The first Russell slack key guitar is well underway. This model was requested by a customer who specializes in slack key playing, and since there was no slack key model as yet, this has given us the opportunity to create this new model to add to the Russell Guitars lineup.  We haven’t come up with a name for the model yet, but we’ve been tossing some ideas around.

The sides and back of this guitar are Curly Koa and are now glued together and are in the “boat” stage. Now the focus is on the European Spruce soundboard construction. The customer wants non-round soundholes on either side of the upper bout instead of a round center soundhole, and that design process is now complete. The cutting of the soundholes is the next step, followed by final design of the bridge, and then the bracing of the soundboard.

Exciting!