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Sam Price

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:22 am

Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Sat Jun 17, 2006 3:48 am
Posts: 2094

Trained as an artist for many years, was told to "stick at it", because I would make a lot of money from it, but was looking for something else, as I get bored easily. When someone tells me to do something, I tend NOT to do it.......

Saw my husband's friend with a handbuilt guitar- built by another one of my husband's pals who spent many years unemployed ('twas the recession) until he discovered guitar building. This newfound discovery and direction in life really appealed to me and I quietly decided that I would like to try my hand at making a guitar one day..and I knew at the time I didn't have the space, the time or the tools to really focus on it.

How close I was to facilities- Totnes School of Guitarbuilding was so close, as were other well-known luthiers, plus the fact this luthier pal of my husbands was at my wedding!

However it took 8 years and a move to a remote village in the Midlands to realise this dream, being settled in a house that has a small, purpose-built workshop that was only used for junk for 3 years!!

At the moment I cannot imagine doing anything else.

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J.R. Hunter

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:03 am

Mahogany

Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 11:55 am
Posts: 68
Location: United States

After many years of wanting to play guitar, I finally bought one and started playing at the age of 37(it's turned into and addiction!). I was given The Workbench Book by Scott Landis many years ago, which featured Richard Schneider and Ervin Smogyi.That book left a huge impression on me and a strong desire to build a guitar. As an avid woodworker(blade duller) for most of my life I promised myself that someday I'd build one...or two...or three or...

I'm making jigs and molds, which is keeping me plenty busy, reading lots here and such waiting til my RH is under control... At the rate I'm going I hope to be ready by mid spring or so

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J.R. Hunter

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:27 am

Mahogany

Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 11:55 am
Posts: 68
Location: United States

[QUOTE=grumpy]17 years left to serve on an 18 year prison term, and the warden said, woodshop duty or kitchen duty?

Still can't cook worth a dang.....

[/QUOTE]

Mario,

I'm the guy that took kitchen duty. I'm now the head chef of an exclusive sea side resort, earning a six-figure income, hob-nobbing with celebrities and royalty... life is full of surprises ain't she?!

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Steve Saville

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:28 am

Contributing Member

Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 1969
Location: United States

I'm not sure.
Sometimes I wish I could figure out how to stop.

_________________
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

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DP LaPlante

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:36 am

Cocobolo

Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:59 pm
Posts: 241

No unfortunately Bruce it's long gone.........I ended up converting it to a 12 string...(!?)...I still have the peghead somewhere.........it was Brazilian Rosewood too!

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Mark Tripp

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:53 am

Koa

Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2005 2:07 am
Posts: 815
Location: Olympia
First name: Mark
Last Name: Tripp
City: Olympia
State: Washington
Zip/Postal Code: 98506
Country: United States
Focus: Build
Status: Semi-pro

Divorce... Needed a hobby.

-Mark

_________________
Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

trippguitars.com
OR
Find me on Facebook

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Don A

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:28 am

Koa

Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:48 pm
Posts: 1478
First name: Don
Last Name: Atwood
City: Arlington
State: Virginia
Country: USA
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

A moment of weakness

Actually it was GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome). I thought it would be cheaper to build them than to continue buying them. Boy was that a wrong assumption.

_________________
Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

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Alain Desforges

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:48 am

Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2005 7:46 am
Posts: 2227
Location: Canada

[QUOTE=grumpy] 17 years left to serve on an 18 year prison term, and the warden said, woodshop duty or kitchen duty?Still can't cook worth a dang.....<div style=": ; width: 28px; height: 28px; : 1000; display: none;">

[/QUOTE]

Ah, Grumpy... I must admit your rapier wit is growing on me! Ha!

Like AZ so eloquently stated once, 'Any fool can comission a 7000$ dollar guitar, but it takes a real man to build a mediocre first one for that price!'

_________________
I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

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Dennis Leahy

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 7:43 am

Koa

Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:00 pm
Posts: 1644
Location: United States
City: Duluth
State: MN
Country: USA
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

Over 25 years ago, when I started my first acoustic guitar from scratch (which never got finished), I had already gotten to the point where I could hear a big difference in run-of-the-mill factory guitars, and the few well built guitars I checked out. I knew I could build one cheaper than the music store price tag for the good ones. So, I guess I started to save money.

I have now "saved"

enough money tooling up and buying wood where I could easily have afforded several very nice guitars from some of you guys. So, I guess the driving force shifted to the creative process, and to see if I could engineer and build a guitar better than I could buy.

Dennis

_________________
Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

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Steve Walden

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:01 am

Contributing Member

Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2007 1:03 pm
Posts: 724
Location: NE Oklahoma, United States
First name: Steve
Last Name: Walden
City: Bartlesville
State: Oklahoma
Zip/Postal Code: 74006
Country: USA
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

I find it very interesting that there seems to be a large number of engineers building guitars. I don't know if it is the "gee! That car looks just like the one I just bought" syndrome. Or, is it a true observation and the creative side of our brains are yearning to create after being numbed in the engineering field?

