Kauer Custom Guitars ~ WOW!

[PINKBITS]

Originally Posted by The_Sentry

Awesome.

Damn...screw the Casino.

I'm callin' Doug Tomorrow to get a mate for my Gibby!!! (I'm thinkin' a Daylighter with a VS would look BADASS!!!)

[The_Sentry]

Damn...now I'm really thinkin' about this...

Could you imagine one of those Daylighters with a Fire or Almond burst?

(fireburst)



(almondburst)

[dougk]

Those would be KILLER

I used to hate doing bursts but getting the right spray gun (well touch up gun) made ALL the difference in the world!

[PINKBITS]

Almond burst would be

[leftyguitarman]

These guitars are pure sex.

[captcoolaid]

Originally Posted by leftyguitarman

These guitars are pure sex.

definite WOOD!

[The ConGREGation]

Good looking buncha geetars.......keep it up.

[delander]

nice photos - this is an interesting thread

[dougk]

Got to play it at rehearsal last night.... I think I have a major problem. Everyone likes it more than my Firebirds :***(

Absolutely killer sounding.

This first batch has a lot of new things we tried, some worked and some need just a few minor tweaks and then we're all set! Over all for as quickly as these came together I couldn't be more pleased.

An interesting note- I'm looking forward to building some with Rosewood fretboards again. I LOVE the Wenge but I have this feeling that Wenge has the initial attack of ebony but the warmth of Rosewood. I won't know for sure till I get some of the Rosewood ones running (could just be I've been playing all mahogany guitars for the last 2 years). I really love the feel of Wenge

[The_Sentry]

Hmm....I like rosewood a lot. Never tried wenge...

Oh....I did some tweaking to your pics, Doug....here...this looks much better!

[dougk]

ROFL

OMG... its not very often that I litterally laugh out loud but that has me rolling!

If only all things in life were so simple right!!

Hey it was good talking to you today, sounds like we both are having crazy days. Feel free to call any time!

-d

[The_Sentry]

Originally Posted by dougk

ROFL

OMG... its not very often that I litterally laugh out loud but that has me rolling!

If only all things in life were so simple right!!

Hey it was good talking to you today, sounds like we both are having crazy days. Feel free to call any time!

-d

Definitely. I'm am GASSING in a bad way for one of those Daylighters. That's a sweet guitar!

[dougk]

Put one of the semi-hollows together just in time for my thursday night gig and took them both out. My god the semi sounds fantastic too!! Its much closer to my solid one tone wise than I was expecting! Those WB's are UNREAL. I want to say that the guitar is some influence but I think if you could put strings over a pile of dog turds and stick a Vintage Tuned in it, it would still sound just as good!

-d

[The_Sentry]

Originally Posted by dougk

Put one of the semi-hollows together just in time for my thursday night gig and took them both out. My god the semi sounds fantastic too!! Its much closer to my solid one tone wise than I was expecting! Those WB's are UNREAL. I want to say that the guitar is some influence but I think if you could put strings over a pile of dog turds and stick a Vintage Tuned in it, it would still sound just as good!

-d

Quote of the Day!

[WBPickups]

Originally Posted by The_Sentry

Looks great in Lefty!

[captcoolaid]

Originally Posted by The_Sentry

Definitely. I'm am GASSING in a bad way for one of those Daylighters. That's a sweet guitar!

it's wild guitar in person. I really like them!

[The_Sentry]

Originally Posted by captcoolaid

it's wild guitar in person. I really like them!

Yeah..me too.

So much that I've already arranged a meeting with Doug.

It's a done deal from my end. I'm getting one. And I'm gonna go choose the top here within the next week!

I'm excited! I'm going to be the first lefty...in the world....(mwahahaha) to own one of these Daylighters equipped with the WB pickups.

That guitar is gonna be badass....

EDIT:

OOooohhh...Washed cherryburst.....

[dougk]

I can do that burst

Scott- wait a couple weeks to come down and pick tops. I went and checked and I'm down to only a couple of interested ones but I'll be stocking up again in about 2 weeks. I already called my supplier and they've been setting stuff aside they think I'll like for the last 5-6 months LOL

I got one of the semi-hollows up and running last night just in time for my thursday night gig.




This one is a 1pc body and 1pc cap. About 7lbs which is REALLY nice after playing the 9lb one!

I played them side by side during the gig and I was SHOCKED how similar they sounded. This one has just the straight Vintage Tuned's in it. I can't believe how close it sounds to the solid one... much less hollow sounding than I expected.

I would say bottom is just a bit softer but the mids are a bit more. Highs are about the same. Hard to say if its the difference in the pickups (or the fact I ran out of .022 caps and used a .047).

Tomorrow semi-hollow will be the one with Habaneros in it!

