Long may you run

It's time to depart with Pekka's guitar.
It plays very loud, deep and clear. The best of my builds so far, hands down. One of the best I've played... If all the koa/lutz guitars turn out alike, I'm a convert.

Here's the last pics, well a bunch of them.
Here´s a link to a video played with this guitar. Might take a while to get started, thou.

The flashlight brings out the flashy bearclaw

Here you can see the Manzer Wedge. Because of it, the pretty big sized guitar sits on the lap very comfortably

Inside view through the toneport - which makes a big difference tonewise too!

There's an 8x8mm patch in the heel. I accidentally overdrilled the bolt hole. Sorry, Pekka

Cedrala Odorata neck

Schertler tuners look nice - modern & vintage at the same time

The back is still a stunning piece (esp for the $42 price on ebay). Actually I planned to build of it to myself, but I'm sure it's going to a good home.

A few details

I've been refining the setup, polishig, playing, feeling and even re-sanding & re-finishing the neck. Now it's good to my hand, hope Pekka's hands speak the same language. It's a keeper, I'd say.

Aaaand... We have a guitar!

The bridge is glued and strings attached. It still takes some tweaking with the neck setup and fret leveling, but generally, we're done!

The guitar has a nice voice and to my eye it looks like a guitar too. Best of all, it didn't collapse or explode when stringed

Bridge, tuners and more polishing

Schertler satin chrome tuners with ebony
buttons add a nice modern twist to the
otherwise traditional looks

Just can't stop wondering the beauty of the koa back.
The neck is Spanish Cedar Tung oiled and seems to match the colors nicely

Here's the ebony bridge finished tonight. The pins are black
water buffalo horn with nice abalone dot embed in a brass circle.
 The saddle is bone, of course. The easiest trick to enhance your
guitar's tone (in addition to the string change) is to upgrade the
plastic bridge saddle & pinns and nut to bone ones.

Let the french polishing begin!

I've finished all my guitars with french polished shellac. It's easy to apply at home, traditional, non-toxic, and gives a superior shine with next to none sanding & buffing. And it takes only a few days of hand-fatiquing rubbing... It's not the most resistant to wear & chemicals (like, say, water & spirits), but pretty easily repairable. Many traditionalists think its the best finish tonewise due to minimal thickness added to the top. The downside is the wood gets easily marred & scarred if the player isn't taking enough care while handling & playing the guitar. No stage diving with this baby, please!

Anyway, the "first round" is now accomplished. Seven to eight more to go...

I must say I'm humbled to have a chance to work with these kind of materials. The Creator of this Universe is so rich he could afford to make the trees in the woods look this stunning from the inside!

I just might have to keep this guitar and get a nice Landola for Pekka instead...

The Lutz spruce set was called "Snow Leopard Claw". See the reason?

Pore filling

The back is now sanded down to 1000grit (maybe a little overdoing, but won't hurt no one but my hand) and the pores are filled with epoxy. The koa grain is starting to look like it should. Awesome.

Neck shaping

The neck attachment is approaching. I spent my day off first fretting, then rasping, filing, planing, shaving and sanding the neck plank to dimensions. It's a critical phase that affects the playability the most. So far so good. The only problem was, that I had drilled a hole for the neck bolt too deep. So there appeared a hole in the heel that had to be plugged. That's propably going to show through the finish a bit. Sorry, Pekka.

Heel cap is made of flamed maple

...as is the fb binding. We'll see if we bind the headstock as well.

The color of the neck and body seem to fit pretty nice. The maple bound koa looks nice to my eye too.

Hiscox case will protect the package nicely

Neckjob

I've somehow managed to find time to bind&glue down the fretboard for the koa-guitar. Still some radiusing to go before fretting and shaping of the neck. Anyway the stringing time seems to be approaching in schedule (delivery due hopefully in the beginning of December).

The fingerboard is bound in flame maple, with b/w/b purfling.

The body seems a bit asymmetrical in this picture. There's two reasons: First, the  camera angle makes it look crooked.  Second, it is asymmetrical. We'll call that art&design, OK?