Guitar Gallery

A journey through our builds

https://www.koaa.com/news/positively-colorado/stories-and-instruments-local-man-shares-moments-through-guitars

The Royal Hawaiian is still one of my favorite guitars.
“Elsie” Named after my mom and our first guitar. I love this git!!
Fun with the Jay Pappa using the Tone King Imperial. These custom wound John Benson mini-humbuckers are sweet!
The KB Dream. It may have an Oregon Ducks theme? You bet!!
The idea was to use all Oregon wood and we accomplished that! The body itself is Oregon myrtlewood.
“A man and his guitar”. Gotta love it!
This guitar fits Aaron so well….
The Restoration guitar and its owner who was restored from life’s challenges. What an honor to come alongside Dillon and create a guitar that tells his story. I love what I do!
I love when we get to this stage in a build …
Test drive in the shop …
Our Maple Heart guitar has a set of John Galep’s Dawgtown Nashville pickups. This guitar now resides in the state of Washington…still miss her. 🙂
Our original shape and our third guitar – the Walnut Heart hosts our first attempt at carving our own necks. At the time, I was intimidated and after taking the plunge found that I love the process. Plus I get to customize each neck to the player.
This is a headstock style we considered and found on the Walnut Heart. We ended up going a different direction but I still like this one. It is sleek and simple.
The Cherry top is from a huge slab that I picked up from a guy who built furniture. Actually he and his father built furniture together. By the time we ran into each other his father had passed and he called and asked if I would build guitars from this slab. It has been an honor for me to honor his father. We have enough left for a couple more guitars. God does cool stuff. 🙂
The gentleman who owns this guitar has been through very tough times. The Restoration guitar is in honor of his coming out of darkness. He chose this inscrpition as a reminder he is now free from that life style. We celebrate with him!
When in doubt I have a manual for living….
The Myrlewood is beautiful. This is the Restoration guitar.
Our shop in the early days. Size is the same but much more organized.
Part of the bopat brand are our inlayed pickup surrounds. We can do these in any type of wood. They lay flush with the top of the guitar and look very cool!
The Survivor guitar on the assembly bench The Honduran Mahogany neck is simply wonderful in looks and feel. Sapele is a fairly heavy wood so we used a 1/4″ cap for the back to keep the weight down. We like to be in the 7 lb range when possible.
The Myrtlewood top on the Survivor is absolutly gorgeous! The slab we took this from came out of Northwest Timber in Oregon. Patti and I visited their shop a couple of years ago. Oh my – I believe It was a taste of what heaven will be like!!
We would love to personalize your guitar. Here is an example of what we can do to build a guitar that tells your story. In this case it was surviving a heart attack and the opportunity to continue on. This guitar will always be a reminder of the value of life. 🙂
A custom pickguard for a 1976 Epiphone. I love the colors and texture.
I had a couple of bodies hanging around the shop and Patti talked me into using them for our side tables in the livingroom. I must say…it was a great idea! They work really well! Birdsey Maple, Padouk and Macheche. The back is Ambrosia Maple. Spectacular mix of woods!
What you are seeing here is the “Pat” in bopat! Patti is working hard to hand carve the F hole in the Mako. It turned out very nice!
You can see Patti’s handiwork here in the finished guitar. Ready to ship! We worked hand in hand with Tim on the design. Unique and very cool!
Tim was specific on what he wanted with his guitar. He makes this baby sing!! We were carrving the neck and wanted to make sure we were moving in the right direction. The Wenge neck was one of the toughest carves I’ve done to date but I love the feel of it.
This is a roughed out neck. You can see where the volute will be. It’s hand carving from here on out!
A set of hand wound Nasville Tele sets just in from John Galep at Dawgtown Pickups. John is an awesome human. The beeswax he uses on his pups are from his own bees on their farm in Wisconsin. I love that! It just feels American. 🙂
I was reminded of the danger of being too “comfortable” and how that can keep us from being the best we can be.
Totally not guitar related…but yet it is. You can take this picture a number of different ways and I will leave that to you. Come up with your own story and feelings on what this photo says to you. I think it’s cool and telling.
The Corona Caster – it’s what we do during a shut down! Dig the 6 position toggle.
Many hands make light work.
Hoping the love of guitar building will carry on…
This is a jig we built to align the neck and various other processes. It is a very useful tool in the shop.
The backside of the Corona Caster with a control cover that attaches with magnets rather than screws
Final tweaks on the Corona Caster.
Scott Mora, worship leader, enjoying the Corona Caster. I built this guitar initially for me. Scott got wind of it and called me to say the guitar was his! I love that …and certainly miss this guitar!
Michael our grandson who we will miss forever, having some time on the Corona Caster. I wired it while we were camping.
Time in the shop with our young grandson. Can’t beat it!
I used both during worship and they looked so good hanging out together!

Clint Garcia testing out the ’65.

The light brought out some purple! Once the finish was applied the purple seem to go away.

Drying outside after applying oil. Its great when the weather permits!

Check out the Claro Walnut back!

Installing the abalone fret markers!