Now- I built these with the "rapid prototyping" in mind... We wanted to try a bunch of new things and almost everything worked out well. Im adding another 1/2 a degree of neck angle to it (actually I missed 1 line of code in the programming that when I fixed it gave me .5*).

Also these are finished in the same acrylic lacquer we've been using in our shop for a decade instead of Nitro. Now... I know this sounds blasphemous but there are a few reasons for this. Frankly, all the brands of nitro I've tried look great, feel great but brittle as can be. The acrylic is much, MUCH more durable, still same lacquer feel and sound. Actually, it does build quicker so I actually use about a third the amount of nitro which is another benifit. Dries harder, faster, shines up great.

BUT- we did learn two very important lessons:

1. You can cut it with thinner nearly as much as nitro. 10% max and we we're spraying closer to 50% because of the heat.
2. You have to slow the buffer WAY down compared to polishing nitro.

We learned these the hard way because the combination of both caused the finish to randomly check during buffing OH: Nothing to major but still, lessons learned right?

Other than that I'd honestly never go back to spraying nitro. The sealer almost completely grain fills mahogany in 1 coat (we'll still be applying grain filler before sealer in the future) and the durability are major, MAJOR winners to me. I've already banged these guitars into things that would have taken big chips out of all nitro finished guitars I've done.

I'll be shooting a couple more in about 2 weeks so we'll see if the lessons learned cure the issues, then its off to the races!

-d

edit:// I want to clarify, this is still Lacquer. Its going to check and yellow eventually... but the big difference is it'll do it *eventually*. It'll stay looking nice a lot longer than the nitro's that are available currently. Plus... technically the California Air Resource Board has a REAL issue with me spraying nitro in our fine state! lol

[The_Sentry]

Doug,

S'all good. I forgot that next week I'll be in a battle of the bands next weekend, so I'll be sort of preoccupied.

As for the burst....awesome! I figure that's about it right there. Also, on the differences between the 2 models....weight is a factor...to a point. Bear in mind that most of my guitars top out between 8-9 pounds with my 11 pound Norlin as my mainstay guitar. I don't mind weight so much as considerations towards the overall tone and playability.

Lacquer is also fine...TBH I kind of prefer that over Nitro anyway. (I know a lot of folks like Nitro, but it's always felt kind of gritty to me. I have a Nitro coat on my HWY1 strat and I could take it or leave it.)

We're probably at the point where a lot of this stuff will have to be hammered in on the phone or in person. I may ask for a slightly different electronic setup in mind since I do tend to get a bit happy sometimes with the toggle switch on my LP in terms of using it as a killswitch for some of the songs that I play.

I'm really looking forward to the meeting.

~S

[dougk]

You got it bud!

Looking forward to it!

[dougk]

Ok here's some more!







This one I wanted to try an experiment. I routed bridge pickup a 1/4" further forward than where it is on a typical LP (and the rest of these). On my 3 pickup Firebirds I really like middle pickup sound so I thought it would be neat if I could get a little closer to that sound. We'll see when I can do a little more a-b testing.

Another note is this was the original burst colors I had intended. This matches up to the actual Daylight engine:


I like the redder bursts more but this one is pretty cool!

Here's steve's:







Tonerider ACII's in Steve and they sound absolutely fantastic!!

These are both Semi-Hollow and its really nice on my back!

[dougk]

Oh- I need to make more Truss Rod Covers tomorrow

[ptgold]

Badass guitars! those streaks look amazing!

[dougk]

...and now for something completely different...

[The_Sentry]

Originally Posted by dougk

...and now for something completely different...

Sweet! That's a Billy Bo model, isn't it?

[dougk]

Originally Posted by The_Sentry

Sweet! That's a Billy Bo model, isn't it?

Yep! A good friend of mine, Mike Potvin of Potvin Guitars - Handmade Custom Guitars built one a ways back. Well, sudddenly I really liked the Billy Bo thought I better build one myself LOL

Actually, Mike, David Fliski and I will occasionally pick similar projects just to see each persons take on it.

Oh on a side note- started on blanking out some Black Limba and Korina




Korina'y front with a little more black limba'esque on the back

[MikeP]

Don't hold out Doug, lets see some of the REALLY streaky black limba already! Black limba Daylighters anyone?

Mike

[sleepingtiger]

Got to play it at rehearsal last night.... I think I have a major problem. Everyone likes it more than my Firebirds :***(

Not me buddy! The Daylighter IS very cool, but those Birds...Mmmmm!

Tony

[captcoolaid]

I agree tiger. I got to play the Firebird both neck styles they truly rocked. They made remember how much I love them

[dougk]

Originally Posted by MikeP

Don't hold out Doug, lets see some of the REALLY streaky black limba already! Black limba Daylighters anyone?

Mike

Hey Mike!!

Soon enough buddy!!

Originally Posted by sleepingtiger

Not me buddy! The Daylighter IS very cool, but those Birds...Mmmmm!

Tony

The birds are hard to beat