Previous Work

Hey All! My name is Kevin and for the past year I have been working with Daniel Collins at http://www.danielcollinsguitars.com/Daniel_Collins_Guitars/Home.html to build a custom made Bogdanvich classical guitar. The guitar is all hand built using a Bearclaw Sitka Spruce Top, Paduk sides and back, mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard, bridge, and binding, with herringbone purfling.
 
The way this all happened was by my father, Mark. He decided that he wanted to do something special for me as I was planning on graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with my master's in science in kinesiology. He thought that it would be a great idea to build a guitar for me as I have been obsessed with guitars and music since I was a kid. However, he began building the guitar too late to be able to complete it by the time that I had finished my thesis. After about a year of work on the guitar and another 5 months of finishing work (lacquer), he finally finished the guitar. It is an all hand-built small jumbo, using a Sitka spruce top, walnut back and sides, mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard and bridge, and bloodwood binding (body, fingerboard).
  The guitars are beautiful to look at and even more amazing to play. The sounds that these guitars produce are simply perfect. The one flaw in the plan is that I don't play much classical guitar, but i am continuing to learn. Also, the small jumbo is a little large when you are sitting to play. But we will get to that shortly.

Recently, I began working on a ukulele with Dan which is in the finishing stages of completion. Just some small work that needs to be completed then I will be French Polishing the uke within the next few weeks. The uke is made out of ovangkol for the top, back, and sides, with cocobolo fingerboard, bridge, and binding. Here is the most up-to-date picture that I have of the uke.

It is looking really good. However, similar to the classical guitar, I do not play much ukulele but I will definitely learn a great deal when this baby is completed.

So this whole luthier thing came out of the blue to me. I never expected to start building stringed instruments, but when I started bending the wood and shaping the neck, I realized I actually really enjoyed the process. Yes, there are some really difficult experiences, and some very stressful times. But it is a really fun process. Therefore, I have found myself in a predicament. My guitar was completed, and the uke is pretty close to being finished, and I was worrying about trying to figure out what I was going to be doing on Monday evenings and Sunday afternoons, along with the occasional Thursday afternoon (the days that I work with Dan at Shady Lea Mill). Well, I continued to ponder the situation and continued to play my new instruments, when I came across a new guitar that C.F. Martin Guitars was producing, the Custom 00 Masterbuilt All Koa guitar (see http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/martin-custom-00-master-koa-koa-acoustic-guitar/481882000010000?src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=197338629). It got me thinking, maybe a smaller guitar would allow me the freedom to play at all times (sitting, standing, etc.).

The one issue that I had with building my instruments, was that I was an absolute idiot when it came to documenting the process. I vowed that if I decided to continue on with my luthier work, I would make sure that I took pictures of the process. So that is where we stand now.