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Here are some pix of a students guitar, jsut freshly strung up last night. The top is Adirondack, the back is extremely dark braz, and the sides are non booked macassar ebony, the only thing I could find a couple years back to match this awesome back set. The binding is more of the special dark curly koa, and the top is purfed in apaua. The student cut the headstock inlay himself, and the fretboard has an Andy Depaule red ab snowflake set. Bridge is african blackwood. The rosette is segmented braz with a green ab shell ring. It cant really be seen in the photo, but the ebony headplate has a wide 45 degree curl to it in some light -looks very cool. The guitar sounds very good, plenty of volume, even top to bottom (its symmetrically braced), and of course the owner/builder is very proud of his accomplishments.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Whoa! firey bindings!
Very nice!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Looks great!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Nice work! Somebody had a great teacher. You should be quite proud.
But no arm rest?

Hey Paul .. no armrest, no backstrip, no back purf at all .. fairly specific ideas he had when building. Most seem to have their own aesthetics in mind - I have one who doesnt care for color inthe purf - strictly blk/white. Thsi student doesnt like florentine cuts at all, likes higher action that I do, but then he's more a strummer than fingerstylist.

I have about half my students wanting armrests, same with cutaways. All depends on the person, just like the rest of us.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

That looks really good. I especially like the wood choices. Each one compliments the other. I hope this student continues and builds many more fine guitars.

Al

Very good job by your student Tony. You are deffinately a fine teacher!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Holy shamoly!! That's one fancy guitar!! A big round of applause to both the teacher and the student.

Tell that student he can really be proud of himself, that's just too beautiful not to mention it! You can also be very proud Tony, it also means you know how to communicate and transfer the passion to others!

AWESOME!!!!!

Serge

Really nice, very talented teacher and student

Mike

Thanks for the look, Tony.
Inspiring!

What's the finish?

SK

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Finish is nitro. This particular person has no real interest to do this for anyone but himself, just something cool to do. He has a bunch more wood, and no plans to build a shop, so down the road he will be visiting I am sure. He is already talking about the fall for something else.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Mr Karol~!!!
I sure wish I were close enough to be a student of yours!
That some great work there!
How much hand-holding..... if any, did that require on your part in oprder for your student to accomplish that beauty?
Very nice.
Cheers
Charliewood

Yep....fine looking git-fiddle. And it speaks highly of his teacher.

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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."

Well .. the student did most of the rosette, we bent the sides together in a fox, he did all the thicknessing, most of the brace shaping, all the radiusing, cut the fret slots and fretted, dressed crowned and polished them, most of the neck set, we bound the headstock together as this is the first one I had ever done, he bound most of the rest of the guitar, he did 99 percent of the sanding and wet sanding, all the pore filling - CA on this one), rounded the binding edge, filled any gaps, all the buffing, he made the bridge shape and sanded it, drilled the pin holes, I did the slot, we mitred the binding together, he did all the headstock inlay and fretboard inlay, I chiselled the lacquer off for the FB and bridge - he didnt want to touch it once we got that far (cant blame him really !!!!!). He made the kerfing, shaped most of the neck, radiused and levelled the FB. He inlaid most of the shell, I had to make a couple pieces for the sharper bend of the venetian as the straight pieces jsut wouldnt look right, other htan that they are all straight 1/16 paua from Depaule. We sprayed together, I shot most of the coats because at one night a week it woudl have taken forever - so when I was shooting somehting else I just hit it with a coat. He did the level sanding after the first ten, then we shot 4 more. Final finish thickness at the bridge was about 8 thou.

So it took about 14 months, (one just for inlay stuff)but the first 3 were only every other week. there will be another post tomorrow, the student who was opposite him those first weeks will be done tonight. Its a signature cutaway in birdseye maple, bearclaw spruce, armrest, florentine, shell top purf .. well you will just have to wait and see !!!!

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Amazing looking guitar...this one and the quilted one! Man this really shows what good instruction does....how many people would otherwise use shell to the degree as this and the other. You are a good teacher mate!