A guitar I am currently making,George Wilson

[george wilson]

This is a guitar I am making. It is ready to have the frets installed,and then to be finished. Sorry the 2 pictures are tilted. They do not appear that way in the file photograph. The pictures were taken in the 16'X22' area that I keep my woodworking machinery and dust collector in. It is attached to my 30'X40' main room,so that I can keep wood dust from getting into the large room. The dust collector is in the back. Beside it is a shuttered exhaust fan. This fan is right next to the dust collector's filter,and sucks out anything that gets past the filter. It also keeps a breeze going AWAY from the main room,so any dust that is missed is carried away from the main room. I'll show the main room some other time.

Those bundles of wood tied up with string are blank red spruce tops from West Va.,off of Cheat Mountain. Red spruce is what the great pre war Martin and Gibson guitars were made of. Now,that wood id considered the "Holy Grail" of spruce. You can't get it any more unless you have a special connection to someone with it growing on their land. It is now protected,as the deer eat the young shoots of the trees.

This guitar is what I like to build, a modern instrument. I was paid to make 18th.C. instruments for many years. Now,I'm free.

The guitar is rosewood and spruce,with a mahogany neck. The fingerboard is ebony with abalone inlays. The peghead is veneered in rosewood with abalone inlays. The bridge will be rosewood. Ebony is not the best choice for the bridge due to its weight,and brittleness. Thus,the peghead matches the bridge.

The binding is curly maple,surrounded with purflings of black white black.

[David Weaver]

Sweet - slope D, or J-45 style?

How's it going to be voiced? What are the sides and back? What tuning machines?

[george wilson]

J-45 style. The tuners will be the big "butter bean" Grovers that were used in the 60's on the Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar. You can't get them now,I think. I have collected a large drawer full of now unavailable tuners.

I don't know how to straighten those 2 pictures up. I haven't spent my life using the computer like some. I prefer to make real objects rather than things like video games.:)

[David Weaver]

I don't think you can get them, either, and if you can, you have to go through grovers like you would fruit to find 6 that are about the same wind tension.

I have waverlies on my guitars now.

I posted about trouble I had with a custom maker several times here. One of the problems I had with them was that they wouldn't put waverlies on my guitar at first, they wanted to use stock new grovers on a $3,000 guitar.

I told them I would get waverlies and mail them to them, which I did - I ordered waverlies from stewmac and had them sent to them.

When I called one of the many calls to find out when they would work on the guitar, they told me they never received them! :eek:

Couple calls later, they magically found them. I could not understand how they wouldn't get attached to a work order when they came in and the guitar wasn't in process.

Someday, I'll pour concrete in the soundhole of that guitar and throw it over the bridge here.

[george wilson]

Did you ever get the guitar? By the way,these days,$3000.00 isn't a real expensive custom made guitar. Mine costs more,so I'm willing to use vintage tuners.

That's no reason for them to not have cooperated with you,especially since you sent them those tuners.

[john brenton]

I'm an aspiring guitar maker...as in, I aspire to someday start making one. I worked a little with a friend who made classicals but I wish I had paid more attention. There is a great site with traditional guitar making and I've tried to copy as much as I can, but I'm still not quite there. I have a particular style in mind and I already know where I'll get stuck...and that keeps me stuck doing nothing. All in the mind I guess.

Do you route all your channels for (purfling, rosette, banding etc) by hand?

[george wilson]

I did in the historic area. Even if you rout them,the channels come out too thin for the bindings in the waist. I take a simple scratch tool I made,and scrape the groove in the waist area deeper. I haven't figured out why the router cuts shallower there. The scratch tool is pretty rough and ready,but it works fine.

[Rick Markham]

George, I won't lie, that is probably the most beautiful guitar I have seen. I'm glad you get to do what you like now, I think it shows. The purfling along the body, with the paper thin black line is really spectacular. The Red spruce top with rosewood body is really something, I have never seen anything like it. Makes me want to go out and learn guitar.

I'll take a shot at rotating them for you, hopefully this will work:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/Rick357/DSC_1308.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/Rick357/DSC_1309.jpg

[Leigh Betsch]

I prefer to make real objects rather than things like video games.:)

There is some wisdom in this comment. Sometimes I get a little too carried away making and fiddling with my tools to actually get anything done!
Like taking the better part of 2 months to make a dovetail jig for my table saw and then not cutting any dovetail for a year cause I'm now making hand planes. But at least I'm not playing video games or watching football all day!

[John Coloccia]

Even if you rout them,the channels come out too thin for the bindings in the waist. I take a simple scratch tool I made,and scrape the groove in the waist area deeper. I haven't figured out why the router cuts shallower there. The scratch tool is pretty rough and ready,but it works fine.

