Hi Folks,
I'm brand new to this forum so I thought this would be a fine place to introduce myself and the instruments I make. I'm a guitar builder from Mankato, Minnesota and am a graduate of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix. I've been repairing and building guitars professionally since 1994 and also worked for a spell in Gibson's Montana Acoustic repair shop. Here are some photos of my latest creation, the Lapro Electric Resonator Guitar. It's a solid, neck through, squareneck electric guitar. The resonator is hand lathed from hard maple and has an LR Baggs Ibeam underneath. The other pickup is a Kent Armstrong mini-humbucker. The two pickup sources have seperate volume controls and outs. The body on this one is pine with polyurethane topcoats. There are 2 more of these on the way, both made of local poplar - one is Ducati metallic blue (really blue!) and the other is scheduled to be BSA "flamboyant red" (red over gold metallic). The green one is tons of fun to play and I use it regularly with my downhomey trio - The B-Squad.
Enough about me... Enjoy the pictures. Hopefully I'll have some links to soundclips and videos soon. So glad to be a member of this community.
Thanks
Last edited by Dave Begalka on 25 Feb 2009 10:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
The wood cone has a throaty honk to it unamplified. The signal from the cone pickup is woody and smooth. The next cone I did after the one in the photo has 4 holes bored into it. That really opened up the unamplified volume. Thanks!
Good to see you here! Dave has been working on my guitars for many years and does amazing work.
I'm glad the new model is being released to the public and I'm looking forward to checking it out.
Hi Dave. What is the cost of the Lapro's ,
and do you plan on having a few around in stores ?
I'd be interested in trying one.
Ed Altrichter
Schroeder, MN
( 80 miles from Duluth, on the north shore of
Lake Superior.)
Hi Folks,
Just wanted to say thanks for all the kind comments about the new Lapro guitars. The production models will be coming down the road very shortly and I will post some construction and process photos soon too. The Lapro is priced at $1399 + tax and shipping. That includes a soft case as I have not found an ideal hardshell case just yet.
There is a short audio clip that I posted to my guitar shop page at www.myspace.com/mankatowoodworks . Let me know what you think. The clip is both pickups panned slightly left and right, no eq, plenty of verb. There will be more clips coming in a few differing styles soon.
At this point there are no plans to make a traditional aluminum cone version. Doesn't mean it won't happen someday but just not soon. Much much more likely to see a fretted roundneck version.
Thanks.
i think these guitars are great unique little units. the sound clip is a nice compromise from lap to reso. i love the way they look. i was only dissappointed at the price....too bad they couldn't be half that much so i could afford one.
