The Kevin Ryan "Janis Ian" Model

When Janis approached Kevin, she asked to play a beautiful guitar sitting on a stand in his booth.  Kevin gladly handed it over, warning her that it wasn’t for sale as it had been made for his father.  Janis played the guitar, stunned with its richness of tone, then played a second guitar and recommended Mary purchase that one, as the other wasn’t available.
But in fact, Mary wasn’t looking for a guitar for herself – she wanted to buy Janis a present.  That holiday season, which Janis, Pat, and Philip spent at Mary’s home, Janis came downstairs on Christmas morning to find the Ryan waiting!!

We still don’t know how Mary convinced Kevin and his father to part with the guitar, but it turned out Kevin’s father Dick is a huge Janis Ian fan.  And as Dick is also a magician, which fascinates Janis, one night he treated them all to a visit to The Magic Castle in Los Angeles, where Janis spent hours watching magicians perform tricks for one another.

Since getting her first Ryan, Janis had dreamed of using Ryans for touring.  And as she dreamed, Kevin’s price kept going up, to the point where Janis felt her dream would never be affordable.  However, thanks to Kevin’s generousity, and his desire to work with Janis, they were able to come up with a “Janis Ian Model” last year, and a price Janis’ pocket could meet. 

After eight months of working on the first of these guitars, Kevin sent Janis a prototype in the fall of 2005.  Janis played the guitar for a week, then discussed some changes with Kevin.  The first “real” Janis Ian model arrived a week before the holidays that year, with the second following shortly after.

Janis says: “I’ll always be indebted to Richard Hoover and Santa Cruz guitars for agreeing to make a small touring guitar for me over a decade ago.  No one else would take the chance, and I’ll be forever grateful to them.  However, with Folk Is the New Black coming out, I wanted to move to a guitar that sounded more like the Ryan I used on the album.  Kevin is making that possible.  The guitars are full-bodied, with a rich bass tone I normally only hear on dreadnought models.  They’re beautiful, too!”

Guitar Specifications:

Guitar #1: (shown at top)
Brazilian rosewood back and sides with Adirondack spruce top; Honduran mahogany neck (one-piece).  Ebody binding, custom marquetry purling.   Ebony fretboard, bridge, and truss rod cover (arts & crafts style), with ebony headstock plate, ebony ducktail plate, ebony bridge  pins, ebony rosette, and custom arts & crafts style fretboard termination.

Guitar #2:
Kora and western red cedar with Cocobolo binding, custom marquetry purfling, Honduran mahogany neck (one-piece), ebony fretboard and bridge, ebony truss rod cover  (arts & crafts style), with ebony headstock plate, Cocobolo ducktail plate, ebony bridge  pins, Cocobolo rosette, and custom arts & crafts style fretboard termination.

Dimensions:
Lower bout 14
Upper bout 9.5
Length of box 19.5
Total length 38.5
Depth of box at the headblock 3.44
Depth of box at the tailblock 4.38

You can see more of Kevin Ryan’s work at www.ryanguitars.com, where you can also take a virtual tour of his workshop, read about guitar making, and see just how instruments like these are put together.

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