Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi all,

My good friend Stephen Bennett (harp guitarist from another planet - check that stuff out too !!!) has been busy recording new tunes for a couple new original CD's.

He wrote this on his new Karol Baritone, and just recorded the Youtube version last week. Enjoy !!!

find it here ... http://www.youtube.com/user/sbharpguitar, its called Mamsita.

Here are a couple pix i took the night he got it .... its a Karol Solo body, in curly french walnut with an engleman top, walnut segmented rosette with green paua rings, blk/green/blk purfling, ziricote binding and headplates, mad rw fingerboard, 3/16 saddle, amazon rw bridge, Gotoh 510 deltas in Cosmo blk, custom calton in dark green with vintage green interior. The inlay is from Andy, which one of my students Rick Cowan (forum member) had designed based upon andy's celtic horse - this is more dragon like, in paua, and white and gold mop. KK pure western pu as well.

thanks for looking ....

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Looks and sounds great Tony! That's a nice piece he wrote. If I'm not mistaken, Bruce Cockburn has one of your baritones? How big is it at the lower bout?

I did some airbrush work with dyes and alcohol and like you said, it worked fine, except for the colours. Pretty outrageous. Thanks.

Cheers,
Danny

What a stunning looking and sounding instrument Tony ... you must be very pleased ... good on you man!

Thanks so much Dave ... next time Stephen is in town, its a must see, he is so musical in everything he does .. have to get you out for that !!!

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

wow.
you have a great connection!
sounds great, great playing, and great sweet song.
all great. is dat how one spells great?
looks funny to me right now.

What a great sounding guitar and wonderful player.

God, he's good.

Hey Tony, pity it's no first-timer parlour guitar

Joking aside, it sounds fabulous. Just trying to keep my envy under control

Steve

Splendid looking and sounding work of art Tony. Congrats!!!

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Tony, next time u see Stephen, please tell him I am a huge fan. His focus changed my focus. Obviously if you take into account what my passion guitar is. A dream, that's all, but I want to build a harp guitar that Stephen would want to play.

Wow...what a range that guitar has.
I mean I know he's a great musician, but he doesn't appear to be working hard at pulling those note out.
Just great.
Oh, and it's drop dead gorgeous Tony.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Hi Tony great looking and sounding guitar, how about some technical info, scale length, wood etc.

We will have Steven with Tony McManus at Michigan Fingerstyle Society this November, to me it is a double treat as they are both very high on my favorite guitarist list.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Beautiful, Tony and congrats of being able to attract such clientele.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Many thanks to one and all.

Stephen is one of those guys who is plain and simply put, a player (but not one from this earth either, like Tommy and Chet). 4 years ago when he played one of my baritones for the first time, I was explaining to him that I had another in the shop almost done, and rambled off some specs on the build - he stopped me mid sentence and said he really didnt care about any of that, and that a guitar either works for him or it doesnt. I had the pleasure of watching Stephen use a new baritone I brought to every gig he did here in Toronto ever since. They simply work for him. Eventually he had to have one, and so I brought the latest to the gig. He played it for about 15 minutes and when I asked him, he said, yep, this works. After he looked at the back a bit later, it was, oh, and its pretty too !!!

Wathcing Stephen play he makes everything look easy and smooth, he right hand rolling and bobbing with the rhythym. He is just that good.

Some more specs for you then - lower bout is apprxx 16.5, the body is about 20.5 long. Depth is 4 5/8. Internally, its a 90 degree X with symetrical tone bars (top bracing is all adi), ala Larrivee. Bridge patch is EI rw. Scale is 28.44 .. a logical extension of 25.34 (ie, do the math and add two more frets to a martin scale) this way you can use your 25.34 scale slotting template, and only have to measure out one fret and the nut end by hand. Nut end is compensated 1mm as well. Strings (at least what I put on them) are Daddario EXP23's, 16-70 gauge. Stephen rarely uses altered tuning, sometimes a drop D, or on dobro open G, so this is pretty much std interval B-B (like a E-E guitar, just start in B)

Fred .. love to get out and see that, but its a bit of a trek. We have Tony play here as well, seeing as he lives about 45 minutes from Toronto. He is another guy who I can drop a baritone into his lap and he will just play - he usually doenst travel with one, so I oblige !!! Maybe Stephen will have his with and Tony will give it a go for you.

Mike - I am totally with you. The first time I went to see Stephen was to watch him play harp, having never even seen one before - it was love at first site - I had to have one (or two). In fact I wondered why he even played anything else, as the tonal range and arrangement possibilities were unreal. My first harp build is almost complete, just finishing up the binding and then final neck setting and carving. Stephen is so used to his Dyer (and its copy) that anything else setup and scale wise, especially on the harp strings (harmomics locations), messes him up. So your std Dyer copy should be just fine !! BTW, Muriel Anderson uses a touch of white out on the harp strings sometimes to mark harmonic locations.

Steve D - thanks brother .. hey, one under the belt, its where we all started at some point.

Oh, and my apologies to Stephen .. I misquoted the song name - its Mamanita

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

That's just awesome! Beautiful guitar, and what great sound.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

WOW Tony, thats a awesome sounding guitar ! well done indeed.

Lars

Hey Tony!

She sure sounds sweet! It was a real treat to be in your shop when she was coming to life. I look forward to seeing Stephen play her live some day.

Cheers
Rick

Wow! That's just awesome, Coach!

I love that segmented rosette.... Very classy... and a great way to use small pieces of beautiful zoot!

Stephen is a world class player and sure does it justice! Formidable!

Postscript: This makes up for you calling me a p****! LOL ;')

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

A lot to be proud of, Tony! That is one hell of a baritone guitar, played heavenly by Stephen Bennett.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Tony,
What a great honor to have Stephen play your instruments! I saw him here in Denver about 5 years ago and thought he was one of the best harp/guitar players I had seen. He was such a great entertainer and fun to listen to. I bought one of his albums and it was one of my favorite for a long time.

Beautiful guitar all the way around, and thanks for sharing!

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Tony, please post some pics of your harp build....

Great clip, and great guitar my friend.

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Well done Tony!
Very nice indeed.

MC

Tony, I just had to respond to this thread. Your instrument is beautiful and Stephen plays it
sooooooo beautifully. I had the great pleasure to meet him a couple of years ago when he
performed at a festival in my town. He is just as you described him--pretty unconcerned about luthier issues but very interested in how instruments will work for him. He showed me his grandfather's harp guitar and played a theme from the New World Symphony on it.
Omigosh!!!!!!!

You and he are very fortunate to have each other as friends, and to have the opportunity to showcase each other's artistry.

Patrick Hanna