Taku Sakashita 12-strings making

This is my volunteer work for Taku Sakashita's left over. Back and sides are already assembled by Taku Sakashita before he passed a way. I will complete the top and neck and assemble them. This
is a second series of using a 100-year old premium grade Brazilian rosewood. This guitar will be a younger sister of my previously finished Brazilian RW based nylon model.

Today, I re-saw the Brazilian blank to get head plate veneer, bridge and Rosetta veneer. The premium grade Brazilian RW will be used all of details for this guitar such as Rosetta, head plate veneer, finger board, bridge, and pufling decoration. This guitar will be a special one.

Myrtle Complete

I completed the Myrtle version for final assembly. I did fret wire leveling and polishing. I applied Oil finish over the finger board.Then, I assembled the neck and the body, and glued the bridge. I have been using the vacuum clumping system. The Kasha bridge needs to use a pressure aiding attachment to obtain a perfect assemble, because the Kasha bridge has super thin edges. Once I apply the glue over the bridge bottom, the bridge wings will be bended due to the glue moisture. I have been using the vacuum clumping with the attachment. This technique enables to perfectly accomplish very tricky Kasha bridge assembly.

Brazilian special is completed

Finally, the Brazilian special nylon model is completed. I attached a Kasha style impedance matching bridge. This bridge is heavily tapered. So, the bridge install is quite tricky. Tapered edge bends when apply glue due to the moisture. I have to use a vacuum clump for removing moisture during the cure of the glue. You may see very thin bridge. I also installed an arm rest. The arm rest is also made by the 100-years old special Brazilian rose wood.

The completed guitar created a piano like very even tone with nice brightness. Bass is very strong and treble to very bright. I have never heard of this much strong bass other than Kasha bracing system. This guitar has very nice Kasha model sound. However, my design showed more balanced tone character, because I shortened some tone bars in buss side. I also added two strong horizontal braces in upper bout. I also moved the sound hole into players side. This offset sound hole improved monitoring capability for a player. So, this guitar does not need additional sound ports. Anyway, I am really happy with result.

I will install a piezo pick-up system for this guitar.

In memory of Taku Sakashita

Today is a memorial day of Taku Sakashita. February 11, 2010, Taku  untimely finished his life from a tragic situation. Actuary, I visited his shop on that day, because we had a plan to go to a guitar material supplier in Healdsburge CA. When I was in his shop, there were many polices and detectives under investigation. Actuary, I was asked many questions from one of the detectives. Then, I was noticed Taku's situation from the detective.

Taku was my mentor of guitar building. I have learned so many things for guitar design, building, setup, and finishing. However, the biggest influence from Taku is an attitude for making guitar. When I make a guitar, I try to avoid anything I regret. Guitar making process must be as perfect as possible. Whenever I feel tired or want to short cut a building process, I always see photos for Taku's guitar. His master pieces have no compromise. His guitars are so beautiful. He really loved making guitar, designing new model, and enjoying conversation with buddies. All of sadden, his life was ended and his guitar making life was terminated. Only one thing I can do for Taku is Whenever I make a guitar, I follow his way of making guitar.