The Infinite Guitar
The Infinite Guitar is about fun, no limits, no boundaries. It is about art and creating. It's about taking the most organic of materials and making something that no one had ever thought to make before. And it's about taking the most mundane and synthetic of materials and having them perform in an artful and beautiful way that no one had ever thought possible or had even considered.
This is about turning myself loose and seeing what happens.
These are strictly one-of-a-kind guitars built with the highest-quality, most exotic woods available. The rarest of appointments. Unique, boundary pushing inlays that no one has attempted before and no one has seen before.
The Infinite Guitar is sold on a first come, first serve basis. Each comes with a photo album documenting the guitar's creation in progress and a one-of-a-kind label made of a material of my choice. Call or email to see what I'm working on right now...
Guitars in this section are pre-designed (although I would be happy to design a custom guitar at this level with you much the way I design with C.F. Martin) with the focus on setting the bar to new heights. All the woods used here are the very best available and will normally be of a grade that is what I would think of as "unobtainable" meaning there might be only one set like this or that for some reason it has special significance to the chosen inlays. To be truthful this section looks at the guitar as nothing more than a very cool canvas. The real story here is the custom work that will always be bordering on the very edge of what I have been able to accomplish in the past, pushing the envelope if you will to levels never seen in guitar inlay. Each guitar tells a story and celebrates art forms and artists that I admire. Special effects such as "Smoke and Mirrors."... inlays with tiny details... precious metals and gemstones.
Currently I am working on guitars for a 6 week museum show I will be participating in (along with Larry Robinson, Grit Laskin and Rene' Karnes) that will be held at the Museum of Music in Carlsbad CA scheduled for June '07. For a brief preview of these guitars please follow the links below.
On these pages you will find pricing which is the proposed guitar plus an estimate of the amount of hours to complete the inlay work. The cost of the inlays is figured at my normal rate of $100.00 per hour and will be added to the cost of the guitar itself.
Floating world guitar (I see several guitars with similar themes in my future)
Themes for possible up-coming guitars:
Parrot guitar - lots of exotic colors
Tall ships - All that rigging should keep me busy...
Pirate - might be combined with a tall ship guitar
The Motherlode - I've been wanting to do this one for
years...inlays of the1849 gold rush
(I live about 30 miles from Sutter's Mill ) and using real Gold-in-Quartz for
tuner buttons...maybe solid gold purfling?
American Indian - Something along the lines of the Floating World guitar,
commemorating our greatest true Americans
(another) Hot Rod guitar - this time starting with a rusty old junker inlay and
ending with something sweet! or maybe and inlay of Robert Johnson standing at
the cross roads next to a Hudson Terroplane?
I also want to continue the "great theme" of recreating the art of some of the
true masters, besides the work of Suzuki Harunobu (Floating World) I hope to
spotlight some of his peers as well as some of the European Masters....Mona Lisa
here I come!