After all of my decades of experiencing great (and not always so great) instruments, and after all of my time with brilliant makers and popular manufacturers, I intuited it was time to three-dimensionalize my own intuitions for instruments and have their chief characteristics be deep beauty and artful design. In the early part of the millennium I began projects with Michael Spalt (the Nouveau Series), John Orlich (beveled art-glass drums), Steve Kauffman (of Klein guitars - the Deco Series), and Dave Brewis and Kevin Parsons (Dave of England guitars, the Queen of Hearts Series). Each of these projects had their own uniquenesses, but all of them produced really cool instruments.
The Nouveau Series
Both Klein and I thought Michael’s designs were at once artful and amazing, so I had the notion to take a Klein acoustic neck and have Michael create a resin-topped body in the shape of a Klein acoustic body (albeit smaller) themed with artifacts from 30-years of Klein’s workshop. While studying the history of the original Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass, I came across an interesting anecdote about how Siegfried Bing (early champion of Art Nouveau in France and owner of Maison de l’Art Nouveau - the gallery that featured artists working in the then-new style preceding the turn of the 20th-century) had commissioned Tiffany to produce ten windows to designs by nine of France’s leading artists including Toulouse-Lautrec and Pierre Bonnard. I thought it’d be cool to do something similar with guitars - take original Art Nouveau art and have it theme a series of instruments patterned after our Spalt/Klein electric project. I spent years collecting original Art Nouveau art culled from the U.S. and abroad, mindful of what would work in the instruments and how the designs would enable the series to stand as a coherent collection. It worked even better than I imagined, which is always fun.
Queen of Hearts Series
One evening on the internet I chanced upon a Zemaitis-styled guitar by “Dave of England” - it was a large-bodied instrument, reminiscent of a J-200 but with unique aesthetics that I found appealing. I had no experience with Zemaitis acoustic guitars, but was still drawn to this one, and I needed an acoustic guitar. I rang up Dave and learned how he’d gotten the original Zemaitis jigs from Tony Zemaitis, and that the guitar I’d viewed had been made for Greg Lake (of Emerson, Lake,& Palmer), but it wasn’t fancy enough for him, but it was for me. I bought it and made friends with it - a friendship that gave birth to the Queen of Hearts Series. We’d originally planned to create five of these, but in the end we only made three.
Orlich Glass Drums
When I first learned of John Orlich’s beveled art-glass drums, I couldn’t quite digest them - they were really stirring, but so far afield from anything I’d ever even pondered. Always a good sign. I was so enthused I thought we should make a prototype kit with some etching patterns he and I designed, and a series of snare drums, all of which I’d take to the 2007 Chicago Drum Show. Rob Cook (originator of the Chicago show, and fellow drum historian/author) had an Orlich snare and he thought it was really special as well, so we thought it’d be a good venue. Here’s what Rob said about them, “The drums are magnificent in concept, appearance, and sound. They’re destined to become among the most collectible drums out there.” We made very few snare drums with the custom etching patterns, and only one drum kit.
The Deco Series
After copious experience with Klein acoustic guitars, I had the idea to make a body size inbetween the original large and small models that Klein offered. By this time almost all of the building was being done by master luthier Steve Kauffman, so he and I did a series featuring premium woods and a special-to-this-series inlay pattern that connected the rosette to the fingerboard. We did five of them, andeach turned out beautifully.
