RobF -> RE: Conde Documentary (Sep. 14 2020 12:34:13)
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In the world of cosmetically perfect, superficially identical guitars, do we expect them to be made in this way? Aren’t the necks and heads produced to order by someone with CNC milling machine? Is there anyone out there who can make rosettes to order? Is there someone will inlay the rosettes on high quality soundboards and sand them down to a given thickness? Can someone supply pre-bent sides, produce packs of bracing wood cut to order, cut slots and drill holes in the head? If someone wants to make a kit guitar, there are kits available with varying degrees of prefabrication. Most makers don’t work that way, however. I don’t think I’m atypical in this respect, each of my guitars is fairly unique, although I use a couple of plantillas that are constantly evolving. Makers will tend to follow their hearts when it comes to this, from using relatively fixed, evolutionary models to being completely free form, and everywhere in between. I build my guitars alone from raw materials, nothing is bought pre-made. I cut every neck from boards that are 3-4” thick by 10-20” wide by 6-12’ long and carve them myself. My heads are slotted and drilled by me. I make my rosettes from scratch and inlay them myself. The tops, back and sides are all thicknessed and dimensioned by me. All wood parts are cut, dimensioned and worked from raw materials, kerfed liners, peonies, braces, everything. I bend my own sides. I do make up certain components in batches, however, mainly slog-work stuff like kerfed liners and peonies, sometimes necks, and I generally build anywhere from one to four guitars concurrently, with two to three being the sweet spot. I think most of the makers on here do the same or similar. I’m what I consider to be a slow builder, it takes me about three weeks to complete the woodwork on a guitar but it takes me over a month of additional piecemeal time for the French polishing. If I’m really motivated I can complete the woodwork in two weeks and the finish work in one. Lots of makers are faster than that. I don’t know any who would do kit work, I would rather do nothing before I did that, what would be the point? Put two or three competent makers together working cooperatively and they can make a lot of guitars. It tends to be families or small shops being run by one master that can pull that off for extended periods, however, which isn’t surprising.
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