Off topic: guitar article

[Glenn Quarles]

I know we have lots of folks into guitars here on the forum so I thought I would share this. I was very honored to have this written about my guitars! If you know of anyone looking for a really nice custom built guitar have them give me a call!

https://chisholmcountry.com/2022/01/20/good-vibrations/

Glenn

[Mark wood]

Wow Glenn you do great work. You're right, there are a number of people on here whom are guitar folks. Most here have the craftsman chop to make guitars themselves and do. I'm not sure of how many do but Bob Hunt is active. I am a former luthier graduate of Roberto Venn. I have a bunch of great names on the list of people I made guitars for. Back in the day I was invited to show at Healdsburg Guitar Festival. I had to quit when I began severe reactions to some of the exotic woods to the level I couldn't enter that shop any longer with a rash breaking out. I do have to register a Fender, I mean complaint, yes, I received the cease and desist Fender letter. You stole my headstock...  Well, I guess great minds tend to think alike...

[Glenn Quarles]

Mark, that is so cool!!! Glad to meet you! I have been friends (emails, texts, etc) with Will Hinton for awhile, but didn’t know who else here are luthiers. That is too funny about our head stocks being similar in shape! I remember my first course at Galloup and thinking about what “my shape” would be…I just couldn’t get the elliptical wing shape of P-47, Spitfire, Bosta, etc out of my head! I thought nobody else has anything like that so it will be great! I guess you are right about great minds thinking alike!

And yes I understand about the dust!!! I am currently installing a big dust collection system in my shop right now!

I would love to meet you and see some of your amazing guitars one day.

GQ

[Mark wood]

Mark, that is so cool!!! Glad to meet you! I have been friends (emails, texts, etc) with Will Hinton for awhile, but didn’t know who else here are luthiers. That is too funny about our head stocks being similar in shape! I remember my first course at Galloup and thinking about what “my shape” would be…I just couldn’t get the elliptical wing shape of P-47, Spitfire, Bosta, etc out of my head! I thought nobody else has anything like that so it will be great! I guess you are right about great minds thinking alike!

And yes I understand about the dust!!! I am currently installing a big dust collection system in my shop right now!

I would love to meet you and see some of your amazing guitars one day.

GQ

I had two systems in my shop. One for collecting from the machinery and work stations and a shop air filer. I don't know what wood it was that hit me. I grew up and lived in Arizona at the time and always wanted to do Mesquite. I never found any raw material suitable to work with. I built my business on taking my customers through selecting the raw wood to finished instrument. I got pretty good at spending time with them and listening to them play to make recommendations on what guitar to build. It was a good time but a very tough business to be successful at. I was super fortunate and lucked out on a few good clients. That spread rapidly.

[Jim Kraft]

I have never built a guitar, but played base in another life years ago in a country band. Still pick on my guitar for my own enjoyment. I have an old Gibson and a newer cheap classical guitar. I entertain myself. I will never be a great guitar player, but I enjoy what I can do, and am still learning. My old 81 year old fingers still hit the right frets most of the time. LOL.

You guys build beautiful instruments. There is great satisfaction in building something to beautiful that also functions well. In the right hands.

[Glenn Quarles]

I have never built a guitar, but played base in another life years ago in a country band. Still pick on my guitar for my own enjoyment. I have an old Gibson and a newer cheap classical guitar. I entertain myself. I will never be a great guitar player, but I enjoy what I can do, and am still learning. My old 81 year old fingers still hit the right frets most of the time. LOL.

You guys build beautiful instruments. There is great satisfaction in building something to beautiful that also functions well. In the right hands.

Jim, it is great that you are still playing, keep at it!!! I’m sure you are very good at it!

GQ

[Glenn Quarles]

Mark, you are so correct on having to match the guitar to the player. So many people just don’t understand how different a guitar can be compared to another guitar that looks the same.

I am installing air filtration systems in the shop also…I think that will be a very important part!

GQ

[FLOYD CARTER]

I never built a guitar, but I did make one of these.  One of a kind,,, has 6 strings instead of the traditional 3

[FLOYD CARTER]

Oh yes.  And one of these.  The nameplate is dated 1965

[Dwayne Donnelly]

Since we're showing off. 
Body is made of ash, DiMarzio pickups, neck came unfinished and I redid the frets, it's plugged into a Frenzel tube preamp into a 100 watt solid state amp, the amp is in the cabinet  I built as well, mahogany stained pine and 2X12 Eminence  Red White and Blues speakers. It plays and sounds way better than I play...lol 

[Will Hinton]

Oh well, guess I'll join the crowd here.  Read Glenn's article and was/am really excited and impressed.  He and I had communicated before on the luthier side of town, and I have come to really admire the mesquite wood.  wow. When I saw your headstock, Mark, I thought I had miss read and it was a picture of Glenn's!  Nice work by both of you!
I'll stick the pics of my latest creation here, it is my number 60 over the last twenty years.

