Style A Special Custom

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May 2003

This is a guitar that I recently finished and it soon will be going to Mandolin Brothers. The woods are Adirondack red spruce for the top and Brazilian rosewood for the back and sides.  I think that the pictures mostly will speak for themselves, but I will add comments and descriptions to each.  A few other things to mention would be that the bridge spacing is 2 5/16" and the fossil ivory nut is at 1 3/4".  I really like the way this guitar plays and am really happy with its sound.

Here is Stan Jay's description as it appeared in the June, 2003 addition of the Mandolin Brothers Vintage News.

43-0469 Kim Walker Style A Special OM, #164, with TKL AVS series hard shell
case.  
With great regret we must inform you that several of our staff members have
died and gone to heaven.  Well, actually, they're still working here,
wandering the stairways and listening rooms, but they played the Walker
Style A Special and now they seem to be floating 1 12/16th of an inch off
the floor.     Oddly, and entirely coincidentally, 1 12/16th" is the nut
width on this simply astonishing sounding instrument.  We do not know how
Kim Dublya does it - his guitars have an "urgency of tone" not found in the
work of other makers.  [It's the sound that "makes you want to 'P' which
stands for PiGMO - a group of individuals who feel we should 'Play Guitar
More Often.'"]     One is startled by the complex flower, 3 =" when in
blossom, inlaid in pearl and abalone in the blackest of head plates with
the slightly angled Script 'Walker,' not plump but elegant, in prewar era
cursive script.   This visual fragrancy is complemented by six ball-peened
capstans of shiny gold, surrounded by six hexagonal nuts of burnished hue,
and six butterbean buttons of the Waverly persuasion.   From the C-shaped
low profile neck to the Cedar Creek case, this is an instrument that some
call Dreamy and others call Creamy and we, we're just happy to stare at its
paua abalone side dots which glow hypnotically like kitten eyes in a
Maglite beam.   The Brazilian rosewood on its back and sides is so rich it
ebbs and flows, licking the trouser leg with its dark chocolaty promises
(Stop that!).    This must be Five-A Adirondack (something like an Acoustic
Aaaaardvark but without the sticky tongue) because, unlike the Adirondack
tops we always thought had to be wide-grained and surly in their worldly
mien, this wood hails us with an aristocratic countenance.   Top, back,
neck and peghead are bound with rosewood, each having an adjacent  stripe
of contrasting flame maple; the top and soundhole are ringed in
kaleidoscopic abalone.  The I Ching on that which may be archaic is, most
definitely, the 2 1/8th" by 1 7/16th" picture box, inlaid in paua shell
between the 15th and 20th frets, depicting, in the manner of a 19th century
pastoral painting, vines and flowers.  Or the bridge pins -- each bridge
pin, looking like the model of an improved eyeball that has undergone Lasik
(Laser) surgery, is etched and engraved with a small, delicate, perfectly
crafted flower -- who else does work like this?   Find that luthier and
show him or her these bridge pins!    Paradoxically, while the I Ching is
comprised of 64 symbolic hexagons, taken to indicate wise courses of
action, this guitar's fingerboard decoration is bordered by a rectangle,
bisected by 4 of the instrument's 6 courses, each having a very low action.
The sound of this remarkable instrument is beyond all mortal expectations.
It is effortless to play, and sings in a voice that reminds one of the
flowing poetry of a great novel - the lasting lyrical narrative that you
wish would never end.    The only way to slake that feeling of persistent
euphoria that comes from playing this monument to melody is to, um, place a
small deposit with us to reserve a future delivery, and then have a lot of
patience.     This one's "held" for one lucky lutenist out of seven
sanguine people who have left us their ROFR, but, if you say the right
words in the right order, a Walker can some day be yours.  $13,119 at our
discount price, or, at our cash discount price $12,725.