I have an off-brand 12-string that years ago I left tensioned and the adjustable bridge combined with a weak X-brace cracked. I started looking at repairs and got into thinking....I can build, as well as repair.

I also have an Oud my folks bought when we lived in North Africa in need of repair that is beckoning.

Plus, I have a really bad case of both WAS and TAS. I have to justify to my wife why all this stuff is in the closet and the garage!

_________________
Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

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npalen

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:21 am

Koa

Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 4:19 am
Posts: 1534
Location: United States
First name: Nelson
Last Name: Palen

Why did I start?
Lack of common sense.

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Todd

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:54 am

Walnut

Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 12:37 pm
Posts: 13
Location: Canada

Am a lefty. Got tired of playing guitars upside down, especially cut aways or paying the extra for a left hand electric or acoustic.
Should of listen to my teachers who would strap me every time I switched to left hand. The devils handiwork if I remember rightly.

Todd

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jhowell

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:03 am

Koa

Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:21 am
Posts: 805
Location: United States
First name: Jim Howell

I have a background in woodworking (of sorts ) -- remodel carpentry put me through college. Four or five years ago I started collecting (amassing is more like it) a pile of 60's and 70's Yamaha FG's. I started tinkering on some of them, saw a book by Erlewine at Borders's and well... Somebody mentioned John Hall and before you know it down this wicked, twisted road I come!

_________________
Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

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Akvarn

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:17 am

Walnut

Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 4:37 am
Posts: 9
Location: Norway

Have bought a few guitars, but always needed to settle with something less than what I really wanted. Guess the only one who can build exactly the guitar I want is me. After spending $$$$ on an Ovation a couple of years back the idea of building an instrument came to me.

Started my first guitar project last October. (Two more are in my head.) Won't be able to build the perfect guitar, but it's worth trying. Sure is a lot of fun being creative and working with wood.

By the way - I'm an engineer too, although that is more in theory than practice - I've been working as an interpreter the last few years.

Aasmund

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LoftonHarris

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:33 am

Walnut

Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 7:04 am
Posts: 17
Location: Narberth, PA USA

At 50 I bagged my career in pharmaceutical R&D after a company merger. Went to graduate school for counseling psychology so I could be a mediator. In graduate school, found out I had ADHD (which explained a whole lot of stuff from the past). Once on meds, I started building good stuff for the first time, mostly furniture. Bought lots of tools and started a kitchen cabinet design and build business to earn money.

Two years ago my brother in law took me to Martin for the plant tour. I was totally enthralled by the processes I saw there, and foolishly thought "I already have the tools." I bought a kit at the Martin store, took a year to build it, and when I handed it to a professional musician (I don't play...yet), felt a sense of accomplishment never before experienced. Ever. That sucker sounded GOOD!(expletives deleted)

Gave the guitar to my brother in law, and started building from scratch...and wound up acquiring another $2000 worth of tools. I'm blessed to have come into this with all the basic skills (woodworking, finishing, etc.) and have been able to focus on building instruments that sound good.

I'm on #10 and beginning to get the hang of it. To my delight, I still get that amazing feeling when someone picks up one of my instruments and makes it sing.

Sounds so much better than a coffee table.

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LoftonHarris

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:41 am

Walnut

Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 7:04 am
Posts: 17
Location: Narberth, PA USA

One more thing: Girls. Even at 54 I'm a flirt. But that has nothing to do with this thread...

Except that my wife has become interested in my instrument making far more than she ever was with my furniture making (although the list of requested items remains long). It's become something that I can share with her that transcends lawn mowing and such. She "gets" it and shares my joy in the process.

Much more so than with my work as a therapist...maybe it's because I don't bring my patients home.

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Rick Turner

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:57 pm

Koa

Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:13 am
Posts: 1398
Location: United States

I was basically unemployable...and I still am...

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Arnt Rian

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 7:58 pm

Contributing Member

Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2005 5:49 pm
Posts: 2915
Location: Norway

I always tinkered with stuff, so when I started playing as a young teenager almost 30 years ago, I also started tinkering with guitars. I worked on my own guitars, my buddies’ guitars, their friends guitars and so on, just learning as I went along, working mostly on electrics. I played in many different bands and settings, for years my life revolved around music and guitars in one way or another, and everybody kept bringing me their instruments to see or fix. As I got older, my interests turned more towards acoustics, and when I moved back to my home town 8 years ago and bought a big house I was able to set up a nice shop. I watched my wife’s grandfather build his first fiddle at age 80, and I though: Why not?

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

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Mattia Valente

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:27 pm

Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2005 6:25 pm
Posts: 2749
Location: Netherlands

When I was about 16, we got an internet connection. I'd been playing guitar for a few years after falling out of love with Piano (more of an incompatibility with my piano teacher, to be fair), and figured I'd look up some guitar newsgroups. Found Bill Wyza's 'Guitar building FAQ', figured I could order some stuff from Warmoth, make myself a guitar from parts. Did that. Partway into the process I picked up Melvyn Hiscock's 'Make Your Own Electric Guitar', figured 'I've put together flatpack and made basic pine furniture, I figure I can do the guitar thing. But what's this 'router' they keep talking about, exactly?'

