Portfolio: Steel String Guitar #3, 1979

Steel String Guitar #3, 1979

  • Koa back & sides; red spruce top (same as Cherry 00-12); Spanish cedar neck; ebony fingerboard, bridge, binding, & overlay

  • Lacquer finish

This is one of four that I made, one of which went to Jim Messina, of Loggins & Messina. It has a molded, stationary carbon-fiber & epoxy truss rod. I got the carbon-fiber tape/thread from Lloyd Baggs years ago. I made a hank of the carbon-fiber, filled it up with epoxy, and molded it into a slot in the neck. The neck is Spanish cedar, rather than mahogany. I made all the binding – it’s ebony & boxwood – and it’s a bound fingerboard & peghead. It has a flattened pyramid belly bridge, a slotted peghead, and is fan-braced. The scum on the neck is mine – I played this guitar until I built the bi-level, when I wanted more sound … because of those bluegrassers, and a banjo.