Official Luthiers Forum!

I get irked when the functionality/musicality of some of these high end art guitars is outweighed by the artyness. One expects a 15 or 20k$ guitar to be an amazing instrument in every possible regard, but sometimes the best thing about them is the execution of the mitres or whatever feature of the day is added.

For me, if the foundation isn't a fantastic guitar, I could care less about how beautiful the construction elements are or how rare or vaunted the cut of wood is, it's irrelevant at that point. If the basic design elements that define how a guitar performs aren't dialled in, the guitar is a piece of crap no matter how much it costs or how many pieces of inlay are plastered on it...

What a neat thread, I love some of the artistry projected in some of these fine Instruments. And this scene on this guitar is wonderful..A perfect way to use some of the highest grade old growth sitka tops we have..Once in a while we fail to trim enough off a log that we hadn't cut rounds off of for while, and get caught with some endgrain stain[water stain or mold stain, that migrates into the boards 2-3 inches.]. And sometimes cut block that is in our material deck gets a mold stain just from our maritime rain forest air, even when under a roof. A great way to use some of our Full size jumbo booksets, that many times get set aside to our "Sunburst sort" of high grade, or to high grade classical size sorts if they pattern clean that way.. Saves some money too! $20 cheaper than the sets without the stain. The Jumbo flat tops are here. https://alaskawoods.com/shop/flat-top-i ... -or-jumbo/ And we have the same for archtop guitars too. Anyway, great job!

I agree with Ed totally. If not an outstanding musical instrument it might as well be a jewelry box or whatnot.
OTOH, if I could get 20K for it though I might have to reconsider that thought.

Here I thought you all were here to learn how to build guitars...that's a craft as was said.
You want Ort? Enjoy...

I'm with Ed, If the instrument doesn't deliver it's only a (insert type here) shaped craft project!

Cheers,

I love extreme functional minimalism because the focus is on the form itself. The shape of a Stratocaster/Telecaster is beautiful. All the normal details like the football switch and the fiberboard pickguard. That's art too me.

The cherry on top is how nitrocellulose ages in feel and look.