Are you using a bearing or an edge guide? I find that using an edge guide I always have trouble getting 90 degrees to the tangent in the waist. Something about being on the inside on the curve as opposed to the outside of the curve, and my mind just shuts down about how to hold the router (or in my case the body because my edge guide is stationary).

I'd love to see your "scratch tool". I never really have come up with a good way to clean up and adjust binding channels other that chisel, and I always approach it with dread knowing the tiniest slip will ruin it.

[george wilson]

Yes,my cutters have a BUILT IN BEARING,not the separate type that mount on the router,like Stanley sold many years ago.

My scratch stock(proper name) is just a flat piece of wood about 1/2" thick X 2'' X 3". It was stood on edge,and a bandsaw cut made most of the way through it. A piece of scraper blade is inserted into the cut. At the top of the tool is a wood screw,pinching the stock to the scraper. The stock is cut away below the wood screw,and rounded way back,so just a fat line contact is made with the guitar body. The corner of the scraper is sticking out exactly the amount that you need to fit the binding. You scrape down hill on either side of the waist,deepening the rebate for the binding till the scraper "hits bottom,and can't scrape any deeper. It is quite effective.

[george wilson]

Leigh,the computer comment wasn't directed at you.:)

[David Weaver]

Did you ever get the guitar? By the way,these days,$3000.00 isn't a real expensive custom made guitar. Mine costs more,so I'm willing to use vintage tuners.

That's no reason for them to not have cooperated with you,especially since you sent them those tuners.

Yeah, I did, but it has a permanent flaw in it that makes it unsaleable. When I got it a while ago, that was cheap for a custom guitar, too. There was nothing really expensive in the guitar except a very basic inlay, and the neck and peghead were bound. Not that that's expensive, but that was all there was to it above and beyond no options, and it was just plain indian rosewood and sitka spruce.

I have off-the-rack that cost more (and are much better). The reason I ordered from these guys is I had bought one of their banjos and a resonator off the rack, and both were very good. I told them I had a D28 that I wasn't at all satisfied with and asked them if they could build me an HD style guitar that would be more open, and they made a lot of fanciful claims. It was a valuable learning experience.

[george wilson]

I'm glad you at least got it.

I don't understand those darker vertical lines in the spruce top of my guitar. They do not exist on the real instrument. Some kind of "artifact" from the camera.

[Leigh Betsch]

Leigh,the computer comment wasn't directed at you.:)

I know George. I just find a lot of truth in the comment. I work with a bunch of folks that all they do is talk about the big game they watched last night and never do anything constructive with their spare time. But then I gotta laugh at myself for doing more fiddling with my tools than making anything also. :rolleyes:

[Phil Thien]

Beautiful work, George.

I envy people that can play guitar. Double that for people that can make such a beautiful one.

[george wilson]

John,just for you I shot and posted the scratch stock.

[Pam Niedermayer]

...I don't know how to straighten those 2 pictures up. I haven't spent my life using the computer like some. I prefer to make real objects rather than things like video games.:)

Beautiful job, George. I'm just starting to make a couple of electrics, a real adventure; and I hope they turn out even 1/2 as gorgeous as yours.

However, I submit that video games are real, as are thoughts and other mental processes; and as such, they can be made to high craft or low, just like guitars. Besides, no one else is complaining about tilted photos. :)

Pam

[george wilson]

I've been wondering where you've been,Pam.I didn't know you were interested in guitars. Did you see the arch top one too?

[Pam Niedermayer]

I've been real busy with school and outside studying and writing, applying for grad school, and the like. Today I'm taking a break to get enough books out of the way so we can remove a huge broken TV from the TV room and insall a new flat screen and taking a break from that to catch up on the ww forums.

I did see your archtop, great stuff, totally beyond me at this point. I also watched the CW videos just now and was wondering where you trained.

Pam

[george wilson]

I am just about self taught,Pam. Though,in Art,I was very lucky to have gotten the opportunity to learn from one of the foremost sculptors in the country,William Reimann. He taught at my college for 3 years. I stayed in his studio every chance I got.He went on to be head of the art dept. at Harvard. He is now retired.

[Tony Shea]

Absolutely beautiful George. That is probably the absolute best project I've seen on this forum as acoustic guitars are my first love. Been playing them for as long as I can remember and continue to try and get an hour or so in of playing time a day. I've always wanted a custom acoustic similar to my D-28 but to my own specs.

Truely inspirational george and can only dream of ever having as much talent to pull something off like that. I can't get enough of that Red Spruce top. Bookmarked for future guitar porn, thanks george.

[Dave Woods]

That's quite an impressive endeavor. It looks beautiful.

