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Good morning coffee buddy. #gibson #flatwound #jazzguitar #butterncream #es125 #

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Wow. A magical morning filming with the center of our 6 string galaxy, his excellency, Ledward Kaapana. I’ve been working on Led’s guitars for about 20 years going back to my days at the Santa Cruz guitar company when he would stop throug

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Rosewood models in stock!! Call for sale details and special offers!! 808-387-4583
#octavemandolin #mandolin #tenorguitar #bouzouki #toneallyradical

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This is the Holy Grail when it comes to guitars made by the C.F. Martin Guitar Company, a 1941 D-45 Dreadnought. Hands down the most powerful, refined, and dangerous guitar I have ever had the pleasure to play and hear. The underlying architecture o

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Matched pair Mandolin & Mandola made by Lawrence Smart. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the connection between the timbers we use to build our instruments and the character of the place from which they first come into being. The Koa i

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Restorations in the works! Big thanks to @yamviolins for all the help in the shop, it is needed! #luthier #vintagerestoration #fretboardjournal #mandolincafe #archtop @plecostomusporridge #gibsonguitar #kalamazoo #archtop #tonebars #workshop #repairb

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How quickly could ‘ōlelo and Portuguese be learned if businesses started doing this? #graffititextbook #trilingual #’ōlelo #hawaiianlanguage #haumana #kekoliilii

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Wow. Its not every day a new friend moves in to the neighborhood who remembers growing up in Kaka’ako with Gabby Pahinui and Eddie Kamae. Mahalo nui Richard a mean lean 85 years old!!

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Queen Street looking mauka up Nu’uanu or “Fid” Street, 1890s and today. This street is where the first ‘ukulele and guitar luthiers set up their work shops, and where the early Hawaiian string ensemble styles took shape. #kaul

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A quintet of Martins in on consignment!! Some serious played in tone here!! Its rare to see a 3/4 size Dreadnought, and even rarer to see one out of premium curly Koa!! #cfmartinguitar #martinguitar #adirondackspruce #slackkey #000-18 #00-18 #0-17 #

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Happy to have my workshop at home, and extra happy to have a few closets full of restoration projects to be making my way through! 1950s Gibson Southern Jumbo, what a sound! Needs some tlc and some attention but its always amazing how ready these ol

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Quarantine project #238 restore this C.F. Martin & Co. 000-18 made in 1928. #martinguitar #cfmartinguitar #luthier #adirondackspruce #oldisnew #6strings #flattop #ooo-18

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Mahalo nui loa @kamuela_music me na haumana o Windward Community College i ka wala’au! #kcpstrings #martinguitar #dreadnought #mekiasmartin #royalhawaiiantroubadours #hawaiianmusic

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This guitar has taken me to meet some fantastic new friends and some long running heroes on this trip. NYC Jazz guitarist Gabe Schnider and NPR producer Alex Ariff yesterday, and the incredible Mark and Maggie O’Connor, all of whom will be (fi

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Mahalo @duanepictures for making this incredible adventure possible! It’s a long ways to come from Hawai’i, but this gang of musicians made it to the American String Teachers Association conference in Orlando Florida to share the work we&

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Ua ho’oheno au i ka wala’au me kēia kūmu o na kaula, Chris Martin IV a me i ka kīkā o Mekia Kealakai! #kaulapiko #martinguitar #royalhawaiiantroubadours #nightofsovereignstrings #stringstories #magicbox #timetraveler @krstrings #kcpstring

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Congrats luthier extraordinaire Steve Grimes - 1000 instruments! One heck of a GRAND party at Maui’s King Kamehameha Golf Club. #hawaiiluthiery #guitarmaker #archtop #fretboardjournal @grimesguitars @wild_cait @lorenkii

Recent posts from Instagram

Good morning coffee buddy. #gibson #flatwound #jazzguitar #butterncream #es125 #

Wow. A magical morning filming with the center of our 6 string galaxy, his excellency, Ledward Kaapana. I’ve been working on Led’s guitars for about 20 years going back to my days at the Santa Cruz guitar company when he would stop through on tours up and down the west coast of the continental US. Led’s been playing Martin guitars since he was seven years old, from his days learning his family’s music in Kalapana, to trading licks with Chet Atkins, Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas in Nashville Tennessee. He has taken his Martin guitars to every continent, concert hall stage, and music festival on the face of the earth. I stopped by with the reproduction of Mekia Kealakai’s Martin, and a 1941 D-45, both of whom wanted to make the pilgrimage to visit Led and pay their respects. Sitting and listening at Led’s feet is like sitting at the base of an ancient and sacred tree, under the shade of the sweetest sounds, wondering at roots that stretch deep into every possible genre, style and tradition that has ever landed on a string. It’s all here, woven masterfully together: fire, wit, charm, grace, humour, centuries of music history flowing effortlessly, endlessly to the beat of lava red paniolo boots tapping out perfect, timeless time. #legends #dreamtime #juspress #mastery #royalhawaiiantroubadour #mekiasmartin #D-45 #martinguitars #kaulapiko #slackkey #hawaiianmusic #americanroots #humbled #ledhead

Rosewood models in stock!! Call for sale details and special offers!! 808-387-4583 #octavemandolin #mandolin #tenorguitar #bouzouki #toneallyradical

This is the Holy Grail when it comes to guitars made by the C.F. Martin Guitar Company, a 1941 D-45 Dreadnought. Hands down the most powerful, refined, and dangerous guitar I have ever had the pleasure to play and hear. The underlying architecture of our modern soundscape traces the journeys of countless hearts and hands, devoted tirelessly to the majesty of music, we are blessed to inherit the forms they conceived. We inhabit the structure of music in our daily lives, from field to church, city to sweeping plain, learning about the people that first hewed the timbers, laid the joists and sketched the centerline draws one deeper into the timbres of tone we hold most dear to our hearts. #born1867 #franklloydwright #mekiakealakai #acousticarchitects #royalhawaiiantroubadours #martinguitars #dreadnought #D-45 #geneautrymuseum #hawaiianmusic #hawaiimusicmuseum #kaulapiko #nightofsovereignstrings @kcpstrings #steelguitar #bishopmuseum #iolanipalace #huliheepalace #kawaiahaugleeclub #leleiōhoku #kani

Matched pair Mandolin & Mandola made by Lawrence Smart. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the connection between the timbers we use to build our instruments and the character of the place from which they first come into being. The Koa in these instruments is from the “Mother of Curl” tree, sourced and milled by local woodsman Bart Potter. Bart was raised in the Tantalus region above Honolulu, not far from where this magnificent Koa tree grew, through rain, heat, storm and calm. What do trees remember of the voices in leaves stirred by cool mountain winds? Of trembling through lightning and thunder shaking through trunks deep into roots clinging like fingers to muddy cliffs and ridges? Certainly the nature of speech begins in the womb, so too for trees? #luthiery #ancienttones #stringyheory #music #mandolin #ahupuaa #tantalus #kōnāhuanui #smartmandolin #mandolincafe

#hawaiiantime #kamehamehaday

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KR Strings is Hawai’i's premier restoration studio for fine vintage stringed instruments. Founder Kilin Reece, specializes in the restoration, repair, design, and building of ukuleles, guitars, and mandolins. His work has been featured in Hawaiian Airlines Hana Hou! magazine and the Fretboard Journal and he is currently working as the historical research consultant for a book and documentary film in collaboration with the Martin Guitar Company illuminating the long running history of collaboration between Hawai’i and America’s oldest string instrument company.

KR Strings

150 Hamakua Drive,

Kailua, HI, 96734

808-387-4583 krstrings@gmail.com

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