the heel cap was installed that way to cover an error in the joining of the binding.

Well yes, either a Spanish heel or a heel cap in that style for some other reason.

Pat

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Pat

Those are just the photos the guy sent me — it's not in my possession. A lot of curious little elements on that one.
I have to believe the holes behind the bridge were a later modification, but unsure why someone would do that.

Looks like there's a bolt in the neck block in one of your pictures. That'd be weird if its a bolt on Spanish heel.

As far as the bridge is concerned I'm willing to bet that that's not a modification and that's how it was built. I feel like I've seen that before and the explanation was that it was to keep the break angle at the saddle high regardless of how low the saddle got over time.

It's interesting. Over the years though I've had many guitars from guys like this on my bench. I call them "indie loofery" guitars. I had one come across once years ago that had a staved back like a lute with a top constructed like a Martin mandolin and a steel string neck made like a mid 60s Kay.

Usually you may find a blurb about them in an obituary, usually there's nothing to be found about them and all we have of their work is the instruments they left behind.

I would guess that he was trying to eliminate the shear force on the back of the bridge with this design.

Pat

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Pat

I would say that bridge is a loose interpretation of the Yairi Direct Coupled Bridge.
https://yairi.com/about/info-dcb/

That's the one. I knew it seemed really familiar. Thanks for linking to that.

Call the luthier and ask? Taking a chance on mortality, but calls are virtually free and the number might still be valid.

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Peter Havriluk

Sorry, I read "Spanish heel" and immediately thought "Spanish foot". You're referring to the shape of the heel rather than the construction technique.

Someone bought it before I got a chance to see in person...