[Pam Niedermayer]

I am just about self taught,Pam. Though,in Art,I was very lucky to have gotten the opportunity to learn from one of the foremost sculptors in the country,William Reimann. He taught at my college for 3 years. I stayed in his studio every chance I got.He went on to be head of the art dept. at Harvard. He is now retired.

Also self-taught musically? How did you know all that stuff?

Pam

[george wilson]

We were always poor when I was growing up. No money for music lessons,or a band instrument so I could get any formal training. I practiced a lot on my $12.00 Sears guitar,and hung out with musical friends when I could.

I worked in Summers to go to college. tuition was only $500.00 a year at the time,and I got scholarships for 2 years,to be paid back by teaching in state 1 year for each year of scholarships.

I taught shop so I could come in at night and use the machines and tools. I got married,and we lived in an apartment,so,no shop in the apt.! Gradually I began to acquire tools and machines. Got my drill press from Sears,and a Dewalt table saw in 1964,when we had moved to a house. Still have them. Got an old Army jointer,a Boice Crane 6" for $200.00,a high price then,but no cheap imported stuff back then,so pickings were few. It took MANY years to make progress on a home shop,and I did many things by hand. I found a 14" Delta bandsaw after a few years. I still have it,but am restoring a 1950's 20" Delta,one of my favorite bandsaws. We had one in the tool shop in Wmsbg.. It is still there.

[Pam Niedermayer]

We were always poor when I was growing up. No money for music lessons,or a band instrument so I could get any formal training. I practiced a lot on my $12.00 Sears guitar,and hung out with musical friends when I could....

Interesting. I also started with a cheapo Sears, black with white painted on binding; and as it turned out, this was my first refinishing project, couldn't stand the lack of aesthetics so I took it down to the raw wood. Funny thing was that most everyone then thought it was an expensive hand made version, at least until I demonstrated how far the strings sat above the fingerboard. I literally bled learning to play on that thing.

However, that's a long, long way from tuning a harpsichord, much less knowing how it was to be tuned. Blows me away.

Pam

[george wilson]

Today I got the neck fretted. Tomorrow,I'll begin sealing the neck and possibly the body with thinned out 5 minute epoxy.

I thin it out with alcohol,spread it on the wood and wait about 2 hours. Then I sand it off while it is still"leather hard". If you wait overnight it is a big job sanding down fully hardened epoxy.

I repeat the process for porous woods. This makes it possible to spray on maybe 4 coats of nitrocellulose lacquer,and get a piano finish that is really quite thin,and doesn't hurt the tone much.

I need to stay on this guitar and get it done. Too many other little jobs keep popping up.

[David Weaver]

George, apologies if you mentioned it, but I'm assuming that guitar is a commission?

[george wilson]

It is a commission. I don't think I'll take any more guitar orders. I want to make some models for my own use. Plus,I make much more money making repairs for my main customer.

[David Keller NC]

George - Very nice effort. I particularly like the combination of the darker sides and lighter top. While that's true of most acoustics these days (I think I may have one of the last Takamine all-koa guitars they made in the 1980s), most of the commercial acoustics I've seen have mahogany as the sides & back.

You mentioned that the sides and back are rosewood, and I haven't seen anyone else ask this question, but - is it indian rosewood, or do we have a wonder here and you've a stash of honest-to-goodness brazilian rosewood !?! :eek:

[george wilson]

I have some Brazilian cut in 1960. Still have some that I bought in college,when we thought it was high at $2.50 per bd. ft.. It was,if you had very little money!! We used to go up the street to Penrod,Jurden,and Clark,veneer and lumber makers. We could buy any sheet of veneer,no matter how big,for $1.00 per sheet. Some of it was 24" x 8' @ 1/28" thick.

I still have some wide Tamo cut for the interior of the 1959 Cadillac production.

[george wilson]

I have found some pictures of building this guitar if anyone wants to see them.

[David Keller NC]

I have some Brazilian cut in 1960. Still have some that I bought in college,when we thought it was high at $2.50 per bd. ft.. It was,if you had very little money!! We used to go up the street to Penrod,Jurden,and Clark,veneer and lumber makers. We could buy any sheet of veneer,no matter how big,for $1.00 per sheet. Some of it was 24" x 8' @ 1/28" thick.

I still have some wide Tamo cut for the interior of the 1959 Cadillac production.

Hmmm - well, if the Brazilian that you have is of high enough quality and width to use for guitar backs/sides, you've a treasure indeed. And one that's quite valuable in monetary terms.

[Lowell Smith]

I have found some pictures of building this guitar if anyone wants to see them.

I'd sure like to see them. Thanks!

[george wilson]

Yes,some want about $900.00 for a blank set of sides and back if Brazilian.

[Pam Niedermayer]

I have found some pictures of building this guitar if anyone wants to see them.

You bet, I'd love to see them.

Pam