K.O. StringWorks

08/22/2022

Charlie Parr answers if you can write a folksong in 2022. He shares insights into how he wrote 1922 blues, Remember me if I Forget, and his songwriting proce...

08/17/2022

Guitar Blues, by Sylvester Weaver

As far as I can tell, this is the oldest blues recording, put out by OKEH in 1923 by Sylvester Weaver. He did it with a knife, so they say, I'm doing this gu...

08/16/2022

Charlie Parr popped back in the studio, but this time to show me how to play 1922 blues! This is a rapid-fire look-see into Charlie's picking patterns and ch...

07/22/2022

recently featured the studio! Follow the link in the description to read on!

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06/02/2022

Got a solid new work mantra today from a proper musician & tradesdude.

“Keeping it linear”

Trying not to bounce from one thing to the next these days. Using tools while they’re out — packing up and moving on.

Lots going on in this lil studio right now! It’s just enough to keep everything straight, necks and all!

Thanks for the work you party people!

05/26/2022

Solid-gold outtakes from the Parr lesson/interview!

Charlie Parr lessons for life and guitar. These are a few outtakes from my interview/lesson with Charlie Parr. Feel free to check out the slide guitar lesson...

03/22/2022

Never done this.

Name’s Kyle, born nineteen & eighty-nine, likes folk music and worn out ephemera an awful lot.

I own and operate K.O. StringWorks, which began as a pandemic pivot, but has now found its way into every pore of my being. Before this I played folk music for work, rambled, apprenticed under Waabi Furo at Rosewood Music, studied guitar building at the Whetstone School of Lutherie, and mostly got along just fine.



The studio is a 1-to-1 ratio of private lessons and instrument repair. I also get a tremendous kick out of making music ed. YouTube vids too, and it feels good to finally have a hobby that isn’t music (but still kinda is).

I run on coffee, la croix, and whatever fixens are left in the fridge from some epic meal by my sweet old . Today it’s this crazy squash soup which I’m eating right now. It’s good.



Well anyway, if you’re looking for lessons, instrument repair, or just wanna know about the goings-on of a little studio chock-full of instruments and old-time records, the times never been better.

That’s about all!

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03/17/2022

Good old .parr stopped by the studio recently to talk slide with me! Full vid over on YouTube!

Charlie’s got that natural ability to teach without teaching.

This vid captures some influences from his time coming up, and how the lessons from those early records inform the way he practices guitar in the folk-idiom and across genre-lines today.

Thanks to .parr and anyone who gets something from this!

Link in bio!

03/06/2022

I guess this video is a testimonial? 😂

What a feeling it is to hear a guitar played by its owner the first time after putting some major work into it. These two seem a made-to-be pair, don’t you think?

It is a real dream getting to work on so many cool old instruments — not to mention all the great players and people to meet too! Thanks so much to each and all of you!

If you’d like to watch the full story of this guitar, and learn a little bit more about Gibson j45’s in general, check out my recent YouTube post!

Thanks!!

Link in bio!

03/03/2022

Couplea updates for this once-adjustable J45!

02/25/2022

Creole Belle has been my go-to tune for teaching fingerstyle as of late. Can’t beat those clear melody lines against that moving bass.

01/20/2022

lesson no. 3!

Check out my Patreon for a chord chart from this lesson!https://www.patreon.com/kostringworks?fan_landing=true