To Kawai or not to Kawai?

My first self-build guitar was deliberately based on the body shape of the Kawai guitars from the late 70's - (the KS-10, KS-11-XL and KS-12-XL models). The Kawai was my first "real" guitar - too many years ago to remember exactly when. Those were great guitars, and I thought I'd base my first self-build on the Kawai design.

The materials were different (Ash instead of Mahogany), and I used a separate bridge and tailpiece in place of the single unit on the Kawai, but I get a similar sort of sound, thanks largely to the high output pick-ups. My self-build is a bit raw-sounding and louder than the Kawai, but I'm happy with the overall feel and weight. I wasn't brave enough to try to emulate the Kawai headstock design!

For this course, I think a different design and construction would be useful to broaden my skills (or at least to broaden my knowledge of the skills I need but don't yet possess!), although that Kawai body shape remains just about my favourite shape. The photos don't really do justice to the beautifully carved top on the guitars - I need to take better photos.