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wfrancis86 -> Guitar .5 (Dec. 17 2012 13:56:40)
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Back in September of this year I came home for vacation to visit family in the states (I teach English abroad in Bogota, Colombia for the time being). Besides seeing family, going hiking and eating all the great food I have missed, I also decided to try my hand at building a guitar alongside my father. I have played and studied flamenco guitar off and on for about 6 years now, and while I am not a great player, my old guitar simply wasn't inspiring me to play. My father built custom interior furniture/ cabinetry for 35 years in the Seattle area. I didn't spend much time in his shop growing up, but I was around a bit and we did make a number of things together. Other than that I have always been pretty good with my hands, but really this project is inspired by my desire to somehow continue with my father's craft of working wood by hand. I've always had great respect for his work, and really anybody who can make things with their own hands.
This guitar was built in collaboration with my father, but also with the help of two very generous luthiers who post on the forum. The first few weeks of the project were completed mostly in my father's shop out on the Washington coast in a small town called Raymond. While in the NW I was able to do several workshops with Peter Tsiorba. He lives very close to my sister in Portland, Oregon and so I was literally able to walk over to his shop from my sister's place. Peter sold me my soundboard (sitka spruce), gave me a class on tool sharpening, a class on Soundboard/ back thicknessing, a class on side bending, and a class on the binding install. After working in the NW I made a trip down to the Bay area to visit some friends I hadn't seen in several years, but also to finish the guitar. I was very lucky to have made contact with Stephen Faulk from the forum. We ended up spending a good amount of time together and Stephen was very kind and generous in his help. With Stephen I had more time to kill than with Peter so the classes were handled differently. I was able to work more hands on; he would show me something, I would try and mimic what he did, and then I'd ask for some more guidance, and so on. Together we essentially made the bridge, installed the fingerboard, formed the nut and saddle, glued the bridge, installed the pegs, and shaped the neck. As you can read, I received a lot of help on this project between my father, Peter, and Stephen. That's why I'm calling it my guitar .5. The project has really inspired me to continue with instrument building and the classes I did with Peter and Stephen have given me the confidence to go it alone next time around.
I'll be posting my photos from the process (if I can figure it out) so please feel free to ask me any questions you'd like and I'll try my best to respond in a timely manner. I invite you in particular to ask about my time spent with Peter Tsiorba and Stephen Faulk. I cannot express how helpful and amazing it was to work with them both and I highly recommend supporting accomplished luthiers like them through doing workshops.
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