Official Luthiers Forum!

Retro is right! It that full frontal shot it looks very antique. Great job.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

John, you come from a long line of Anglophiles. You do realize that Colonel Kinnaird was in command of the British garison on St Helena that held Napolean Bonaparte prisoner, where he died.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Colin, I am a little surprised that one of my ancestors had worked his way up to the rank of Colonel. That's interesting history.

Steve and I did make it to Kinnaird castle in Scotland and we visited the Kinnaird gardens that the Lord and Lady Kinnaird had built. They let us poor colonial relatives wander the grounds. Then there is the little village of Kinnaird.........(is anyone still awake?)

A guitar with no bling is like a mollusk then never lived out it's true mission in life. Every scientist/naturalist knows that clams develop as a planktonic larvae, settle, grow, reproduce, then die and their shells become guitar bling.
I only hope another one may be built with this in mind John.   


But I GUESS that one's a little pretty...

CL

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www.handcraftinlay.com

[QUOTE=grumpy] Flamed maple bindings, side purflings, abalone rosette,
pyramid bridge , BRW headplate, and nice body woods....That's a lot of
"bling" in my world....What do y'all consider as "high bling"!?![/QUOTE]

I was going to say the same thing. A 1930's J-35 is what I would call "no
bling". Single bound top, no back binding or center strip, mahogany back
and sides, spruce top, no fingerboard binding, silkscreened peghead inlay, 3
on a plate tuners, -

It's a beautiful guitar, but basic or "no bling" is not what would have come
to my mind. What's the next model up?

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

[QUOTE=David Collins]
I was going to say the same thing. A 1930's J-35 is what I would call "no
bling". Single bound top, no back binding or center strip, mahogany back
and sides, spruce top, no fingerboard binding, silkscreened peghead inlay, 3
on a plate tuners, -

[/QUOTE]

In my world ( ) we call that ^ Spartan.
Maybe even uninspired or desperately cheap.
Of course, no offense intended to Gibson, or the guys who pumped out those guitars.

What do we consider "bling"?
Something like this:




Ho ho, so much for philosophy.   

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

[QUOTE=John K]
Steve and I did make it to Kinnaird castle in Scotland and we visited the Kinnaird gardens that the Lord and Lady Kinnaird had built. They let us poor colonial relatives wander the grounds. Then there is the little village of Kinnaird.........(is anyone still awake?) [/QUOTE]

That's how it works over there. They wait til your eyes glaze over with history overload, then they bring out the food. Which is a blessing in disguise - if you've ever had the misfortune of being exposed to my (english) mother-in-law's cooking, with a clear head. Nasty stuff . I reckon I'd rather eat one of Arnt's sheepshead surprise dinners, than have to face that again.

John,

What can I say - that is really nice and obviously built for a client with impeccable taste by a fine maker I'm with you on a guitar sounding great from the off but it's onwards and upwards from there.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Looks great John, whatever amount of "bling" it has it seems just perfect to me.

Greg

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Gwaltney Guitars

Nice guitar John! I must have missed seeing this one when I was at Tonys?
Nicely executed and boy does that burst neck look great! Also, nice touch with the naked fretboard.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Steve, where did you find that picture of Colonel Kinnaird. He obviously spent too much time keeping those French captive. That is way too funny! Where did you find that? Did you google bling?

Craig, we are saving all the shell for you buddy. In fact, I am going to post my next tricked out guitar just for you since it has the bird dog on point with the quail running down the fingerboard. What a great bunch of inlay

Paul, have you had the haggish yet, or the blood pudding? My brother likes all that stuff. That's carrying the anglophile thing a bit too far IMHO.

David C. See my bro's post above. Couldn't have put my perspective better.
The next model up (?) has lotsa pearl.

Dave, Craig, Lance, I appreciate your kind remarks. I must confess that the naked fretboard was not my idea.

John...A while back there was a discussion on what glues work best on potentially oily Cocobolo.

Some swear that only epozy will reliably bond to the wood while others have been able to get by with scraping or planing prior to using their favorite glues.

Just curious as to how you handled this. TIA

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

John, I'm with Courtright about stealing the binding/purf scheme. That bold, flame Maple purf line is practically hypnotic! Great looking guitar!!

I did notice though, John... that the rosette is a little "blingish"

long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

JJ I have had scary test results with hide glue and coco. Same goes for titebond and LMI, though not quite as scary. If I can get a brace to pop loose at the glue joint by flexing the wood, I am not sold on the glue. Truth be told, I may put more stress on those joints than will ever occur naturally in a guitar under normal conditions. To make a long story short, I either use LMI allwood epoxie (for most joints) or super glue for the occasional joint.

Bob
   Feel free to use that purfling scheme. I must have stolen the idea from someone else so can't rightly feel too proprietery about it. That maple line was from a piece of old sawn maple veneer given to me by a friend who has passed away. I wish I had gotten more. He was convinced that it is no longer possible to get great veneer. But a person could certainly saw their own if they find the right stock. BTW, the redish line between the maples is bloodwood.

John

Thanks, John. I will exercise extreme caution when I use Coco as well.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Bro, that pic of "Colonel Kinnaird" came from the archives here on the good 'ol OLF. Just go through the search engine and hunt down the word "zoot". This was posted a number of months ago. I believe it is Uncle Bob doing a stand-in for the Colonel. He was dressed up to go to town, wasn't he? Or was this snapped by an OLF member at Bob's lake house?

KBW

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Having visited The Zootman on several occasions, this is part of his fall collection that he has worn least once during a post-Thanksgiving visit. In the interest of safety, I must state that Bob always removes his tie and gold chains when resawing...the hat, however, remains.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

I build more cocobolo guitars than any other wood. I joint the backs with polyurethane glues(ProBond, these days), then use regular Titebond for blocks and linings, and hot hide glue for the rest. I've not had a single incidence of anything coming apart, my oldest coco guitar being 9 years old at this point(and that one is HEAVILY abused).

Oh, i did have one back seam failure. It's the one time I tried wiping the joint with acetone, as is too often recommended. Luckily, i hadn't gone futher than jointing it, so i simply re-did the joint, and all has been fine. I haven't wiped any joints since, and again, zero failures.

The only caution needed with cocobolo is of its dust! Protect yourselves!

How did I miss this one! Great guitar as usual John.
Bling,as in fancy pearl and such is not as appealing as a
nice reg-U-lar beauty like this one IMO. By regular,I mean not a lot of pearls and inlays . Love that bursted neck and blackwood bridge. Very cool OM !
    

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755