So then I did that. Acoustics took a little more nerve, and a lot more reading (read Cumpiano, lots of things seemed too complicated, lurked around the MIMF.com acoustics section, perused the library, wrapped my head around neck geometry, what those radius dishes were for, how they could be used logical neck attachement systems, bracing, etc.), finally bit the bullet a few years back, ordered some woods, got set up to build (in the tiniest possible space; a 9x12 foot room which contained a bed, cooker, TV, computer, workmate, and 90% of my tools (the rest was in the hallway, and my workshop was a roof terrace). About a year ago I moved into a bigger place (ie, a house that has a 8x16 ft shed that contains a dedicated workbench, bandsaw, thickness sander, a lousy drill press, and a smaller indoor 'dry' workspace) that I'm still mostly trying to get organised and set up properly (oddly enough, medical interning and translation on the side don't leave an awful lot of time for building), but I figure I'll have most of it sussed by the end of the month, since I've got a week off to make a few final jigs (binding jig, router table). The dedicated workspace already improved my productivity, but there's a ways to go yet.

Looking back, I've spent enormous piles of money and time on this passion (it's more than just a hobby), but I don't regret a single dime or minute. I really do need to stop buying wood, though, because I really don't have anywhere else to put it, and at the rate I build, It'll take me a good 30 years to work through the pile of wood for acoustic guitars.

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mgcain

Post subject:

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:21 am

Mahogany

Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 1:57 am
Posts: 97
Location: East Granby, CT

Just way more rewarding than building furniture or cabinets. Looking forward to getting good enough to teach others, which is where my real passion lies...

And like Lofton, my wife "gets it" and loves that I can make guitars.

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burbank

Post subject:

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:11 am

Koa

Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:40 am
Posts: 1900
Location: Spokane, Washington
First name: Pat
Last Name: Foster
State: Eastern WA
Focus: Build

I had built banjos and rebuilt garage sale guitars in the mid 70s. I did repairs to help me get through school. I drifted away from playing in the early 80s after I sold my last Martin. 20 years later I wanted to start playing again, but my Yamaki Deluxe from 1974 just wasn't going to cut it. I had to have a decent guitar, but Martin prices had gone up enough that I figured if I spent a couple thou to get started building a kit, I'd be ahead in the long run. I bought Kinkead and Cumpiano/Natelson. I started lurking here and on the MIMF and after I saw Robbie O'Brian's DVD, figured I really could build one, so off I went. The bank account has never been the same, but it's been way more fun than just buying something off the shelf!

_________________
now known around here as Pat Foster
_________________
http://www.patfosterguitars.com

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Cambrian

Post subject:

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:39 pm

Walnut

Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:55 am
Posts: 15
Location: United States

I have been a hobbyist woodworker for many years (I produced things, as opposed to my ww'ing buddy Bill who is more of a "tool collector"!). My specialization was marquetry and inlay work. I had been looking for that "perfect finish" for my marquetry pictures for ages. One day last October, I was re-reading a copy of a 2006 Woodcraft Magazine that had a an article about Gerald Sheppard and his guitar making in it (I obviously missed it the first time around). The photos of his guitars showed an almost flawless finish - just what I was looking for! I made contact with him and he kindly described his methods to me, which, by the way, work VERY nicely for my marquetry pictures! Thanks Gerald !

I got to browsing his website and then other luthier's websites...and before I knew it, I got to thinking that maybe a guitar would make a very nice substrate to showcase some of my marquetry/inlay work. From there it was a short step to "why can't I make my own guitars for this"....

Thus began an intense 2 month study into guitar making. I loaded up with all the books I and DVD's (still more on order at this time!) I could find. I became a virtual recluse for two months with my nose in the books. Thanksgiving and Christmas went by almost unnoticed! During that time, I also spent a small fortune on new tools and materials, ready to begin my first build just before the new year.

The rest is history.....in the making! I'm thoroughly enjoying learning to make guitars. Hopefully, my first will be done soon. It will have a little marquetry/inlay work on it - just enough to make it stand out a bit. My second and third guitars are already pre-sold!

This is FUN!!

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JohnR

Post subject:

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:21 pm

Walnut

Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 7:16 am
Posts: 31
Location: United States

My 21 year old son who is a singer song writer wanted a new guitar. I told him I would build one for him. He thought I was heading to Homedepot . After seeing my first effort he now wants one of my guitars.

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Zach Ehley

Post subject:

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 4:59 pm

Koa

Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:47 am
Posts: 781
Location: Wauwatosa, WI, USA

Thanks for sharing all your stories. Its interesting how some people got
into this and had nothing to do with guitars before. Must be weird to
build something and have little knowledge on how to use it. It would be
like me building a trombone.

A lot of enginerds. I'm not too suprised about that.

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Zach Ehley

Post subject:

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:03 pm

Koa

Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:47 am
Posts: 781
Location: Wauwatosa, WI, USA

So close...

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