Martin HD-28 kit

[wmlusk]

John,
Can you tell us more about this Martin HD-28 kit? Rockola is building an electric tapping instrument. Maybe you two can share some tips.

-bl

[John Mckone]

I think the Martin kits are great in terms of material quality. I had no sense that I was getting factory second wood. In fact the woods were beautiful - and beatifully matched.

Martin sort of markets these things as a hobby project, but in reality, they are very difficult to pull off. I'm a piano re-builder by trade, and have a fully equipped wood shop that I use for work. Even with those advantages, I got a good guitar out of this proccess mostly by dumb begginers luck, I think.

The project was great fun to do. I think anyone interested should give it a try, but definitely have a luthier available to help with tricky bits, and also maybe expect to do two kits before you get one usable guitar. (the neck set was the real bear for me - routing the top edges for the herringbone inlay was also a frightening moment)

The price is pretty reasonable - as I recall my kit was about $400. Of course, if you factor in the MANY hours of labor.... I'm admittedly biased, but darn it, My guitar is the best one I've ever played. That's worth a lot of time and money.

My guitar is inlayed on the headstock and frets with old ivory piano keytops that I always have laying around. Kind of a nice connection to both sides of my working world. (there are some pictures on the website, I think)

John

[wmlusk]

I was watching a show called 'Hands on History' on the History Channel and they were doing a tour of the Martin Guitar factory. It was amazing to see that in this day and age of mass-produced everything how much of Martin's production is done by hand. I highly recommend catching this show on a repeat -- check your local listings...