Official Luthiers Forum!

I just finished one for my Mother-in -law, she wanted a Hawaiian style guitar to play her slack key stuff on. She specified the body shape, woods, appointments, strings, etc.

The koa came from LMI (they were kind enough to let me dig thru the bins), the neck is from Hanalei Moon, electronics are K & K minis, Gotohs, bindings are ebony, and a friend with a body shop sprayed the automotive urethane (nasty, dangerous stuff!) for FREE!

Interestingly enough, when I contacted Grimes guitars for permission to build his two hole style he said "Go ahead, its not exclusively my design". Still, very nice about it!

Well guys and gals, whadda ya think? Mikey


[img]IMG_0727-s.jpg[/attachment][/attachment][/img]
[*]

Thanks for looking.........

_________________
The Biggest Little City, Nevada
www.hammondguitars.com
I love building guitars!

Sweet!

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Well Mikey my friend I think that your mother-in-law has very good taste and you did a fantastic job crafting this killer guitar.

I like everything about it including the heel cap treatment, very cool, and the bridge too that has a kind of Batman thing going for it. And of course the wood is gorgeous and I wanted to ask you if this is the very special grade that LMI had for a while about 2 years ago?

The bling works on this guitar, not over done IMHO, and it all contributes to the whole, both of them in this case.

Let us know what you think of the tone of the Koa top?

Super guitar Mikey!!!!!

Man, that's nice. Really like the design. Beautiful wood too.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

She's a beauty! I really like the double sound hole too. I'm curious as to what this does to the overall sound of the gutiar?

Well done!

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

Stupendous! I love it Mikey!!

If it were my build, I'd have trouble giving it away......

Did you stain the koa at all prior to finishing, or is that all natural tone?

Cheers,
Dave F.

_________________
Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

I wish that I had a Mother-in-Law that I would want to build something like that for!

Looks very, very nice.

_________________
Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Mikey, I like it a lot.
I think you did a great job, and the execution on the rosettes is especially nice. Very difficult to find the joins, and that's a tricky style to pull off so cleanly.
Bravo!

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Very nice work Mikey. Just gorgeous koa and shell.

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Why "extreme bling" for the title? Definitely not over the top! Looks great, and I really like the heel.

_________________
Build log

Bee-yoo-tee-ful!

_________________
http://www.presnallguitars.com

Mike this guitar is deliciously gorgeous, what incredible Koa and craftsmanship. I encourage everyone to click on the pictures to enlarge them. Try it. The larger pictures blow away the smaller ones in terms of impact. I've gotten in the habit of sometimes just looking at the small ones. Worth the extra clicks and seconds to see.....

These guitars are so incredible lately.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Mikey,

Very nice - you handled the bling very tastefully. I love the wood - that's got the "strokability" factor in spades - when you are tired of playing it you can just cuddle the wood. That's a guitar that looks like it's got a big smile on its face!

Any pictures of the bracing you used to take advantage of the upper bout soundholes?

_________________
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

I really like that Mikey. Pretty koa there, and nice compound cutaway too.

My mother in law wouldn't know what side went up.

Cheers.

_________________
Horton, MI

Thanks everyone, it's nice to receive positive reinforcement from people who know of what they speak...

Dave F.; this is just a darker piece of Koa, no stain, just a clear finish.

Dave W.; the bracing is normal aside from a second smaller "x" straddling the two sound holes on an angle.

On a side note, I glued the back on and afterwards realized that my hand would not fit through the either of the smaller sound holes. This neccessitated building the electronics first and then assembling the top onto the box without spreaders as they were also too large. I couldn't test the electronics until after the guitar was completely finished, luckily they worked! My wife had to tighten the neck bolts, her hand would fit through the larger hole.
Thanks again guys! M. Hammond

_________________
The Biggest Little City, Nevada
www.hammondguitars.com
I love building guitars!

I read the "extreme bling" but it still caught me off guard. It's BEAUTIFUL. I really like the double sound holes, they add character to already my favorite body shape. And the deep brown of the koa is just too amazing for words.