All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

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Trevor Gore
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All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Trevor Gore » Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:40 am

I've not put one in the gallery for a while, so seeing as this one is quite an interesting beasty, I thought I'd put it up.

The commission was for an all koa guitar, to live in DGDGBD tuning, strung 13-56, ultra low action, hyper loud, with sound port and wedge body. Also with rope binding, slot headstock and a few custom inlays.

The hyper loud, low action and koa top all seemed rather mutually exclusive, so this was going to force an alternative approach.

To get the top mass down I reckoned I'd have to go really thin, so I worked out the mass of a spruce top for the same guitar and took the koa down to that mass, noting its stiffness. It ended up somewhere under 2.00mm. Then to support the very wavy short grain figure in the top, I used a classical style (Smallman type) dense lattice in KBP and CF, sized for the steel string loading. That was the structural design for the top sorted.

I reckoned this was going to be a pretty lively sounding guitar, so opted for a non-live back to maximise loudness rather than a live back looking for more tonal colour.

The client had an idea for a rosette he liked and you can see how this turned out. The red is blood wood (Brosimum Rubescens) and the green is English lime that I dyed. The brown is natural EIR.

The fretboard inlays are original scrimshaw of sea life (running with the Hawaiian theme) engraved into fossilized walrus tusk set into the fretboard. The headstock inlay "Maluhia" means Peace/Serenity in Hawaiian.

The rest you can probably figure out from the pics.

I haven't got a sound sample for it, but there's no doubt it exceeded its new owner's expectations. Its new owner has an up-market Gibson J200 and a Takamine Anniversary dread in his stable. In terms of loudness, it easily had them both for breakfast. The tone was very appealing. It has a sort of blues crunch tone (slightly over-driven tubes) with lots of headroom and high harmonics that sustain into next week. I had no real idea what to expect tone-wise from an instrument like this, and was very pleasantly surprised. The K&Ks reproduced the acoustic sound very accurately.

Anyway, the customer was really happy, which is what counts at the end of the day. Pics below:
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Craig Bumgarner
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Craig Bumgarner » Thu Mar 27, 2014 2:06 am

Extraordinary! Stunningly beautiful! Thanks for posting the acoustic design details and especially of how you handled the koa top, very interesting.

If you don't mind me asking, can you go into how you did the rope binding? I've used small rope binding, (3mm x 2mm) which was a layup of stacked veneers but I've done nothing with segments as large as I see here.
Craig Bumgarner

Bumgarner Guitar Blog

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Nick
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Nick » Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:08 am

I'm not usually a fan of rope binding but this one's an exception. It sits so well beside the Koa which isn't too bad a looker itself! :wink: I particularly like the detail of the end graft and how you've handled it with regards to the wedge shape. Interesting approach inside the box also using a lattice :cl :cl :cl
Interesting too that you have that tuning AND a super low action too, any neck relief or is it ramrod straight?
Nice job Trevor, one I'd be happy to have in my collection.
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Taffy Evans
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Taffy Evans » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:21 am

Hi Trevor, very nice, very tasty and great warm colour with pleasing grain pattern throughout. I like this guitar a lot. Does the port do anything noticeable? I have ports in my latest "000" and find its a subtle difference.
Taff

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Taffy Evans
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Taffy Evans » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:22 am

Hi Trevor, very nice, very tasty and great warm colour with pleasing grain pattern throughout. I like this guitar a lot. Does the port do anything noticeable? I have ports in my latest "000" and find its a subtle difference.
Taff

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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Taffy Evans » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:22 am

Ooops!
Taff

Kev3
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Kev3 » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:00 am

Absolutely stunning Trevor, what a brilliant combination of craftsmanship and timber !
….. and, if the reflections of the bridge pins are anything to go by, not too shabby a finish on it either :lol:

:cl :cl
...............
Kevin

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peter.coombe
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by peter.coombe » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:09 am

Wow!! Nice one Trevor.
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by GregL » Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:08 am

Hi Trevor,

Fabulous! It looks magnificent!

If the top is anything like the curly blackwood top on the guitar Bob Connor made for me (and it ougth to be, Koa is closely related to blackwood), the top will sound even better after a few months of playing! Mine has lately started "loosening up" nicely - it's one year old now.

Thanks,
GregL.

