Miguel de Maria -> RE: Value of Self Made Guitars (Jun. 7 2006 15:56:41)
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I guess Ron you don't remember that I became a luthier at one time. Yes, that's right. I quit my day job, with the intent of building guitars by day. You see, my girlfriend was a lawyer and our schedules didn't mesh too well with me waiting tables/playing guitar. I bought Ron Cumpiano's book, got tons of clamps and tools, an LMI catalog, and set to work. My first project was to be a mahogany back and sides, red cedar flamenco. To make a long story short, I had no woodworking experience of any kind. I had never sawed, routed, sanded, glued, chiseled, or cut in my life. I also set the requirement that it was going to be all hand tools. Don't ask me why I get these weird ideas into my head . Those of you who have been "handy" your whole life probably don't realize that mundane tasks like sharpening a plane, sawing a piece of wood to measurements, indeed measuring itself are skills. Skills I did not possess. Cumpiano marveled at the master luthiers and their "infinite patience." My patience comes in at the other end, between "ADD" and "impulsive." Unfortunately making guitars did not change this to any degree. My workshop was initially set up in the garage. Working from the book, and without power tools (except a small router that I got), I completed the "box" in about a month. This includes planing and cutting out the sides, back, front; curving the sides with a side bender (the worst part); chiseling a bridge (the most fun and my best part I think); installing tuners; installing fret wire; installing a rosette; making kerfing; making braces; and of course gluing the whole thing together. I strung it up with some old black La Bellas. I held down an E7b9 chord, and...thwak! The strings, when strummed, merely flapped against some part of the fingerboard that had been incorrectly angled.... Taking out my trusty straightedge, I determined that a bit of planing would probably solve the problem. All I would have to do is take off some fret wire, plane down, then put some lacquer over the whole thing, and.. It was at this point that I lost interest. What can I say, the guitar was a mess. It was not even symmetrical because the side bending process had been a disaster. It was small and also very shallow-bodied, also due to mistakes here. It took me about a month, if I recall. Maybe if I had taken a year as Tom had said, it would have turned out better! But that's just how I was... So the "guitar" sits in a case in my garage. Maybe, someday, I'll hire someone to tweak it and then spray lacquer it, just for fun. Total cost: approx $7000 in tools, supplies, and lost wages!
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