Official Luthiers Forum!

Good morning, everyone.

I just wanted to introduce myself and offer some thanks for the 40-odd pages of OLF archive posts I've managed to read through so far.

This is an interesting post as, strictly speaking, I'm a long way from even being laughingly described as a luthier.

I've been playing guitar for about 15 years, for about 5 of those years I was playing between 1 and 5 nights a week at various venues in various bands.

I have an absolute, deep-seated passion for guitars. It's been a core part of who I am for so long now I can barely remember what I used to do with my time before I played.

Most of my time was spent playing electric guitar, but after the birth of my children, I moved to acoustic and as I played more and more I gradually gained an understanding and appreciation of the instrument.

This culminated in my asking Martin Edwards about building a custom guitar.

We discussed details back and forth for a while by email and eventually he came to the conclusion I shouldn't be asking him to make one, I should be out there making one myself.

Given the idea had been growing clandestinely in the back of my mind for a while, all it took was a little push from Martin and BAM, I am now committed to exchanging an awful lot of time, an awful lot of money and an awful lot of pride for the priviledge of holding and playing instruments of my own creation.

I'm in the process of repurposing my garage, which we recently had damp-proofed and waterproofed, into something in which I can control RH, have begun collecting tools and am champing at the bit to begin making embarrassing and costly mistakes, err I mean making a guitar ;)

Anyway - as you may have already noticed, I have a habit of waffling on, so I'll close this off by just saying it will be an honour to be amongst the respected and talented troupe of luthiers on this board, and thank you all again for the reams of free advice (some of it terrifying!) that I've already gleaned from the archives.

Take care all,

--Dave B

P.S. by day I'm Head of IT for a law firm, so if anyone does happen to have OT questions regarding IT or english law, feel free to ask, I like to think I'll be giving something back up to the point where my copious newbie luthierie errors can serve that purpose...

Welcome Dave!
Nice to see more guys from the UK joining us here. You'll get to know Colin and Dave, and Sam through here, who are all good folks and neighbors of yours. I'm sure there are others I've forgotten as well.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Dave,

Welcome to the OLF

You are at the right place and Martin has certainly steered you in the right direction. My advise, if you are to only build just one, get yourself a serviced kit from John Hall at Blues Creek, Johns a sponsor here at the OLF and from all reports does first class kits.

But, if you want to build more than one, and your post gives insight into the passion, just keep reading those archives, ask questions, build a data base of those golden keys you will discover as you research and Take Your Time.

Some will tell you to jump right in and make the mistakes so you can learn faster and get the experience, and that may be fine if you have everything at your finger tips to do so, but Dave, you are in England mate, the freight is gonna be a killer. The pit fall of jumping in is that each avenue you explore that turns out not to be quite how you want to go will cost time and money, money for freight and for the specific tooling that is required to explore that particular avenue in the first place. If you are like me, burning the bucks is just not an option.

I have been at this for ages, just over two years in fact and due to life and matters have not built a guitar as yet. I have however had the opportunity to look very carefully at the many different ways a builder can approach the same thing and have tried to define a method for each step along the way that will work for me before I commit.

I have also taken on repair work which, because of my better understanding from the research I have done, has given me an opportunity to develop hand skills in this arena, I even ended up with a nice guitar out of it for myself so that has been a bonus.

The research takes time, but it is fascinating and will not only pay you back in saved cash, but will also open your eyes to a better understanding of those little things, those details which help to make a great guitar great. Also, it must surely save a good quantity of fine material form finding their way to the scrap bin.

So, with all that ramble, what do I recommend you do first?? Pay the money and get a GOOD engineers square, for my money it is No1 in the shop, I got a little 4" and I KNOW it is true and will stay that way. Use this to set up all your static machinery or checking your progress with a hand plane, you will use it for heaps so DO NOT cheap out.

Also, again spend the money and get a GOOD straight edge and various steel rules for the same reasons mentioned above. There is a pattern here already, don't buy rubbish to save a buck, in this game, with the cost of material so high, it really is a false economy.

