Tomorrow I will be shipping one of my most ambitious projects ever which has been 3 years in the making. I was commissioned over 3 years ago by a loyal customer who wanted a guitar to commemorate the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots who served so bravely during that awful conflict. He was very specific in that he wanted me to have complete freedom and wanted the details of the project to be a secret to him until he received the guitar. I started by consulting with my flying buddy, Jim Alford who had served 3 tours as a Huey pilot in the war and he was instrumental in providing me with details and insignias. I then teamed with Craig Lavin who is simply one of the most talented and creative inlay artists on the face of the planet. Craig went as far as to research the helicopter conflict and even built a detailed scale model of the Bell Huey in order to gain proper scale for his inlay. I built the guitar from Vietnamese Flamewood, Carpathian Spruce and Flamed Koa. I cant even tell you all of the materials that Craig used to do his magic. Special Thanks for this project go to Bob Cefalu at RC Tonewoods for finding me a rare set of Flamewood and then bailing me out of deep doodoo when I cracked a side during bending. He had a sister set in reserve! I also want to thank Chuck Erikson for supplying the magnificent Pearl Herringbone which I used for the top & sound hole purflings. I will post more pictures soon.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 23:03:42 +0000
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