#24 Turnt Loose
Back in 2020 my good buddy Scotty B commissioned the righteous, delighteous, out-o-sighteous, all black #15. Boom. Then the Lord put it on SB’s mind to get a guitar for his buddy Sam who plays at their church. So, we all got together and came up with a little something. Buckle up kids; this one is like a polar bear eating Rice Krispies with sugar and milk. Snap, Crackle, Pop, y’all.
All the boring specs out of the way first: my large body THDL design; multiscale 25”-26”; Gotoh 510 Gold/Black knob tuners; abalone rosette; royal blackwood fingerboard and bridge. All fairly standard fare.
But take at look at that top and back. The top is bearclaw sitka -some of the most figured I have ever seen. It used to be that builders would throw that in the trash immediately. Of necessity, bad traditions change.
The back and sides are Granadillo - one of my personal favorites. When finished, this wood has a translucence and chatoyance like no other. And it has great tonal properties.
And here is a little “Luthier’s Campfire Story” that goes with this one:
It was a little after midnight on a dark and excessively hot July night. A guitar builder suddenly realizes that he forgot to install the front strap button on a freshly built guitar that someone is picking up the next morning at 11 o’clock. He goes out to the shop to install the button.
Looking at the guitar in the dim light from a new perspective, he realizes that he is not happy with the finish on the stellar bearclaw sitka top of the guitar. It looks like it has some micro-scratches in a couple of areas. Maybe he did it when he was installing the pickup. Maybe he did it when he was setting the action. Who knows? But when building guitars, good enough is not good enough.
So at 12:30, he decides to strip the finish from the top and redo it. The builder works deep into the night; sweat and anxiety mixes with panicked thoughts of, “Have I just made things worse!?” “Will this ever look right!?” At 3AM - after many lamentations and supplications for help - he finishes. The top is glorious. Luminous. Delicious - like a polar bear eating Rice Krispies with sugar and milk. He goes to bed and to peaceful sleep with a clear conscience.
He wakes the next morning at 7:50 and expectantly goes to check the finish. And then it hits him: he still didn’t install the strap button!!!!
Some say this is just a myth that luthiers tell their children so they will fear God and pay their taxes on time. But I wouldn’t be so sure. I. wouldn’t. be. so. sure……
The binding is a high flame maple which is glorious but difficult to work with. It wants to crack when bending and it really resists bending in a smooth way. Nevertheless, it really adds some pop.
The arm bevel is also flame maple.
The headstock is capped with some cutoffs from the Granadillo to tie things together. The truss rod cover and back of headstock is capped with some walnut burl.
A simple but perfectly-fitting abalone rosette. We are gonna let that top do all the yelling.
And a few more pics of the sides. When Sam picked out the back wood, I didn’t pull out the sides that matched. What a great surprise they turned out to be.
That is #24. Turnt this one loose to Sam; I hope he can tame it.