Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Your guitar; show & tell

That’s some mighty fine picking!

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We started this thread looking for stories about the instruments we play and certainly haven’t been disappointed! Please add your story and pictures!!
So here is mine for this week. Two and a half years ago I began a project to make a wide fingerboard guitar for fancy fingerpicking (aspirational). This poor thing suffered mightily at my hands with router bits falling out gouging the sides, tools falling on the top, and, well you know what I mean. So, I’ve named this one the Guitar of Constant Sorrow. In spite of those indignities, when I put strings on yesterday, GCS sings like a beauty. image|288x500imageimage

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And one pic of the front…image

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Very nice looking instrument Dan!!! I love the woods. Nice finish job too!
I bet it projects like crazy.

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This past July I took delivery of a project that was about 15 months in the making. I made a hand sketch of the headstock (my initials) and the maker cut it for me. I’m thrilled with the resulting instrument. It’s a OOO cocobolo/englemann. It is great fingerpicked, or for lighter picking - it does fine picking fiddle tunes. It’s only limitation is when I really try to drive it - it doesn’t so much like booming strumming, but that’s what my dreads are for… I included my original hand sketch too…myheadstockrockbridge-2rockbridge-1rockbridge3rockbridge4

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Wow, that’s beautiful, Harry. The headstock is really nice and especially since it’s your design. I love the burst finish on the top.

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Man that’s gorgeous! The inlay work looks fantastic on that black headstock. Is that abalone in the binding?

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Thanks, Mark and Dan! I did fall in lover with the finish - after seeing how nice they do, I had to have that burst. Yes, that is abalone - sory teh pics are not as good as might have been. Here are the specs…

Rockbridge OOO Custom
Cocobolo back and sides with sapwood back strip
Engelmann Spruce Top with tobacco sunburst
Flamed Maple binding
Abalone top and rosette purfling
Diamonds and squares abalone fret markers
Ebony headstock veneer
Pearl Logo
Custom abalone headstock inlay

HB

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WOW!!! That is awesome!

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I dig using the sapwood! When I made my cherry table, I agonized over whether to do it… I left some sapwood in there and am real glad I did. Real nice looking guitar!

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I’m new to the forum and new to flatpicking. But I went all in on a Martin D-28(2017) that just blew me away when I played it. I’d always wanted a Martin but was a piano player :slight_smile:

Anyhow… here’s my baby.
Front
Back

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Beautiful! Nothing like the smell of a brand new guitar. Congrats!

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I love it; it’s a classic & real beauty!

WHEW SON! That is beautiful!

So, @BanjoBen, have you got these in yet?

I have one in but haven’t assembled yet…too much going on!

But your not selling them yet?

Here’s my guitars, Screenshot_2018-10-06-11-12-42 Screenshot_2018-10-06-11-12-47Screenshot_2018-10-06-11-12-53Screenshot_2018-10-06-11-12-57 that one is a Composite Acoustics GX Player that my dad bought in '08 it’s entirely carbon fiber with a pickup (I don’t know which, it might be l.r.baggs?) I really like the molded neck joint cutaway, it makes playing (way!) up the neck a lot easier. This one, Screenshot_2018-10-06-10-51-47 Screenshot_2018-10-06-10-51-44 Screenshot_2018-10-06-10-51-36 Screenshot_2018-10-06-10-51-41 is a baby Martin that my dad bought in 2012 hand crafted from solid hand carved AAA Formica :joy: if you name any trait a good guitar should have, this one probably has none of them, but it’s easy to play, it’s slightly archtoped from string tension. It’s my everyday player. This one, Screenshot_2018-10-06-11-12-27Screenshot_2018-10-06-11-12-30Screenshot_2018-10-06-11-12-36 is probably the cheapest guitar fender makes, it’s not an american strat, not a mex strat, not even a singaporean squier, it’s a Chinese squier that I was given in 2015, it doesn’t get as much play time as it used to before I discovered bluegrass, but sacrifices must be made somewhere anyway…

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That is an interesting bevy of stringed instruments. Looks like the blue Martin’s bridge is trying to leave the Formica neighborhood?

That bridge was always unhappy being on a flat top, and when no one listened to it’s complaints, it decided it would move to an arch top by arching the top of the one it was on. I would repair it (and the badly worn frets) but it (the guitar) was very cheap and not worth the price of repairs