Ever been in a love-hate relationship?

BillDaCostaWilliams

Great sound on that track - rich and authentic Lang tone.
I like the new rosette design (and the V&A is a reliable source of visual inspiration IMO).

cbwim

As an instrument maker (woodwinds mostly) I have seen this type of thing from the opposite perspective. In my more youthful folly days I would cater to some rather wild whims of my clients and create some crazy instruments. Sometimes the instruments were really appreciated well but a few were nasty about the final result of something I (nor anyone else) had ever made before.

Now just 4-5 years before what I am calling semi-retirement I avoid such things like the plague. Life is just too short!

Sometimes these challenges for a luthier to do something wild are great for expanding one's skills. But in many (frankly, most) cases the client is asking the maker to essentially prototype something new, but is usually only willing to pay for the product as if it was a production item. I remember turning down one client who insisted that I was missing a great opportunity (he was assuming that I would have wanted to make more than one of these fantasy instruments and I responded telling him if its such a great idea, he should do it.

In such instances, the client really should be paying an hourly rate based on the maker's production hourly rate (in my case its over $100/hr when I am in full production) for all the hours spent creating something to fulfill someone's fantasies. Otherwise the maker is subsidizing someone else's fantasies, commonly at the expense of his or her own financial stability. In the time spent the maker could have fulfilled another normal order or simply added to inventory (opportunity costs). Or missed out on other opportunities and fantasies. For many makers (myself included) this type of thing is frequently the source of nightmares.

Just sayin'

Lango-Django

Fair enough, and I hear you, cbwim.

As I've tried to be very clear about, I don't harbour any nasty feelings against the luthier.

And I specifically chose that luthier because of his demonstrated track record and enthusiasm for making "crazy instruments".

cbwim

That is the best way!

One of my favorite luthiers as far as crazy stuff is Fred Carlson who lives and works just north of Santa Cruz. He's partnered with one of my oldest friends Suzy Norris who is herself a luthier.

Jeff Moore

I like the looks you chose. It's abstract and impressionistic. Why not just leave it more or less like it is in a humble act of eating your own cooking. Time may prove you right, even to yourself, and either way it is a snapshot of your ideas at that moment. We are miserable critics when judging ourselves.
If it had a cutaway, I would be inclined to want to have it myself just on the unusual looks.
Definitely think your wrong to think you failed!

Lango-Django

Progress report photo from luthier Wednesday Oct. 5th...

Lango-Django

Update Oct. 6... at my request, the luthier has dialled down the intensity of the orange triangles in the rosette...

juanderer

Looking good!

BillDaCostaWilliams

Yes, the more sober tortoiseshell brown works well.

Tydides

Interesting project—props to making it happen.

My thoughts:

It seems to me that this type of custom project, for most, is more about having something noticeably "different," than anything else—handsome, but stands out just enough.

But focusing on Art-Decoiness may confuse the design process. Rather just pick some motifs you like and incorporate decisively. Details in a minute…

First though, I have to say, isn't the Sel-Mac guitar already Art Deco? I'd go so far as to say it's a paragon of Art Deco design. Probably most of us here feel that it's the best guitar design ever. I do. In fact, jazz boxes and arch tops are very Art Deco as well—that tailpiece for example, you yourself are using! If it were me, I might pastiche some elements from arch tops into Selmers, but I see you didn't utilize a pick guard for more design choices, for example.

Art Deco is a confusing style, and can mean almost anything (that said I'm a huge fan ). You know it when you see it I guess. Thus I think you should just focus on a design element or shape you like and just worry about balancing that on the guitar.

For example: your first pic showed a checkerboard pattern on the rosette and rainbow triangles on the fingerboard. Art Deco is irrelevant—those two things clash. In fact multiple Pantone colors would clash with anything in almost any design. I would change that. But it does help that the new rosette uses triangles. That's what I mean about decisiveness: repeat a shape otherwise it doesn't look purposeful. EXCEPT that now you're going without fretboard inlays. Always a good choice but it's another design element in which nothing unique is being added. Art Deco is a pastiche of minimal and ornate, old world and modern/streamlined. This just looks like a normal vintage blues acoustic with some weird inlays and a "fancy" tailpiece.

I think the word in your head regarding Art Deco design should be LUXURY! That is the point, minimal or ornate, Art Deco is supposed to look expensive! Expensive materials, expensive craftsmanship. But again, I think the Selmer already succeeds here…

In conclusion I would just ask of each design element: why? What does this logically go with? Not just: I like this, I like this, and this—put it all on the guitar somewhere. Sunburst? What goes with that? Body shape, hole, what does it go with? That tailpiece is nice, but something else on the guitar should pair with it, like a screw-on pick guard. Expensive, not "quirky".

Good luck dude!

And remember, photoshop is your friend.