Official Luthiers Forum!

As some of you allready know, I am soon to start building my first guitar, I gave Chris at http://www.hanalei-moon.com/id1.html the specifications for how I wanted my neck to look. and now just about a blink of an eye later he mailed me to say its ready
Ive been like a kid around the christmas tree, and now the gift could be opened, and man am I happy for the result.

Just want all of you who have not had work done by Chris at hanalei, to really check it out. I went to "other known neckbuilders before Chris, but none of them could do special orders, if it were not large orders.
Can honestly say that, if your looking for service out of the ordinary and at least "by looking at the photos" craftmanship with 5/5 stars. then check him out.

As my Guitar will have Black Limba B/S
I wanted the neck to have the center Stripe made with Black L. flanked by macassar ebony and ROUNDED Almond point heel.

Specs..
Mahogany 5 ply neck;
25.4 Scale 14 fret;
1.75" at the nut:
2.25" at the joint;
Diamond Volute head;
1 1/2 degree neck angle;
3.875" box depth;
ROUNDED Almond point heel;
3/8" BLACK LIMBA CENTER STRIPE BORDERED BY Doubled up MACASSAR EBONY FLANKING PINS;
complete with two way truss rod, neck block and related hardware

Soon I can start the build

here are the photos Chris took, for me to see. "I askt him if it was ok to show them here and I had his ok" .

Nice! Fast, too.

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Carlton Macksam
Muskegon, Michigan

Nice looking neck!

Chris does great work...

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Guitar Building = Continuous Improvement Process

While Chris does use some very limited power tools in the fabrication of these necks They are for the most part hand carved but you would swear the are CNC'd the first time you see one.

Chris does great work for those that want a smile valute just spec out the Michael Payne Valute in your notes when ordering. Grreat work quick turn around. great guy to deal with.

Michael. my first thought was to have Chris make the neck with a smiley Valute. But later on, we both agreed on that it would be really nice to let the Limba be seen all the way through and not use a back plate on the neck. I told Chris I was building my guitar from your SJ plan, as he needed to know the neck angle.
Also I did not know how he made them, my thought was that they cnc. so now I am even more happy, Its great to know there is "soul" put into the neck aswell. computers have their benefits, but they sure make us a bit to isolated. the cash-register had broken down as I was buying a soda at the store, the girl in the store had a "REAL hard time counting by head. gave her 10 dollars "although Swe kr." the soda was 1.5. sir, here is the money back, wait, eeehh sorry, its hm, Mam, its 8.5 back. OH yes sorry. haha.

Also Michael, again, thanks a million for the file you sent me.

Lars

Michael,

You mean their necks are NOT cnc'd? Wow....They sure look it.
Mighty nice too.

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"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."

Nope he does use fixturing and power tools to some degree but they are not CNC machined.

Well then he must use a duplicarver or something of the same sort...?

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"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."

I talked with Chris about this some time ago and he described a unique fixture he has made and was thinking about putting on the market. I forget what power tool he uses with the fixture. But it is not CNC.

I have bought several necks from Chris and have been 120% happy with what I got from him. Heck, then dont even need sanding when you get them.

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Reguards,

Ken H

It is not a duplicator but more a kin to tool guides. I know this because I caused him him to crrate fixturing for necks built to two completely differnt set of individual propriatary specifications top to bottom wher I specified all dimensions (not based on any existing necks, my own dimensions heel to peghead and everything in between). If it was a duplicatory he would have needed a neck to go by. He built what ever fixturing he is using based only on detailed design drawings I provided.

Now all I need to do is wait for all to arrive so until then I am heading back to the Cumpiano book. Great book by the way.
Hope the Limba stripe along with the back and sides will make a nice look, "a bit afraid it will be TO MUCH Limba" any thoughts. ?