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Was communicating here with Brad Goodman who was kind enough to turn me onto a great set of BRW back in the day around 2006ish. This wood was and is a bit on the flat sawn side so I used mine for my personal guitar that incorporates everything I learned to date.... in 2007.

So it occurred to me this Am knowing as I do that Brad built with this same wood this thread IS DEDICATED TO SEEING PICS OF AS MANY GUITARS AS WE CAN THAT WERE BUILT WITH THE SAME WOOD AND ARE RELATED IN THAT SENSE.

Brothers/sisters from another mother so to speak and let's keep Frank Zappa out of it, for now.

So the first one pictured is my personal OM. It's dipped in BRW with the fretboard, head plate, bridge pins, bridge, rosette, binding and sides and back all BRW. The bridge plate is BRW too.

The top is what was then, when it was hard to get master grade Adi and all bracing on all of my Heshtones was always only Adi.

This is the guitar that I built that I promptly put in a nice case and stored for five years before playing it letting it open up just from aging and I think that indeed did happen. Another subject though...

So Brad has a nonidentical cousin to this one, let's see it Brad.

Guitar two with the curly Redwood top was the first guitar built with these tops after Uncle Bob aka Zootman aka The Zootman aka my friend got in this great Redwood and offered it. I was fast back then and could build a guitar in two weeks and I had this one finished before anyone else finished one with these tops. Bob said he sold over 50 of these tops within a few days of me posting pics of this guitar here on the OLF.

There was also controversy with some people going to the mat that this level of runout was nuts and that this will never hold up. 17 years later....it's holding up fine:). This specific guitar was played for a three song set in Ann Arbor to 30,000 people by one of the most famous musicians of our time. I got in an argument with him when he wanted to sign it and I didn't want him to sign it I like it fine the way it is. He was offended that my love of him and his music was not proportionate to his ego or Sharpie.

So we know there are many of these curly Redwood tops out there and now on guitars too. After this first batch Bob and others started offering this wood as often as they could get it. Peter of Cornerstone used to double top these Redwood tops IIRC too.

This one is still doing fine 17 years later and the bridge is still firmly on.

Oh, before I go the BRW OM is doing fine too but I want to raise the saddle. I've become a better player recently with some advanced lessons from a superb teacher/player/session musician and I now like higher action so new saddle time. But beyond that both guitars are doing great, no visible neck angle deterioration yet either.

So let's see instruments that you made that others here made instruments too out of the same wood? Brothers from another mother so to speak

Beautiful!!!

Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. HeshTone cracks me up....

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

That redwood top is stunner.

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The first real guitar I made was a curly redwood archtop. I think the sound is great. The springiness of it was scary at first, but it has held up, going on 3 years now. I haven't seen anything like that for sale. Really nice to carve.

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Why be normal?

This sounds like fun, Hesh!
Here’s the guitar with the sister set Brazilian to yours:

The bridge is also made from the same boards that I sawed the sets out from.
I used European Spruce for the top and Spanish cedar for the neck and the Rosette is pink ivory with sapwood.
It has a French polish finish







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This was a very interesting rare set of Birdseye Koa.
I made a triple 0 14 fret and a double 0 12 fret out of the sets.




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That's the one Brad very cool!!! I think I still have some scraps of that set too.

Birdseye Koa is rare as can be I never heard of it Great guitars Brad!!

Let's see some more guitars that were built with the same tops, backs and sides, etc?

This is a great thread folks to post pics of Tiger Myrtle instruments too, ukes welcome but of course

Fun thread! Some really nice looking stuff here!

When I was first getting more confident that I could actually make instruments, I decided to start sawing my own sets. The very first sets I sawed up were from some local walnut. I managed to get 3 usable sets from the same board.

The first set I used to make a guitar for my brother’s 40th. Her name is Layla. I don’t have many pics but here is a photo from my crappy phone camera back in the day.

This one was the very first time I ever saw one of my instruments up on stage.

Sadly, by brother was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. I decided to use the second set of walnut to make a guitar for me. It was soothing to make another guitar from the same stock but have it also be very different; just like we were. I managed to complete this one before he got so sick that he couldn’t try it out. Eva:




After he passed, a very close friend of his who was exceptionally supportive through his battle called me. This guy was also very instrumental in helping me come out of my shell and find my confidence back in high school. He told me that he and his daughter were taking up guitar and asked if I would make him a replica of the guitar I made for my brother. I instantly knew what to do with the third set. While it is not a replica (I just couldn’t bring myself to do that) it is inspired by that first guitar. I’m just about finished. She has been strung up for a while and it this time do the final setup and get her all cleaned up for her delivery. Lady:



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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Great stuff Bryan!!

So I see you went with the name Heshtone!

Your workmanship is totally next level!

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Thanks Paul and welcome back.

I don't think I have any brother/sister sets from anyone else here but I too have built with curly redwood. My brother in law does high end carpentry work and he was building something out of redwood for someone up in Connecticut years back and out of the stack of supply he pulled out a perfectly QS curly redwood board wide enough for tops and gave it to me to use. I built a classical guitar out of it and an electric drop top. That was probably 15 years ago and so far I have not heard back from the guy who bought the classical guitar so I can only imagine it's still okay. I do remember being a bit concerned about it at the time though as it was kind of brittle.

I’m surprised, I would have thought of redwood as more of a back wood. Shows my ignorance. I’ve been playing (and buying) guitars for over 50 years, and never heard of one with a redwood top. Would have loved to hear how it sounded.