Once you can accurately measure things, start fixing a few old bunkies for friends and do it for free, even if you have to buy the suckers from a swap meet and resell that is OK but put your knowledge to the test and develop an understanding of just what it is you are trying to do when you set out to building a guitar.

During the time I have been doing the above, I have also built jigs and the components that they were designed to manufacture to test function and I have watched very carefully what others here are doing and how they have developed along the way. This place is a gold mine for you. At the OLF, we have many great builders, many innovative and generous people at all different levels, but they all seem willing to take the time to help you out along the way. So enjoy the journey Dave, and once again, welcome to the OLF.

Cheers

Kim

Welcome Dave! There is no escape now!

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Welcome, Dave! Nice introduction...I feel your pain!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Hi Dave!

Glad you found this forum at last.

Dave,

Welcome. Where in the UK are you?

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Welcome to our obsession, Dave. Just curious, which firm?

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Thanks for the warm welcome people :)

I must start my apologising for forgetting to mention Sam in my opening post - I should also have given her part o fthe blame for instilling this mania in me to make trees into music. ;)

@kim: Thanks for the tips about the tools :) I have 'ummed and arred' about using a kit as a first project, but ultimately couldn't bring myself to do it. I realise I would save a lot of money and time doing things that way, but at a gut level the end result would still be 'there's a guitar I mostly did myself', which, I don't know, it just strikes me if I am going to craft something, I would feel like I'd cheated myself. Totally personal to me I should add and I realise a kit guitar would most likely turn out a lot better than jumping in to scratch building feet first. Also, if I wanted to save time and money I'd commission someone else to make the guitar - I'm fairly sure somewhere in the archive here I read that its never cheaper to build your own. As far as I'm concerned, every penny spent on things which don't work out will be cheap education on the things that do work out.

@Todd: Hello there sir. :)

@Jim: I had my chance to escape when I was just lurking the archives. Unfortunately this driving compulsion lurking somewhere in my head wouldn't let me go even if I closed the window ;)

@JJ: Glad I'm not totally bonkers. Or at the very least not alone in my insanity ;)

@Sam: Hey there! Now I have another forum to ogle your rosettes! :)

@Dave: Hi there namesake! I'm down in sunny Brighton (well you wouldn't say that if you could see out of my window now). Home to the Pavilion, overrated fish and chips and also, more appropriately, Aguilera Guitars and The Acoustic Music Company. :) Strictly speaking I live in a house passed down through the generations of my family for years, including a 60 odd year old Apple tree which is marked for felling shortly (more on that later), in Woodingdean a village just outside of Brighton...

Ah....Hooked indeed! I see all of the signs!! Welcome to it Dave, it is no doubt an interesting pursuit and a fulfilling journey.

Shane

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Canada

Welcome to the show, Dave.

Welcome to the OLF, Dave.  What a great place this is.  I'm on my first too after dreaming about doing it for over 20 years.  I feel your pain.  I also chose total immersion.  Couldn't stand the thought of having stuff already done for me.  Although, some of the kits are just a pile of wood, with no serviced parts, and that would probably save some of the excess purchases when you figure out what you need.  And, if you are aching to get going now, wait till you start.  You'll be consumed by it.  Between working on the guitar and working the OLF, and, of course, not missing any meals, all the time is gone.  Sure is hard to get any work done. 

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Welcome to the forum Dave! Sorry I am late to greet you, but I have a new toy....erm... tool I am spending some time with right now.

If you have taken time to read through the archives, you will find that most common questions have already been answered, but because of the nature of the trade, new questions arise on a daily basis. It is sometimes amazing how seemingly redundant questions turn out to be some of the most interesting threads with the best information submitted. Even old dogs can learn new tricks.

Hope you enjoy your stay here with us!

Ken

 

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Reguards,

Ken H

Howdy Dave!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Welcome Dave!!!!

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

@Shane, James, Waddy, Ken, Billy and Bill - Thanks for the welcome :) Grea to meet you all!

Welcome to another Dave! There are quite a few of us here.
Good luck on your first acoustic Dave.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755