The guitar shown to the right was one of my first commission for an archtop guitar. Jim was looking for a Wes Montgomery like L-5, but to its own specs. I still remember me trying to convince him that the best way to go was probably eBay, where he could sure find his dream guitar: to no avail, the man wanted a brand new axe, to his liking. Years later, you'd be hard-pressed to even think about making him an offer for this instrument. That's his!
This guitar was built using 7-ply laminates for back and top, with matching flamed maple for the sides. Needless to say that I chose the finest pieces of my hard rock flamed maple stock for the neck and sides. Back and sides were stained with my own mix of honey blonde while the top was hit with a solid NC mix that in real life is somewhere between "Plum" or "Deep Red Wine" (this color doesn't show very well in the pictures). The contrast between the honey sides and top is quite stunning. Soundwise, it sounds like a "get-ready-for-business" jazzbox with a lot more acoustic character than one would expect from a laminated top and back instrument. I wish I could get my hands on more of these laminates (they are no longer produced by the original manufacturer). I would sure make more customers happy...
(For more pics and info, click on pic above)
Jim Kirkham and his axe...
