Details of my arch top guitar and artifact,G.Wilson

[george wilson]

This is not new work. While taking pictures the other day,I decided to photograph the arch top guitar featured in "George Wilson Guitar Maker." I see these pictures are coming out sideways again. They weren't that way in the file. Rick,or someone else,can you make them upright? Thanks.

I've never gotten around to deciding on a truss rod cover,or a good pick guard,so I didn't photograph the front of the guitar. Since this guitar wasn't made for sale,there is no rush in getting it done. I do need to get back to it,though. Too many irons in the fire all the time

The pictures include the left over sawings of the marquetry on the peghead,and another design I had made up for another guitar. In the lower left hand corner,you can see that I have started to saw the work out.

There are missing pieces in the left over cuttings for the guitar pictured,because the eagle and name ribbon were sawn out of abalone and pearl separately. I didn't save the leftovers. I always saw marquetry by hand. Jeweler's saw in this case.

These leftovers prove I did the work for the punk to see,but now he's declared my instruments gaudy. There is a big difference between gaudy and tasteful ornamentation that he doesn't want to understand. More likely CAN'T understand. His knowledge of the arts and design are very limited.

The fingerboard is inlaid with mother of pearl with various stylized plants growing up from the earth in green abalone. I used a coarser blade,and rubbed black filler into the cuts to emphasize the shapes. Did the same thing on the inlaid lute in it's fingerboard,where ivory against ivory had to be delineated. This is a very old classical method of emphasizing lines. They called it mastic in the 17th.C. and earlier.

There is a picture of the art deco style tailpiece. I made it out of 1/8" brass. The "stair step" portion of the tailpiece,where the strings are anchored is 1/4" brass. I lacquered it with clear gold tint lacquer like brass horns are finished,because I didn't have electroplating equipment at that time. Even now,I couldn't plate something that large with gold. Your anode has to be as big as the object you plate.

The view of the tailpiece also shows the bridge. I made it of pearwood stained black for acoustic reasons. I did not want to use heavy ebony. There are no adjustment screws for height. I didn't want all the tone going through those 2 little screws. I do have other bridges for the guitar.

There is a view of the cutaway,showing how the binding goes around the heel of the neck. The neck is made of UNSTAINED Cuban mahogany about 100 years old. This is what REAL Cuban mahogany looks like. And,it is extremely hard.

[David Weaver]

Nice, george. I'm assuming this guitar is not intended to be played plugged in given the comment about the pear wood bridge? I'd assume that pear vs. ebony gives you the ability to knock out some of the sustain and lack of woody tone that comes along with an ebony bridge?

Something matching the art deco tailpiece in style for the truss rod cover would be nice. Don't make it bell shaped - you might get sued by gibson!

[Mike Cutler]

George

I look at the different work you've shown us many times and can't figure out if it inspires me, or makes me want to give up. It has raised my bar of "acceptance" though in the things I do.
That's a beautiful guitar.
You have a truly amazing gift my friend. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[george wilson]

Sorry for the blip in reposting the pictures. We were trying to make them upright. If you lay the camera over sideways to take the picture,the program here posts them that way,even though they were stored upright in I photo.

David,I did put a Gibson Johnny Smith pickup on the guitar. It is only attached to the end of the fingerboard,not the top of the guitar. I did not brace the guitar stiff to be played electric. I need to make a pick guard with the volume and tone controls,and the out put jack mounted on it. I do not want to deface the body by mounting controls,drilling holes,etc..

There is a certain kind of celluloid I am looking for. I made a pickguard at first,but took it off. The material was too ordinary. I don't care for the small ebony pickguards that some makers are now using. Nor am I crazy about the ebony cello type tailpieces they use. They work fine,I'm sure. I just don't like their looks,preferring the older D'Angelico type tailpiece.

I have a special bridge with a heavy stainless steel saddle made from round 1/2" stainless bar stock,rather like the bridge on a Gretsch Country Gentleman. It is used in the electric mode of playing. Its mass provides the needed sustain for playing electrically. The base of the steel bridge is ebony,with height adjustment screws.

[Doug Shepard]

I'm drooling over that guitar. If it sounds half as good as it looks I'd be in heaven playing that beauty. Looks like the kind of guitar that sounds so good you can't put it down.

[John Powers]

George, I'm a classical guitar student but the sight of a beautiful Archtop sometimes makes me wish I were a jazzman. Great work.

[Leigh Betsch]

I can't even dream of being able to do this kind of work George.
I watched the CW Instrument Maker videos. George where did that young guy ;) learn his craft? It's not like you an find a 18 C apprenticeship in instrument making nowadays, or even in the 1970's.

[george wilson]

Marcus was a trained classical guitarist. He had a degree from the School of Performing Arts,Winston Salem,N.C.. Even took master classes with Segovia.

He had never made anything except a new bone bridge saddle for his guitar. He caught on pretty readily,though I could never teach him to draw. He learned to do very accurate work.

[John Coloccia]

There is a certain kind of celluloid I am looking for.

What type of celluloid?

[george wilson]

Gibson used a "marbled" celluloid back in the 50's. Somehow there's still some of it kicking around. I'm just not sure where.

I have also been thinking of making some 30's style striped material out of poured on finish(the 2 part stuff for table or bar tops). I could mix in some brown colors and streak it into the polymer before it hardens. Use a basic yellow overall color for the poured layer first.

I also have managed to find some genuine tortoise shell antique trays big enough to make pickguards with. Have other things to do right now.

