The Russell Waimea slack key guitar is getting its binding glued onto the body.  The binding on this first Waimea is Madagascar Rosewood and the body is flamed curly Koa.  Here James is pushing the binding and pulling the cut inner tube he uses as a giant rubber band to hold the binding in place [...]

The bookmatched Madagascar Rosewood endgraft on the Waimea slack key guitar is complete. The purfling is “black-white-black”; the “black” is dyed Holly and the “white” is Maple and so is not actually white.  All binding on this guitar will be Madagascar Rosewood, so coming into this endgraft on each side, top and bottom, will be [...]

The dovetail neck joint on the Russell custom “Waimea “slack key guitar has been cut on both body and neck. The back and sides on this guitar are flamed curly Koa, the neck is Honduran Mahogany, and the soundboard is German Spruce. The three photos below show James doing the fine fitting of the dovetail [...]

The Madagascar Rosewood Deep Lake model is now a “boat.” The Deep Lake is our largest acoustic steel string guitar; it’s a jumbo size with a 16″ lower bout.  In this photo you can see that the linings and side braces for this guitar are made of Mahogany.  You can also see some of the [...]