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Written by Doug Kauer
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Wednesday, 18 August 2010 15:36 |
Last week I was lucky enough to meet up with Michael Burks and give him his new Daylighter Semi Hollow. Lucky doesn't describe it, my wife and I got to spend 3 days with Michael and the band (Chuck, Wayne and Oscar) while there were here in Northern California and its ALWAYS the highlight of my year to see them! Enough yapping, enjoy some pictures! Hoping to have some video up soon!
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Tuesday, 13 July 2010 16:20 |
Its hard to believe but its already been almost 2 weeks since the Montreal Guitar Show and I'm still over whelmed, exhausted, excited and about 200 other adjectives. First off, what an incredibly well run show in an fantastic city. I am literally counting down the days till next years show! Second a HUGE thanks to Mike and Jennifer Potvin of Potvin Guitars for not only being willing to let us ship all our show guitars to them, truck them to the show, help wing man our table when I was pulled away, taking pictures (which I can't WAIT to get!!) ect. Besides all of that, Mike and Jennifer are two of the sweetest people I have ever met and I am proud, no honored to call them friends.
Oh and Mike builds incredible guitars, check them out! I was also so excited to see Juha and Emma Ruokangas of Ruokangas Guitars and Nik Huber of Huber Guitars who you might remember from our blog posting back at the NAMM show earlier this year. Fantastic people, Juha and Emma especially became like family I didn't know I had. Amazing builders, amazing people. Finally I got to meet a BUNCH of people I had wanted too, Sam Evans of Cardinal Guitars, Pete Malinoski of Malinoski Guitars, John Monteleone, Jeff Bamburg, the crew from Alexander James guitars and a whole host of others. Amazing people!
Now if you've been watching our facebook page you probably already know this but we were lucky enough to sell our Hollowbody, 4449-32HB in fact at the show. What an absolute honor to be one of the lucky people who have sold a guitar there, truly unexpected. To all the other people who were gracious enough to stop and talk, play guitars ect thank you again. As promised we ARE working on the pictures from the show and as soon as I get them they'll be up, please keep coming back.
Well, till next years show keep checking in. We'll not only be uploading more pictures this week (a few will go up today) but over the next year we're going to be doing a couple of video series about guitars we're building specifically for next year.
Oh one last note, I did a Podcast interview for Gear for Guitars which you can hear here. I HIGHLY suggest listening to all the podcast interviews, they are excellent. In fact I've been listening to them all day while I've been in the booth spraying the next batch of guitars.
-doug
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Monday, 28 June 2010 15:14 |
We're barely in July and its smoldering here in NorCal. It's been extremely busy around the shop shipping out guitars to customers, dealers, artists ect. Its time to share some things still kicking around the shop.
This weekend (July 2-5) is the Montreal Guitar Show which we'll be at with 6 Daylighters!! The lead up to this has been ... intense... to put it mildly. Absolutely can not WAIT for MGS now that everything is there and waiting. So until the first blog posting from MGS, enjoy some new shop pictures!
Oh, we had the chance to let Matt Schofield check out a guitar over a couple days. What an absolute pleasure it was see Matt's trio 3 times... if Matt and his Trio comes anywhere near you check them out! You'll thank us later
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Saturday, 05 June 2010 13:27 |
Lots of Daylighters being wrapped up the last two weeks. Lots of unique versions, we'll be filling in the details more this week.
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Friday, 21 May 2010 09:11 |
So most people who know me know I'm a Firebird fanatic. All you have to do is check the blog to see the history of my madness but there isn't a lot of completed pictures. Thought I'd post a few up today as a diversion from wet sanding....
Enjoy!
-d
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Sunday, 09 May 2010 13:44 |
Couldn't have timed this batch out better, we've had absolutely ideal temps for being in the booth. Rather than ramble a lot, just enjoy the pictures from the last couple weeks of work!
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Sunday, 25 April 2010 13:15 |
Well, we had a great time yesterday! Turn out was a little less than expected but the food was great, TONS of amps and guitars (that Tweed Tremolux... man it was hard not to hide that LOL), good beer and great company! Big thanks to everyone who came out and we're really looking forward to next years!
I think having the Jam at the shop this year will be a new tradition. All the neighbors came up and said they enjoyed it and I think that was overwhelmingly the favorite part of the day. Honestly, it was so much that the amp room had completely emptied and all of the amps were out at the jam 'tent'!! Thats where all the pictures are to boot!
