Marian Call is a very creative professional singer/songwriter from Juneau, Alaska. She learned how to play guitar during the pandemic shutdown, when performing live was not an option. She gave me a list of things she likes – the color green, abalone, beach glass, Art Deco.
When we sat down to design her guitar, the first thing Marian said was that every guitar she had ever played was not comfortable for a woman’s body. I had heard this from other women musicians, and I had solved the problem for Tracy Spring (see Guitar 40 – Diva). A curving bevel between the back and side of the guitar makes the guitar as comfortable as a pillow.
The green lacquer was sprayed over curly maple, transparent enough for the fiddleback grain to shine through.
This is one of the most complicated rosettes I have ever done. Going through books of Art Deco patterns I came across this gingko leaf design. The geometry of the leaf is interesting. The top is a half circle, and the sides are quarter circles. The negative space on either side of the leaf is a perfect half leaf. First I inlaid a ring of ebony into the spruce top. Then I made 31 gingko leaves from Paua abalone and surrounded them with copper that I cut from half inch pipe. The pieces were all tacked together with glue, and then inlaid into the ebony ring. The fingerboard position markers are similar, except that the centers are green mirrored glass.
A bit of sunlight gives the green lacquer a luminous glow.
I like to deliver my guitars in person when I can. Here is Marian meeting her new guitar at the ferry terminal in Auke Bay.