It’s been a slow summer at Kennedy Guitars. Most of June was occupied with travels to Nebraska and Crested Butte Colorado for Family Reunions. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Crested Butte. What a great place! Far enough from Denver that is is still a little like the Colorado we knew in the 60’s and 70’s.
A good share of shop time since July has been the construction of a carrying case for a unique object. A Waterford Crystal Burger King Whopper!!
It was made at the Waterford factory in Ireland as an award for the mother of a friend. She ran a Burger King back east for a gazillion years. Only five have been made and the mold was broken so it was quite an honor to make a case for it. I used guitar repair magnets for the latches. Guitars have few right angles so making a perfectly square box was not as easy as I expected. It has a few issues but it came out pretty well.
I have a 17 inch Adi/Maple solid wood archtop back from finish. It is waiting for a tailpiece. A local company is making it for me from a design I drew up. We did a 3D printer mock up and I think it will be good but the final product will tell the story. Tony ferguson did a great burst on it.
I am thinking of using one of the Modern DeArmond Rhythm Chief pickups as made by Guild. I hope to have it available in a month or so.
We have had some family health issues and a flurry of repairs so I have not started any new builds for quite a while. I plan a couple of OM’s this fall. With the close of The Podium I lost a little momentum so 2017 will be the slowest production year for a while. I will be back on track though so stay tuned!
Right now I plan to market my guitars through David Roos in Minneapolis. David was a 35 yr Podium employee and is a well known jazz guitarist in the Twin Cities. He will have a web presence soon as a private dealer.
I will also be using Marty Reynolds at www.mnluthier.com
I’ll advertise any new builds for sale at either of these outlets from my website so folks know they are available.
I have spruced up a few old no name 40’s catalogue archtops that had decent necks and am getting kind of hooked on these old beasts. Here is the most recent. No name or serial number but it had a good neck. Neck reset and conversion to a bolt-on as well as installation of a humbucker with some vintage radio knobs and you’ve got an ax that will sound darn good, has big time mojo, and will really turn heads at gigs.
Finally, there was another major disturbance in the force of the music community a couple of weeks ago. Michael Johnson ( http://mjblue.com/) passed away from complications of chronic lung disease.
I met Michael when we drove up together from the cities and he stayed at our house for a weekend a few years ago. We stayed in touch after and he was part of the Podium lunch club after he moved back to Minneapolis from Nashville. He was one of the most gentle and delightful creatures God placed on the face of the earth and a complete master of his craft. This one hurts.
Here he is playing a size 2 in my shop. RIP Michael.
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