Grateful Dead Music Forum

Can anyone tell me if the builder has a website. Looking for a 50th birthday present for myself.

guitarcats wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:35 am Can anyone tell me if the builder has a website. Looking for a 50th birthday present for myself.

RuKind is "my website."

augustwest1 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 9:23 am
RuKind is "my website."

Yesterday, I took delivery of a much anticipated Tiger from our own Bob Fishman (Augustwest1). I've had one of his Wolf's for about a year and a half now. Tiger, however, has always been my favorite of all guitar designs (including Jerry's or anyone else's). I had a Tiger from Leo at Scarlet Fire that I sold several years ago and have been craving another ever since. I was beyond thrilled to find out that Bob was going to start building Tigers as well. Having seen evidence of his gifted skills as a luthier firsthand with my Wolf, I knew his Tiger would be unparalleled in every respect as well. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. Everything about it is sheer perfection. In the Wolf thread, I mentioned that I have several custom Alembic guitars and use the craftsmanship of those instruments as the yardstick against which I measure the skill of others building in the "hippie-sandwich" style...with ornate inlay work, body carvings and other exquisite details. Bob's talent rivals the best I have ever seen. He is a truly gifted builder.

One thing I love about this guitar compared to others that I've seen, is Bob's choice of top wood. The more subdued figuring and grain pattern is the perfect match for this guitar. Many Tigers out there sport extremely ornate cocobolo tops with wild figuring. While they are beautiful in their own right, IMHO they detract from the wonderful body carving, contours and other details inherent to Tiger. Plus, given the rather unique body shape of this guitar, I feel that such woods have the tendency to make the entire instrument appear quite over-the-top (no pun intended).

I will post more detailed photos once my family is back from vacation and I have access to a decent camera. For now, I'll simply whet everyone's appetite with two pics Bob sent me as well as one I took yesterday with Tiger alongside its new roommate.

jalevinemd wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 11:29 am Yesterday, I took delivery of a much anticipated Tiger from our own Bob Fishman (Augustwest1).

I'll simply whet everyone's appetite with two pics Bob sent me as well as one I took yesterday with Tiger alongside its new roommate.

Very nice! Enjoy those great guitars.

I must say, I concur with owning both a Tiger and a Wolf. My own are by Phil Jacoby (Philtone) and Leo Elliot (Scarlet Fire), respectively. The Wolf is close to exact. The Tiger incorporates a number of deliberate design differences reflecting my personal preferences/needs. Both Phil and Leo were a pleasure to engage and both of their guitars sound awesome.

Jonathan, I can’t beleive you didn't tell me about this! WOW! Absolutely gorgeous! Now I’ll have something else to blame on the pandemic: that I didn’t get to stop and play it when I cruise through town next week. Just out of curiosity, how long did the build take?

Bill, tgo

lbpesq wrote:Just out of curiosity, how long did the build take?

Jonathan probably can't answer that question, but I can. When I finished the first Tiger tribute -- which is the one shown in all the photos above -- I liked it so much I decided to keep it for myself. Jonathan liked it too, so he asked me to build one for him. When it was completed, he preferred the first to the second. And since I like them both equally, I told him he could have his pick.

In answer to your question, I started the second one -- shown in the photos below -- in early February and strung it up late May.

Your luthiery and artistry is truly breathtaking.

Stunningly beautiful work! And I’m very impressed with the speed of the build. Both Jonathan and I waited a lot longer for our Alembics.

Bill, tgo

As promised here are few additional picture of my Tiger, showing a few of the more subtle details...

For starters, I wanted to show off the wonderful grain in the top, which really pops with a flash. In natural light, it's a rich deep brown color which I absolutely love. Again, his woodworking is on par with the best I've ever seen.



While he used the same wonderful flame maple core and vermillion body laminates as the original, Bob has substituted the brass body binding with an additional layer of maple. I was fine with this because the physics of wood and metal expansion and contraction on my previous Tiger wreaked havoc with the OCD part of my personality. The guitar had several areas where the finish was literally lifting off around the brass. My understanding is that several of the major builders of these guitars state in their warranties that they can't guarantee against such finish issues.

Similarly, Bob did not incorporate the brass fingerboard binding. Instead, he inlaid brass along both sides of the fretboard itself. This wonderfully echoes the brass strips inlaid into the top of the body itself. Another departure from the original which gives this guitar its own unique personality.




The inlaid brass along the fretboard is also a wonderful transition to the brass inlaid around the periphery of the headstock. It really ties these two portions of the neck together so well. Such incredible synergy that I find lacking in the original. Bob has amazing attention to such detail.

I'll try to post some images of the back as well.

Wow!

There are quite a few "mistakes" in the original Tiger that we have come to love. Tom Lieber told us that when the body was being carved and the swimming pool routed out Doug went a little too far and cut through the back. How to cover up that mistake? A nice big inlay on the back.