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soulman
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by soulman » Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:14 am

That looks absolutely beautiful. Great work. :cl :cl

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charangohabsburg
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by charangohabsburg » Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:49 am

Good to read you managed to wedge it into "your equations". :wink:
And of course it looks great. :cl
BTW, where do you get those rippled wood - decals from? :lol:
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Kim Strode
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Kim Strode » Thu Mar 27, 2014 2:08 pm

I've always wanted to do rope binding on an instrument and this guitar looks fabulous. I know a lot of people don't like this style of binding but I think it has it's place. I'd really like to see how you've made this binding at some stage?
Kim Strode
Daylesford, Australia

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needsmorecowbel
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by needsmorecowbel » Thu Mar 27, 2014 2:24 pm

Wicked!

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PHANTOM
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by PHANTOM » Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:12 pm

that koa is amazing so is the guitar
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Trevor Gore
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Trevor Gore » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:58 pm

Thanks for the kind comments, Gents.
Craig Bumgarner wrote: ...can you go into how you did the rope binding?
Kim Strode wrote: I'd really like to see how you've made this binding at some stage?
I thought about making it, but not for long! I looked up Tony Francis in NZ and told him what I was up to and he supplied the really nice stuff shown here. (Thank you, Tony!) It comes with a veneer laminated to the inside and outside of the binding and you bend it and instal it with both veneers on. Then you scrape back the outside veneer to reveal the rope proper. The pic below should explain things a little better. I put in an extra white purfling line in the top and a b/w in the side which was glued onto the binding prior to bending it.
Binding.jpg
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Nick wrote:I'm not usually a fan of rope binding but this one's an exception.
Kim Strode wrote:I know a lot of people don't like this style of binding but I think it has it's place.
I know what you mean! This one grew on me a lot as I built it. It's a very traditional Hawaiian look: koa and rope and they do sit well together.
Nick wrote:...any neck relief or is it ramrod straight?
Miniscule relief.
Taffy Evans wrote:Does the port do anything noticeable? I have ports in my latest "000" and find its a subtle difference.
I didn't get much chance to do "hard" testing, but the impression I got was that there was little difference out front but quite a useful increase in loudness for the player. The port is 28mm diameter and raised the main air resonance ~ 6 Hz.
charangohabsburg wrote:BTW, where do you get those rippled wood - decals from? :lol:
:D The client took a trip to Hawaii and sourced the wood himself! Four consecutive slices from the same wedge, so it's book-matched front to back as well as side to side.

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ozwood
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by ozwood » Fri Mar 28, 2014 6:55 pm

It's all been said............. :?

so ummmmm ..... what they said!

:cl :cl :cl :cl :cl :cl :cl :cl :cl

nice one Trevor, nice soundport too, Now I don't feel so bad about the unplanned one I installed a few guitars back.

Cheers,
Paul .

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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by lauburu » Sat Mar 29, 2014 6:28 am

Fantastic work. A visual symphony.
Miguel

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woodrat
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by woodrat » Tue Apr 01, 2014 6:12 pm

A truly Stunning instrument Trevor Well Done!....and....of course....WOW! :cl :cl :cl

Cheers

John
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kiwigeo
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by kiwigeo » Sat Apr 26, 2014 11:04 am

Nice work Trevor.

"Instrument No 14200346"........how on earth did you find the time to write the books?? :shock:
Martin

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Trevor Gore
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Trevor Gore » Mon Apr 28, 2014 7:24 pm

kiwigeo wrote:"Instrument No 14200346"........how on earth did you find the time to write the books?? :shock:
:lol:


Rule #1: Never work from a zero base...

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needsmorecowbel
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by needsmorecowbel » Tue Apr 29, 2014 1:45 pm

You could get a random number generator that you see in the spy films. But it's more machinery to keep track of. :lol:

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Trevor Gore
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Trevor Gore » Tue Apr 29, 2014 1:55 pm

:lol:

You think I don't already have a random number generator?

:D

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needsmorecowbel
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by needsmorecowbel » Tue Apr 29, 2014 4:41 pm

It appears that I have misunderestimated you, Mr Gore!

:lol:

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Trevor Gore
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by Trevor Gore » Wed Apr 30, 2014 5:40 pm

1944407660
4011950835
8393532727
38966300434
20612056044
49882505281
10224653209
58413773116
20893426963
14850704825
76895262501
67220722480
86747607138
92316224002
...
...
...
...

...how many would you like? :D

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needsmorecowbel
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Re: All Koa rope-bound slack key guitar

Post by needsmorecowbel » Fri May 02, 2014 12:10 pm

[Trevor Rocks back and forth in fetal position]

"So...Many....Numbers"

:lol:

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