Official Luthiers Forum!

I posted pictures a while back showing my first guitar, and I also thought the thing sounded pretty decent(great actually). Well, I had a true professional player play and critique the guitar for me a few days ago...I was very excited, you may be bored but hey I'm sharing anyway. So, he gently grabs the guitar looks it over carefully before even touching a string, I'm thinking geez what does he see, says accurately, could use a nicer finish...ouch, even though it was true. Then he starts testing intonation, harmonics etc., says perfect, great! then starts playing a tune or two and says your frets are a bit rough, again true, I asked for it. He plays a few fingerstyle pieces, looks up and says this thing sounds really nice, wow!. Continues on with some bluegrass and jazzy stuff and says dang this is one loud guitar, wow again! he plays for 15 minutes and asks....this is your first guitar? Ah, yeah...he says I may just put an order in for one after you make a few more, just let me know...Super! He says he's going to a little get together to play for some friends and asks if he can use my guitar, hell yeah, and I'm going to go listen too. He plays my guitar for another hour or so and what a joy to see his enjoyment playing a guitar I created, that was amazing, and many other players thought the guitar was great as well. Afterward he tells me that he would like to introduce me to a small guitar shop owner and thinks he would be interested in selling my guitars after I get the finishing figured out. He played the guitar in many different tunings(wild stuff)and it shined everywhere, at least to his ears. Anyway, this may lead nowhere, but it sure was satisfying to hear that this particular guitar was so enjoyed by someone who has many to choose from.

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Gwaltney Guitars

That is great story Greg. The kind I like to hear! Congratulations!

Shane

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Canada

Greg, you must be flying high right now. I can only imagine your excitement...sounds like you may have found your niche. That's a great review for a first guitar, and to have such an honest critique only helps one to learn and improve all the more. Congratulations!
Craig

Greg,

Congratulations! Constructive criticism is always helpful.   If all this guy could find to comment on was the finish and frets still being a bit rough, then I'd say your first guitar must have come out particularly well. Good luck in your future enterprise.

By the way, what type of finish did you put on the guitar?

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Beautiful story. Congratz!

WOW, like a dream come true. Great Story.

Greg

Well done, you must be really pleased. I had a similiar experience, I might add not on my first guitar though, and the person concerned has helped me in a great many ways. Finishing is always one of the hardest parts to get just so, but I'm sure you will get that. On the fretting if you haven't already read Tim Mcknights article in the Jigs section, take a look at these instructions, Tims method will produce excellant results. the other thing that helped me alot was getting one of stewmacs little end dressing files, I used to use a regular file and it didn't produce anywhere near as smooth a result.

Fret File

Greg
c'mon, start with the next one

Thanks Everyone,

I tried french polish(Zinsser in a can), but it went on really sticky, looks pretty crappy actually. I have a can of KTM-9, and all of the spraying gear, just seemed more complicated for the first attempt. I think I'll look at buying the DVD on finishing that was posted here yesterday, might help me out.

Greg

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Gwaltney Guitars

I've actually got 2 more guitars started. 1 is going to be EIR/Sitka-White Spruce..I think it actually may be the Lutz that was mentioned here a few times. The 2nd one is Cocobolo/Sitka. I'm going with the same design as before with just a few slight changes. I've got both of the necks ready for final shaping, the sides are bent blocks glued, backs joined ready for back seam, so I could have these two closed up fairly quickly. I'll try to get some pictures of the progress.

Greg

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Gwaltney Guitars