Official Luthiers Forum!

Well a few weeks back Steve Kinnaird said that your 101st guitar should be something outrageous, with a ton of shell and just loads of over the top-ness . So here it is Steve, just for you !!!!


#101 was a custom order doubleneck acoustic 6/12, based upon a previous one I had built a few years ago. The top is bearclaw sitka from Maurice Roy in the Queen Charlottes (now called Haida Gwai), and the back and sides are cocobolo from Bob at RC. There happened to be extra sides pieces available which was perfect, as a set of std sides doesnt give enough length to get all the cutaways done. Necks are matching african mahogany, with the 12 neck getting some CF alongside the truss rod. I usually dont do truss rod adjustment at the head, but there isnt room to get in at the soundhole to adjust. The inlays are from Andy Depaule, a yellow and white rose pattern in Michael Payne's design, the fingerboards are ebony. The bindings, bridge, and headplates are all african blackwood. Purflings are from Gurians, blk/green veneer/blk, all mitred at the usual spots. The armrest is veneered in shop made .050 thick afr blackwood. All the shell is real strip paua ab for the rosetes and top trim. Tuners are gold/black Gotoh 510s, and I had a custom flight case made for the guitar. It has a pair of KK pure westerns inside, which are neck switchable on the guitars top side

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

More pix ....

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

My favorite double neck, would love to play this.

Wow Tony! That is just beautiful Love your inlay work and all that pearl.

Super svelt and sexy cutaway! If there was a guitar in the Avatar movie.......

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Pat

That is really awesome! I like it!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Looks like both 101 and 102!

Beautiful!

That's pretty awesome alright!

Beautiful work. Did you have to stiffen up the bracing much?

Steve

Outstanding work, as usual Tony!
I expect it wowed 'em in Montreal!

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Dave
Milton, ON

I see what you did there Brilliant work.

Fantastic looking guitar(s?) Tony!! Congrats!!

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If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. - Jack Handey

A little slice of heaven....

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Thanks all,

Yes it was quite a build, and yes Fillippo, it was expensive when all done ...

I did forget to mention a bit about the bracing .. there are a couple of 1/4 inch CF tubes running from the neck block to the lower side of the waist on each side. There is only one neck block, and it includes the section for the centre cutaway. The X brace is about 3/8 by 3/4 and has a .020 CF sheet laminated into the centre of each leg. The top was left a touch thicker, around .120 or so. The string pull is somewhere around 400-420 lbs. I took me about a week and a half solid just to do the inlays on the two necks and headstocks .. thats a long time with the magnifier on !!!

Didnt have this one on Montreal, it went to its owner in April .. I did have a new harp there though ...

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

Hey Tony,

As others have mentioned, this is exquisite work! You always seem to push the limit of how sharp and clever a guitar can look.

Now that said, I'm wondering about the sound. Not that I doubt your ability to make a good sounding guitar, but I've always wondered about the possibility to get a great volume out of a double neck acoustic. As you mentioned, the braces are pretty hefty to support such an amount of tension. So when one plays with a guitar like yours, he only plays with one 'neck' at a time. Wouldn't asking 6 strings to power a top braced with 3/8" by 3/4" X brace be too much?

You tell me!

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

WOW! That's beautiful what a great piece of work for your 101st. Did you do any build documentation photos? I think we would all love to see those if you had any.

Absolutely gorgeous!

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michael propsom
www.propsomguitars.com

Hi Alain,

Sound .. well yes .. the tone is limited mostly in the bottom end, and maybe its not quite as loud as my other instruments are. Even for a big wide jumbo sized guitar, it doesnt have the big huge bottom of a good jumbo. The tension on the top and its bracing limits the movement available. So acoustically, maybe its not all there. But plugged in, which is really what guitars like this are built for, it works in your favour - because the top tends to reject feedback better as its not as loose. You can add in as much bottom as you like with soundshaping, and the sound is really huge.

All that said, it still sounds pretty good. If you have never played a doubleneck or harp guitar before, then the amount of natural reverb/sympathetic string ring you get is kinda cool.

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

Wow! That looks amazing. Great execution (as usual?).

I thought #100 was a stunner. Big, bold and as usual, great workmanship Tony. The green is very sexy. Not sure how much you had to have laid up but if you have more than you need let me know.

Cheers,
Danny

And congrats on #101!

Tony,
that is some real good work there! I sure would love to play it. At some time I may tackle such project if time permits.
Would love to see the bracing on that thing...

Very well executed, congratulations!

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Gorgeous Tony! Outstanding work!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

That's a real monster Tony! That kind of build is not for the faint of heart.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Looks great, what can one add to the comments already made. Get busy on the second hundred.

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

This was the bracing in the first one I did .. its pretty much the identical in nature except for the mono neck block vs two separate blocks in this one, and no popsicle or anything up in front of the UTB. This because I added in the two CF buttresses form the top of the neck block ot hte sides on the new one. This first on was also back when I was using a total bolt on neck, and the upper bout had the added hefty cross brace to support the mortices for the neck tenons under the fingerboards. I also used a maple vs rosewood bridge plate, and went thinner, this one was heavy at about .150, the new one was more like .100. Basically you design to suport the edges of the bridge wings, just like any other guitar as far as placement of the X goes ...

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