[Frank Simpson]

GQ!!!!

Great article!  Beautiful guitars!!

Can you believe it's been almost 20 years since we were in Hangar 63??

Best wishes,
Frank Simpson

[Glenn Quarles]

GQ!!!!

Great article!  Beautiful guitars!!

Can you believe it's been almost 20 years since we were in Hangar 63??

Best wishes,
Frank Simpson

Frank!! Dude how are you? Been a long time! We’re we flying tweets back then? Or T6?

Let’s stay in touch.

GQ

[Bob Hunt]

Gorgeous guitars, Glenn. Would you like to trade one for some covered foam wings... 

I've been dabbling with guitar building myself a bit. I used model plane tech to make the molds. Some photos are attached of the mold I made from foam and plywood. The guitar I'm building is a replica of a Martin D-28 Herringbone.


 

Later - Bob Hunt

[Bob Hunt]

Here are some photos of the fixtures Jeff Traxler and I made to rout the truss rod channel and to rout the tongue and groove onto the neck blank.

Later - Bob

[Mark wood]

The extreme exibition of ubercoolness being illustrated here is awesomeness on a next level.

[GallopingGhostler]

Nice work, Bob Hunt, love the handiwork on your jigs for manufacturing.

[Dennis Saydak]

I also build guitars. although I have built several acoustic replicas (Martin HD-OMV, Gibson J185 etc.) I now concentrate on making mainly steel guitars (Dobro & lap steels). My daughter is an artist and has decorated a few head stocks for me such as my go to Dobro "Sammy".

[Will Hinton]

Dennis, those are really cool.  Yosemite Sam is one of my cartoon heros and I have him on my Ruffy!  I love the wood on the Gibson replica, super cool.

[Dennis Saydak]

Thanks for your reply Will. I salvaged my "Fibson" top from another person who gave up on his project. However, the wood blank was too narrow in the upper bout. So I added a piece of filler wood on each side plus some complimentary veneer on top, which turned out quite well. Thanks to my model building experience I was able to save an otherwise wasted piece of figured maple.

[PerttiMe]

I'm just a guitar owner, and sometimes make cool noises with them.

Somehow, my guitars tend towards being unusual in some way
- telestrat that is shaped like a strat but has tele hardware and electronics.
- hardtail Stratocaster
- neck through Ibanez from 1982
- Landola (smallish) jumbo acoustic with birch for back, sides, and neck
- I guess my 2008 Breedlove OM is the exception, being pretty traditional in most ways.

I don't need a custom guitar. I don't need a custom guitar. I don't need a custom guitar. I really don't need one! But more significantly, I don't think I can afford a custom acoustic right now .....
----------------------------

You don't really need exotic woods to make a great guitar. Thing is: the people who buy guitars listen with their eyes, and they want to see exotic woods.

[Mark wood]

You don't really need exotic woods to make a great guitar. Thing is: the people who buy guitars listen with their eyes, and they want to see exotic woods.

For electric guitars that may be true, ish. Have you ever heard an acoustic made from Brazilian or Cambodian rosewood made from the same mold and as plane mahogany from the same luthier? I have. It makes a significant difference. Some woods like Ziricote and Rosewood ring like a bell and their impact on tone is definitely discernable.

[GallopingGhostler]

https://stunthanger.com/smf/open-forum/off-topic-guitar-article/msg630218/?topicseen#msg630218

I don't need a custom guitar. I don't need a custom guitar. I don't need a custom guitar. I really don't need one! But more significantly, I don't think I can afford a custom acoustic right now ..... You don't really need exotic woods to make a great guitar. Thing is: the people who buy guitars listen with their eyes, and they want to see exotic woods.

Natural pine looks really good on that guitar. I got a half dozen ukuleles (have taught a class of children at the local Salvation Army), and several guitars to include acoustic, electric and bass.

Regarding listening with eyes, it is the same with saxophones. About 6 years ago, I bought an Antigua Winds alto (made in Taiwan - decent brand) alto sax to replace my Yamaha YAS-61 pro model that was stolen in 1999. It plays as well as my old Yamaha, but I bought it used (1980's model) in very decent shape for several hundred dollars. Yet, instructors push them toward legacy brand name instruments, which prices are very inflated. A new Antigua Winds pro model goes for about the same price as a beginner Selmer or Yamaha.

Attached are photos of an early 1950's LeBlanc Beaugnier Vito bari sax that I bought for several hundred dollars off an Internet auction 10 years ago. It was an excessed old high school instrument, very well battered, was stored stored for some time in a dank warehouse or room, case smelled very moldy. Saving grace was it had good pads.

I made sure my wife saw me cart the case off to the dumpster. I bumped out the dents, straightened the key rack, resoldered broken loose posts, improvised a missing guard, installed missing plastic jewels, adjusted pad heights. Now it plays very well in tune, does falsetto notes well (special notes pitched above the stand fingerings), has a darker sound of pre-WW2 jazz.

