April 24, 2004

I completed this Style B Special at the end of November last year with the intention of sending it to Mandolin Brothers. It is now time to let it go. This is one of those guitars that I just kept putting off shipping because I was having too much fun playing it. It's a very responsive guitar and has tons of headroom. It really likes to be driven hard but yet responds well to a light touch.

The Brazilian rosewood back and sides are really beautiful, tight grained and quarter sawn, old-growth wood. When I purchased the wood the dealer described it as Birdseye, which it would be if it were not so quarter sawn. The subtle figure is really quite nice. The top is Adirondack red spruce of exceptionally quality. I've used fossil walrus ivory for the nut, end pin, and bridge pins which are 30,000 years old, according to the Fossil Ivory King, John Michelson.

The pictures are a little light on the rosewood, because it is hard to take pictures of dark wood and have it show anything. View these as if you were seeing the guitar in very strong light.

The guitar resides in a Cedar Creek Americana case which has a very nice vintage feel and look. The case exterior is a nice heavy pebble grained leatherette and the interior is crushed green velvet. It has a very comfortable leather handle.