Hi all,
its been a while since I last posted pics here as Ive been busy to build these two commisions. I guess you could say this is about as 'custom' as it gets... It all starts back in 1913.
One of Swedens most successful businessmen was Ivar Kreuger, he was based in stockholm, but owned many of the big companies in sweden, europe and the US. By the '20s his fortune was so big, he actually lended France money to help them get back on their feet after WW1.
He also had a big passion for boats, and this is where the story of these guitars start. In 1913 he commisioned 'Loris', a 15 meter long motorboat built in Cuban and Honduran mahogany. He used this boat on a weekly basis to travel between his home in stockholm and his house in the archipelago, but also for taking friends and businesspartners around. Ive seen an old film showing Douglas Fairbanks, Greta Garbo and Mary Pickford taking a ride with the boat.
Through the years this boat has changed owners at least a dozen times, it has sunk and rescued. For 20 years it stood on a boatyard with no one caring for it until in 1992 when it was bought by the present owner. He restored it, and among other things made a completely new deck for it. Now its running as good as new and is a beauty in the water!
Anyhow, the present owner is a guitarplayer and one day he thought, 'Hey, I have this nice old mahogany from the old deck, why not use it for something?' So we met, I looked at the boat and said like 'Yeah, this is nice hog!!'. So we desided to try to see if any of the old planks were good enough for guitarmaking, and if so, him and his friend would be interested in commisioning a guitar each.
At the first look, the old planks looked worse than I could have imagined, covered in several coats of paint, and partly rotten. Of course they had holes every 4" or so too...
But the weight was light, and when passed through the sander it had some REAL beauty, the nicest hog Ive ever seen(if it wasnt for those holes...)
This mahogny wouldnt need any stain
We desided to make the backs and sides in a 'boatfashion' with plugs covering all the holes to give it the feeling of the original deck. And we also found some pieces that were healthy enough for guitarmaking... 
So three months later, the guitars are done. One is a Red spruce topped 00, and the other is a Alpine spruce topped 12f dread. These were my first 'post-somogyi' guitars so i decided to make them a little somogyi-ish, with tall and narrow bracing, and lattice pattern. At first I was afraid that the mahogany, which is really soft, wold dampen the tone, but these guitars are really the best ive made so far. They are really lightweight, considering they have laminated sides, and they project like mad.
Dread:
00:
Backs:
Closer...
Thanks for looking, and sorry for the long post...
Lars
![[clap]](./images/smilies/smiley32.gif "adulations")
![[:Y:]](./images/smilies/smiley20.gif "Thumbs Up")
