Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Show me your's and I'll show you mine

Mike, thatā€™s an excellent pic you posted. Iā€™d love to own a GE but just canā€™t handle the neck. :frowning:

Love that pic Mike and that is a great story. A keeper for sure.

Nice guitars guys! I really like that backporch guitar and the logo. Never seen one.

Iā€™m still pickinā€™ the D28 Marquis and a '79 D35. Iā€™ll try to get a pic of the two together next time Iā€™m home.

[attachment=0]DSC05969.JPG[/attachment][attachment=1]DSC05974.JPG[/attachment][attachment=2]DSC05084.JPG[/attachment]here is some recent pics . 1# Martin 2# and 3 is of the Fender 1989 Strat Plus and the last one has the Takemine 1989 . I enjoy them all but the Takemine is down right now as I am redoing a few of the frets and the nut .

I did not post a picture of my banjo cause it was short one string

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Hereā€™s my D18GE (being held by my mom). Itā€™s a guitar that I probably wonā€™t ever trade or sell. Hopefully Iā€™ll have it until I canā€™t play anymore and then Iā€™ll be able to give it to someone. Itā€™s a nice enough guitar, but there are always guitars that are better if one wants to look. This guitar is a keeper because of the specific memories I built with it. I bought it a few years back to take to my parents house when my Mom was ill. The weekend I picked it up it was right before the NCAA basketball tournament. Being from Kentucky, we are UK fans. UK was playing Florida at 11:00 or noon and Mom, Dad and I planned to watch the game. Game time was approaching and Mom hadnā€™t gotten up yet. To wake her up, I got out the guitar and started playing and singing out in the living room. She didnā€™t initially come out of the bedroom so I kept getting louder with each passing verse. After running through some more mellow tunes, she finally woke up during ā€œNo Sweeter Name.ā€ As she walked out I was playing and singing about as loud as I ever do (the D18GE is a very loud guitar). She was still foggy from sleep, but got a cute little smile and said ā€œThat guitar is a beast!ā€ With that, I had my first named guitar. Hereā€™s a picture of my Mom and ā€œbeast.ā€
[attachment=0]MomGE.jpg[/attachment]

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Where in KY are you from? Lexington area myself!

Sweet!!!
Thanks for sharing!!!

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Where in KY are you from? Lexington area myself!

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Lexington is great. I still get up there to visit from time to time. Iā€™m from Danville. I grew up there and went to UK and EKU. After that I lived in eastern KY (Allen, near Prestonsburg) for a couple years. Now I am in Texas.

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ā€” Begin quote from "chelseankelly"

Where in KY are you from? Lexington area myself!

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Lexington is great. I still get up there to visit from time to time. Iā€™m from Danville. I grew up there and went to UK and EKU. After that I lived in eastern KY (Allen, near Prestonsburg) for a couple years. Now I am in Texas.

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Very nice. I am actually from Nicholasville, so pretty close to Danville. I also went to EKU and then graduated from Asbury.

Nice to see what folks are playing!

I mostly build my own. Hereā€™s my latest that I hope to string up in the next few daysā€¦


Beautiful! Do you have any for sale?

Thanks, John. Naw, I havenā€™t sold any, tho I am running out of space to store 'em. :wink: I will eventually have fix that problem, my wife tells me. I have another fancy style D-42.5 coming back from the finisher next week. Canā€™t wait to play it, too.

Very nice wood. Any chance you will post an MP3 of what it sound like?

Pretty birdseye and a pretty guitar. You have my curiosity nowā€¦ what is a style 42.5?

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Pretty birdseye and a pretty guitar. You have my curiosity nowā€¦ what is a style 42.5?

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I put pearl around the top, fb extension and soundhole, like a style 42. Just couldnā€™t stop there and added pearl around the back, hence a 42.5, for a bit extra. :sunglasses:

Ps I will post an MP3 of the cutaway as soon as the usb mike arrives here.

(Also, I could not find the model on their current website. Is that a custom model or an earlier model?) I found it they offer it in a sunburst or the flamed maple as you see it in Bad Shots pictures . it sells for around 1400.00 so it is not an entry level but a great instrument I can just feel it in my hands and hearing the good sound that I know would be there. Would really like to play one so I will keep my eyes and ears open and just maybe we will run into one . What they listed was a Blu moon BMS-JTMES jumbo. The flamed maple picture was just like Badshots .

The style 42.5 Dred turned out so nice, I decided to promote it to a style 43.75. :wink:

Finished the set up on Sunday and took it for a test drive. Itā€™s Madagascar Rosewood and torrefied Adirondack Red Spruce.



During the set up, putting in the K&K pure mini.

Nice D43.XX. Can you tell any difference in the sound of the torrified top?

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Nice D43.XX. Can you tell any difference in the sound of the torrified top?

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Not in the least. To me it just sounds like any Martin-style guitar. I think the torrified tops/VTS are a fad, though I concede, I am not the expert. When working the top, it had an aroma reminiscent of the Pancake House (probably the caramelized sugars?). I was almost tempted to bite into it. I do like the coloring of the cooked wood. (Martin has figured out how to prevent the color shift.) There are stability advantages however to the torrification process, but I also used regular Ady braces that theoretically could age differently than the top.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess if it does nothing more than help prevent a top crack, itā€™s worth the baking time. Itā€™s a nice bonus that it smells good as well.

Both guitars look like a lot of time and detail was spent in building them. My brother is a very skilled woodworker (mostly historic renovations especially timber framing). I keep trying to convince him to jump in and build a guitar. He wants to but says he never has the time.

When I look at finished projects such as yours and his, I see more of the craftmanship than the product itself. Good work.

I havenā€™t played a pre-aged topped guitar yet. I think maybe Bourgeois may have started it all or maybe it was Huss & Dalton. Seems as though all the builders are offering this now. I do like how they look more aged.