Huge thanks to everyone who came, Scott and Rob for surprising us with Kauer Guitars t-shirts, Roman Rist, the folks on ReRanch, TheGearPage and TDPRI for coming out along lots of our great Kauer customers.
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Wednesday, 21 April 2010 19:03 |
Lonnie Brooks!! What can I say, we owe a HUGE thanks to Rawl Hardman and Bruce at Alligator Records for helping to put this together. I'll be adding to this blog posting in the next couple days but for now Lonnie absolutely loved 4449-6! Here's a few pictures!
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Wednesday, 14 April 2010 19:31 |
Its April 14th... just about everyones least favorite day of the year. So to the lighten the mood its time for a new blog posting! We're way over due but frankly, its not for lack of trying. We've been actually been very busy but from the point where we machine the bodies till they get fretted is a lot of little, boring, uninteresting, unphotographic steps! So here we are, new stuff worth snapping pictures over!
First up, 4449-25HB. This is one of the new Hollowbodies with the new "f-hole", Kauer script in Mother of Pearl and a Wenge Backstrap. Lots of new things on -25 that you'll see sprinkled over some of the other guitars in this current batch. The MOP Logos came out exceptional. One thing I changed from the first mockups was instead of having the MOP pockets cut tight with no gap, I introduced a bit of clearance to create a shadow line that we filled with wenge. It creates a nice shadow around the pearl and on a maple headstock makes the pearl much easier to read.
What else, -16 has a gorgeous Cocobolo fretboard, -4 is finally seeing forward progress again. Its one that slipped through the cracks for a while. Necks glued into -30 and -38. The crews been keeping me busy, Rick's sanding and leveling fretboards, Steve's fretting and I've been carving the profiles and fitting each neck to its body. This post will probably get updated a few times over the next few days, there are about a dozen necks still to carve!
-d
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Thursday, 01 April 2010 06:47 |
OK, so this is the WORST day to post this.... being April Fools day but we PROMISE you this is no hoax! Its been a while since our last blog posting and not for lack of trying, its been incredibly busy around the shop the last few weeks so look for a more specific update soon. But....
Around a month ago I got in touch with Michael Burks and started talking about our Daylighters and what I thought what might be a good fit for him. I (all of us!) are HUGE fans of Michael, excellent playing, great touch and tone. We decided upon a Daylighter Semi Hollow to try out. So I made it down with a few guitars in tow to Michael's gig at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz including 4449-2 (the original Semi Hollow prototype) and 4449-10 to leave. We sat back and was treated to an EXCEPTIONAL show.... actually to say we were blown away would be an understatement! If Michael and his band is playing anywhere nearby you must go see them! After the show I spent a little time measuring Michael's main Les Paul, resetting our guitars to match and then headed home.
Two nights later we caught back up with Michael and the gang at Biscuits and Blues in San Fransisco. What a treat this place is, excellent food, service, great sound and friendly atmosphere. We hung out with everyone in the band (my wife might be in love with Chuck "Popcorn" Lowden, Michaels drummer) and had an exceptional time.
OK, now the part you've been waiting for. Michael opened with his Les Paul and played about 30 minutes with it before putting it back in the rack and picking up 4449-2SH and playing the next hour of his set with it!! I was staggered! It sounded absolutely incredible (I know... I'm biased) through his two 100watt Dr Z amps and with someone of Michaels caliber playing was astounding. It was nice to hear what these guitars are capable of when my hack hands aren't playing them! During the break we made a few tweaks on the guitar and Michael resumed playing it in the second set. He finished the show with 4449-10 which also sounded just incendiary. I'm not sure, but I think I had the biggest grin in the room (and the coarsest throat by the end of the night)!!
Long story short, both 4449-2 and 4449-10 are now on the road with Michael and we've pulled a current production Mahogany / Maple Semi Hollow off the rack to finish to Michaels specs. Check back often to watch Michaels guitar come together! Until then, beg, borrow or steal (no, don't steal) to get to see Michaels Band. Again that website is: www.michaelburks.com . You will not meet a nicer group of people walking this earth and I'd just like to thank everyone, Michael, Oscar, Popcorn and Wayne for making us feel so welcome. Can't wait to see you guys again soon!
-d
" target="_parent">Here's a video we ran across on YouTube of a recent performance with 4449-2!
