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The idea of designing a Kehlet guitar as a cross between the shape of a Dreadnought and a Kehlet Folk model came to me after having played Martin Dreadnoughts for many years. Combining the advantages of the Dreadnought - its volume, low and top ends - with the advantages of the Kehlet Folk - its middle range, lightness, clearly defined sound, beautiful (i.e. feminine) appearance, and its more comfortable shape - seemed like an interesting thing to explore. The ultimate acoustic guitar, in my mind, would be one that gave you all these advantages in one guitar.
Ole Kehlet and I discussed this and then tried to enlarge the body of the Folk model to the length of the Dreadnought. We made a few corrections and finally arrived at a body with the approximate cubic content of a Dreadnought, but one in which the soft shoulders and the slim waist of the Folk model are predominant features over the heavy, angular lines of the Dreadnought. The enlarged cubic content and the subsequent increased volume lies mainly behind the bridge - in the lower body - which makes it as comfortable to hold as the small Folk model. It also looks very elegant, despite its size.
As I have often admitted, I am a bit of an inlay-freak, and my own personal signature guitars needed a very special design. I already knew what I didn't want: Celtic patterns, snowflakes and diamonds on the fretboard and bridge, the torch or alternate torch on the headplate, tree of life on the fretboard and so on. These are ornaments which are beautiful in the right quantities and combinations - but they are all classic and "holy" C.F. Martin designs and relate and belong, in my world, to C.F. Martin Guitars. Besides, I wanted the ornamentation on my Kehlet signature model to express something Danish because the builder and the guitarist are both Danes. And I wanted a motive taken from Nature, since I spend a lot of time outdoors and is often inspired by Nature when writing music.
I kept returning to the motive of a swan - the Danish national bird. The swan has a proud appearance and gracious movements. It is always a sight to behold. So I approached Marianne Olafsson who is a wonderful painter and told her of my idea to let a swan adorn the top of the headstock. She immediately agreed and added a club rush on the mid-section of the headstock between the strings. Club rushes and swans both have long necks. The club rush stretches upwards, towards the swan, and the swan looks down towards its nest between the rushes.
I also wanted ornamentation on the wings of the bridge, and Marianne and I quickly agreed that rushes would be appropriate here as well, creating a natural counterpoint to the wings of the swan, creating a triangle with the club rush in the middle of the headstock. Marianne then drew the motives very accurately. Ole Kehlet transferred them to the headstock and the bridge. He then milled out the shape, and with abalone, mother of pearl and brass he finished the motives in a piece of beautiful inlay-work of great depth. The ornamentation also includes abalone binding on the body, rosette, fretboard and around the open headstock. The abalone bindings are laid free 1.5 milimeters from the edge, and the overall impression of the guitar is completed by the fact that the bottom edge of the fretboard follows the curve of the soundhole.
The sides and the three-piece back is made of 1957 Brazilian rosewood from the Rio Delta with a light-quilted American sitka top, scalloped braces of European spruce on the top and back, bird's eye maple/ebony bindings, mahogany neck/headstock and fretboard and a headplate and bridge of ebony. The finish is polished high-gloss cellulose lacquer.
The very first proto type of the Kehlet Grand Folk Finn Olafsson Signature model was built in 2004 and was made of Indian rosewood with a sitka top. If the model turned out well Ole Kehlet would thereafter build my personal signature guitar in Brazilian rosewood. Well, the proto type turned out to be excellent and the guitar I play on the March 2014 video was delivered to me in 2005. The guitar has opened up more and more during the years and sounds better and better the more I play it.
Photos: Hans Ole Madsen
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