#11-Forever Young Build
#11 - The Forever Young Build | My good friend Daniel Hight is the Executive Director of Forever Young here in Memphis which works to give honor, healing, and hope to veterans 65 years and older. He asked if I would build a special guitar which would be auctioned at their fundraising gala. What an opportunity! He also provided some very special and unique materials to use in this one-of-a-kind guitar....We decided to build my main OM type body style with an Englemann spruce top; pretty standard stuff.
The back and sides, however, are a set of figured mahogany that I had been saving for myself.
.. But after we discussed the design of this guitar, I knew this was the wood for this particular build:
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The bindings are bloodwood. I choose this for the color scheme and there is also the symbolism of the name.
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Now the extra cool stuff. The rosette is an inlay of sand from the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima. The Iwo Jima sand is a volcanic sand so it is black. This turned out to be one of my favorite inlays on any guitar I have done so far.
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Daniel also gave me some teak from the USS Missouri on which Japan signed the surrender thus ending World War 2. The ship is now at Pearl Harbor. This wood was used for the fret position markers and the truss rod cover on the headstock.
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This guitar also features the latest version of my elevated fingerboard - adjustable neck/action design. So pleased with the way this turned out; will be my standard design from here on out.
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This one has all the "bells and whistles" that I know how to do at this point: top sound port, graduated arm bevel, pinless bridge.
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And there it is, in it's case ready to go to it's new owner.
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It is hard letting this one go. One of the sweetest yet powerful sounding guitars I have made up to this point. So honored and humbled to contribute to Forever Young's ministry in this small way; they honor our veterans who made such great sacrifices to oppose tyranny and safeguard liberty.This guitar will be auctioned at Forever Young's Gala on Saturday, August 10, 2019.