[John Coloccia]

Oh, you mean like the ones on the Byrdlands. Almost like Tortoise but marble texture instead of the tortoise. I haven't seen any in celluloid, but I think it's readily available in acrylic sheets if you don't mind acrylic.

[george wilson]

Do you know where I could google it? Actually,acrylic doesn't fall apart like celluloid can over the years.

[John Coloccia]

Do you know where I could google it? Actually,acrylic doesn't fall apart like celluloid can over the years.

Try this for starters. I thought I'd run across a better source some time ago, but this may get you in the ballpark.

http://www.galaxyplastic.net/M1000a.htm

That particular piece doesn't really look right but who knows what any random piece may look like. Now here's the thing. They're in Virginia so you may be able to head down there and hand pick the pieces you want.

I hope that helps you out. If I find the other links, I'll let you know. I found a bunch of them at one time and should have bookmarked it, but I just didn't really think I'd ever have a use for it. Oh well.

edit: re: location
It's confusing. On some parts of their site they say their in Virginia, but on the "About Us" section they say they're in New Jersey, so I don't really know where they are! Still, New Jersey may not be a completely terrible drive from where you are.

[john brenton]

I'm not sure if we're talking about the same celluloid, but a certain type of instrument I'm working on working on uses those unique marbled celluloid pickguards and I spent a long time looking for them. I finally found some and it was from an accordion parts dealer.

[QUOTE=george wilson;1516327]Gibson used a "marbled" celluloid back in the 50's. Somehow there's still some of it kicking around. I'm just not sure where.

[george wilson]

To both Johns: The accordion maker might come closer than the acrylic. I did bookmark the acrylic source,though. thank you.

The Gibson stuff was sort of a purplish color. Sounds awful,but wasn't bad. Do you have any photos of the accordion plastic? Thank both of you for posting.

Gibson used the plastic on the Super 400.

[john brenton]

This was the best picture I can find, I just grabbed it of the net, but it is the exact same figure of celluloid (I used to import these instruments on a regular basis from Bolivia until this particular luthier personally ripped me off. That's when I decided I wanted to make them myself...not so easy. Still haven't made one.)

Again, not sure if it is what you're talking about. I bought three sheets (green, blue, and red) off of ebay from a luthier/accordion parts dealer. The dealer had a whole spectrum of colors to choose from, and if you want I can hunt them down and PM you the link. The sheets are about the same thickness of a Fender "extra ight" pick.

Beautiful isn't it? I love the way that celluloid looks, and there is no substitute.



To both Johns: The accordion maker might come closer than the acrylic. I did bookmark the acrylic source,though. thank you.

The Gibson stuff was sort of a purplish color. Sounds awful,but wasn't bad. Do you have any photos of the accordion plastic? Thank both of you for posting.

Gibson used the plastic on the Super 400.

[george wilson]

That's just pearloid,not what I'm looking for. Thank you for trying,though.(also known as mother of toilet seat!:)

[john brenton]

Oh well. Still extremely hard to locate though. I don't know why some things are just so danged scarce.

Good luck.


That's just pearloid,not what I'm looking for. Thank you for trying,though.(also known as mother of toilet seat!:)

[David Weaver]

It's probably one of the things on the internet that's easier to find by google image than it is by text searches.

It looks like there are a bunch of suppliers of what claim to be celluloid from china. One of them has a 500kg minimum purchase, and the colors are a bit vibrant to look like something old from Gibson, anyway.

[john brenton]

I did eventually find it so I'm not saying it is impossible, but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. All I found was what you're talking about, and I wasn't about to buy bulk direct from China just to have a couple of pick guards!


It's probably one of the things on the internet that's easier to find by google image than it is by text searches.

It looks like there are a bunch of suppliers of what claim to be celluloid from china. One of them has a 500kg minimum purchase, and the colors are a bit vibrant to look like something old from Gibson, anyway.

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Stunning work, George! My hat is off to you!

Klaus

[george wilson]

Googling celluloid from china produced a lot of results. Many from a co. named "gypsy' so and so. I can't recall. Another few searches got a big complaint from a customer warning that this Co. were crooks.

I HATE sending money to China!! Though doing it through Ebay has been o.k..

Some of the celluloid sheets shown looked like what I've been looking for,with a bit of change in color.

I know Italy makes celluloid sheets. I think they cast it in 12" thick blocks,though,and skive it into sheets. I think you have to buy the whole stack though. Must investigate further.

There are some incredibly interesting plastics made for eye glass frames. In France,I think. Wish I could tap into some of those.

[David Weaver]

Well, if you get the whole stack, you could always light sheets on fire for a party trick.

First time I ever lit a guitar pick for...well, no good reason at all when I was about 13...I was left feeling like this:

:confused::confused:

I kind of wanted a real big hunk of it to light up after that.

(i did, btw, get the same feeling about those chinese companies as you got from comments - their payment section said stuff like "bank transfer, western union" - no thanks). I've also had great luck getting things from the chinese on ebay. I qualify that, because I have gotten yanked on something from ebay from china, but go figure it was an american expat living there selling muji planes on ebay who ripped me off.

[John Coloccia]

Just FYI. If you look at the other offerings of the company I posted, they have a lot more than that one pattern. A lot of the "pearl" patterns look very similar as well, and they have other colors that may fit better.

[george wilson]

I did see the other offerings all the way down to stipples and granite. Thanks,John