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 15:32 |
We've been on an absolute tear here coming up with new Daylighters and limited runs. Thought I'd share my our favorites plus some other general progress pictures. You can see we've been busy running Fretboards and binding them, we've been doing a few every day for the last week building up some inventory. Also, we happened to come across an 8/4 piece of Cocobolo we just couldn't live with out so we ran 20 fretboards out of it and then decided to make a solid Cocobolo neck for kicks. Not sure what Daylighter will get it but its gorgeous (and dense!!)!
Lastly, two and a half new daylighters to show. The first is 4449-39HB, a Spanish Cedar, Curly Redwood capped one weighing in at a whopping 2lbs even right now. Absolutely incredible, its very likely this guitar will be in the 5lb flat range and should make for an incredibly lively, warm sounding guitar. You might notice its been routed for binding, this one will get Curly Maple binding and will be with us at the Montreal Guitar Show this July.
4449-40SH is another Spanish Cedar, Curly Redwood topped Daylighter, this time a Semi Hollow. Just faux binding on this one, but similar plans to -39HB. This will be a neat one to watch.
Lastly is a customers picked top for 4449-27SHB. This guitar will be completely unique featuring the Semi Hollows center block running from tail to neck but the cap will be carved internally like our Hollowbodies. Should see this one coming to life in a few days.
OH! One last thing, there's pictures of the Birdseye Maple / Wenge 25.5" scale neck we started for -23. Its going to be gorgeous!
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 15:16 |
So anyone who knows us knows we love coming up with new jigs and tools. This is the first of a few so far this month. When we bind the fretboards in wood we make our binding tall enough to give us a little float above and below the fretboard. When the glue dries, we run out a roll of 3M Stick It sand paper on the bench and sand the bottom so any excess binding gets flattened out. Its also a nice way of cleaning any double side tape residue from the machining process off.
In the past, we've just done it by hand. Literally, holding on a 1/4" thick fretboad with the tips of our fingers, trying not to sand off the tips by hand. Its always worked with out major incident but it is difficult to keep the fretboard from getting thin at the ends compared to the center. So I designed this tool over the weekend. I cut the mating surface on a 12" radius, gave it some grooves for the binding to lock the fretboard into place. Works like a charm! Four or Five swipes and its flat as a pancake!
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Sunday, 21 February 2010 12:37 |
Another small update. Decided it was time to run a Daylighter Hollowbody with an "F-Hole" finally. Decided to go non-traditional and we're really pleased with what we came up with. You can see that we leave our tops a little thicker than a traditional hollowbody, we do this for a couple reasons. First we wanted a Hollowbody you could play through an extremely high-gain amp and still have as much feedback resistance as possible and secondly we feel it gives a little more snap than a traditional archtop would have.
We also ran the first of our Spanish Cedar bodies. We're QUICKLY falling in love with Spanish Cedar here in the shop. Its a gorgeous wood, pinkish-red similar to Honduran Mahogany but not nearly as deep grained. It has AMAZING tap tone and its extremely light weight. We've run a Daylighter STD (non-weight relieved), a Semi Hollow and a Hollowbody now. Here's our thoughts about how the weights will end up:
Model | Body Weight | Estimated Finished Weight
STD 4lb 13oz ~7-7.5 lbs
Semi Hollow 4lb 1oz ~6.5-7 lbs
Hollowbody 2lbs 13oz(!) ~5.5-6 lbs
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Written by Doug Kauer
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Friday, 19 February 2010 14:53 |
Much to long since our last Blog posting. Lots going on in the shop like always but here's a few highlights. 4449-22SH and 4449-24CH are both custom builds that we're very excited about. 4449-28 is something new we're working on. Its a Daylighter Express but instead of our standard African Mahogany we're trying out Spanish Cedar. Spanish Cedar is a bit if a misnomer as its neither Spanish nor Cedar. It is actually part of the South American Mahogany family, very similar to Honduran Mahogany. The best pat is its EXTREMELY light weight! A blank large enough to do an Express is HALF the weight of a African Mahogany sized blank. Amazing stuff that Juha and Emma Ruokangas of Ruokangas Guitars turned us on to and I can't thank them enough for it.
Watch for more Spanish Cedar Daylighters, there are 4 more in the que. Oh, one last thing. The average Daylighter Express body weighs in around 5-5.5lbs. This Spanish Cedar Express? 3lbs flat. We're putting bets down at a final weight of around 6lbs!
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