Official Luthiers Forum!

We talk alot about building on here. Just curious what you guys/gals pick around on when you have time to really play?

Me I just have my old J45 and an old reso that I enjoy

My daily player is a '37 D28 copy that I built using measurements I got from John Arnold.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

A Mahogany/Sitka OM that I sold to a blues player about 14 years ago which he sold about two years later and I saw turn up on eBay a couple of years after that .

I emailed the guy who was in Virginia and he said he liked the guitar but decided he wanted a Rosewood OM. I had a 90’s Martin OM28VR I never really bonded with so I traded him.

It’s been my daily player and gigging acoustic ever since.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Whatever is in my hands at the time. I try to cycle thru the closet and play each one more or less in turn, but sometimes a particular mood will dictate a certain guitar. I find I almost never play my commercially built guitar....

I'll add that cycling thru the closet forces me to squeeze the sponge/baggie in he case and dampen it if its getting dry.

Not being a builder, but rather a repairman with a serious GAS and a few dozen years of accumulated and never-gotten-rid-of guitars, I’ve finally found my perfect match in a J45. See, I’m primarily an electric player and a finger picker while clutching an acoustic, so the short scale is a real plus for me over the Martin scale and allows me to "dig in" more easily. I like the wider, deeper sound spectrum over other small-bodied short-scales such as my beloved 000 and 00 sizes, and I find the round shoulders profile is more reactive to playing nuances over my other dreds.

So, for me, a J45 has been my go-to player for some time now.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

My Collings I-35 and/or my brand new Collings 290 with Throbak P-90s. Love both of these and can't put them down.

For acoustics it's a Heshtone L-00 that weighs 2.9 lbs.

Thanks Hesh for reminding me that luthiers also have the right to play electrics!

As for electrics, I suppose my current favorites are either a Fender Strat American Vintage 65 or a Torvisse (my own) Gilmour Black Strat repro, and either a Gibson R4 Oxblood or PRS McCarty. But with electrics I tend to just cycle through the lot.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

I only own one electric, a Fender Starcaster that I love. After making a few setup and fret issues, it plays as well as any and sounds fabulous with stock pickups through my Monoprice 50 watt all tube amp. Never thought I'd see the day after spending my entire life playing acoustics.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I play mostly lap style--my recent 000 Hawaiian is my main go-to guitar, but my first year wood well/soldered strips National Tricone comes in a closer second.

For "regular" style guitar, I mostly play my all mahogany L00 with the Van Eps flush fret scalloped fingerboard.

Dave

I play whatever is hanging in the showroom, but I do tend to prefer playing the odd stuff, my 28” baritone fan-fret for example. I do own two instruments made by others, a Mexi-tele with upgraded electronics, and a 2008 David Webber, they never get played.

M

I mostly play a classical guitar that I built in the 90's but also a Manuel Contreras from the 60's too. For steel string I have a BRW Dred that Don Sharp built that is more or less a Martin D-35 copy but with an enlarged sound hole and while I have played a lot of dreds including top notch Martins and Taylors that have come through my shop this is the very best sounding dred I have played and the setup on it is superb too. I was never really much of a dred player before I got that guitar but now that one gets a lot of air time. Otherwise I like playing one of my 000's.

I play my oval hole archtop with a cedar top and X bracing the most followed by the 1-18 copy I built from a pine 2" x 4" stud.

That 1-18 sounds very interesting. Got pics of it?

you all have time to play guitar???

In all seriousness my go to is a smaller bodied classical I built in Granada last year of the mid/late 19th century Sevilla style (think Torres first epoch, Manuel Soto y Soleras, etc.)

My favorite is an '07 German Vasquez Rubio "Reyes copy" followed closely by a 640 IRW Alan Carruth cutaway classical and in honorable 3rd is a Koa/Spruce classical that I built back in 2010. Each of them have their sweet spots and depending on the time or the genre really are a pleasure to play.

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Peter

I've posted it here before but here it is. It's from the Ted Davis plan.