Learned a little of the history, was hand made by the Beaugnier factory in a suburb of Paris. The factory closed around 1970 because they could not compete with modern machine made instruments. The only difference between the student model and pro was additional tuning, better engraving and semi-precious versus plastic jewels. I've played Selmer, King and Martin, this horn is easy blowing.

[Will Hinton]

For electric guitars that may be true, ish. Have you ever heard an acoustic made from Brazilian or Cambodian rosewood made from the same mold and as plane mahogany from the same luthier? I have. It makes a significant difference. Some woods like Ziricote and Rosewood ring like a bell and their impact on tone is definitely discernable.

Mark is spot on here, and I would like to ad KOA to his list, it has become one of my favorite tonewoods for acoustics.

[john e. holliday]

The old DOC envies you guys and your talents.  My Mother tried to teach me to play a flat top guitar, but I was not that interested.  Before she met my Dad her and my half brothers were offered a spot on the local radio show.  Her parents wouldn't let her takee it.  Later I tried to play a cornet and was getting to where I could play for the family, but cold sores made it hard to play.  Brother Howard trie d to teach me drums with no success.   But I do a mean air guitar now.

[GallopingGhostler]

Doc, God gave us all differing talents and those gifts are distributed in other areas besides music for some.

Some are gifted leaders. They are able to take charge, motivate people for good to follow a cause or task and bring it to successful completion. Others are gifted with their hands, able to make use of even sometimes the simplest of tools and accomplish the work quickly to meet the need. Some are gifted teachers. Others, have the ability to stick with a simple task hours on end without tiring, for example, those carrying roofing tiles up and down those ladders all day. We have gifted counselors. Some are excellent cooks. A few have excellent discernment and make decent lawyers, D.A.'s and judges.

So, if one isn't a musician, I'm sure they are good in another area to more than make up for it. A few years ago, appreciated flying with you and your generosity in allowing me to fly your Ringmaster.

[PerttiMe]

For electric guitars that may be true, ish. Have you ever heard an acoustic made from Brazilian or Cambodian rosewood made from the same mold and as plane mahogany from the same luthier? I have. It makes a significant difference. Some woods like Ziricote and Rosewood ring like a bell and their impact on tone is definitely discernable.

But what is the sound that you want?

I once participated in a blind listening test of pairs of guitars: exotic vs. non-traditional, same dimensions, by the same luthier. Of course there were differences, but it wasn't clear which people preferred. At the end of the session, the world-class acoustic player who did the playing picked a pair of guitars and explained his preference between them. The "rosewood guitar" was rich and it sustained forever. Great. But he didn't want that sound. He preferred the other one with back and sides in something like oak or birch (I forget what it was eactly). To me, that particular non-traditional-wood guitar sounded much more restrained. He called it "sweet".

edit: that blind test was arranged many years ago by https://www.leonardo-guitar-research.com/ 
They have probaly experimented more with Classical guitars but the test that I went to had steel string guitars.

[GallopingGhostler]

Speaking of custom guitars and something familiar to C/L fliers, here is Samantha Fish singing country on her K&B Supersonic fuel can guitar.



There is a video somewhere that while she plays the K&B guitar, her bass player is playing a Fox Missile Mist "oil can" bass guitar (but I can't find it).

[GallopingGhostler]

I read an article saying the loss of saxophones in music today is why modern rock and roll sucks. I agree. Nothing like a great alto sax in the mix, plus damn good drummer.

Sometimes if not keyboard, a soloist guitarist will substitute for a wind instrument improvising. Some are quite good and with their peddle board can do an effective job of filling in. However, woodwinds do have a unique sound that is very difficult to digitize doing a jazz lick. A good keyboardist (who probably doubles on a woodwind) can come close, because he knows how a woodwind player does phrasing, separation of notes, sustain and attacks. Much of today's music appears to be Karaoke programming with several keyboards, may be a drummer and a solo instrumentalist here and there. The last video of Michael Jackson's band rehearsing just prior to his passing away consisted of about 4 keyboard players, guitarist, bass guitarist, drums, several soloists (flute, violin / viola, etc.) However, when played sounded like a full band or orchestra.

Yes, good drummers are always a need. Sometimes I see a clear plexiglass cage surrounding a drummer and his set. This tells me that overall, he shows little control. A good drummer knows how to moderate his volume so he doesn't overpower the band or singers. Yet, his or her rock style will sound good, appropriate, can be a show stopper. That separates a true professional from an amateur.

[Mark wood]

But what is the sound that you want?

Sometimes people just want cheap guitars. Nothing wrong with that. I have a couple of Schecter guitars in my collection. It's better for a $500 guitar get stolen on the road than a $5,000 one or $10,000 dollar one.

Personal tone is another thing and different instrument have their base tone set. A dreadnaught can be identified as dreadnaught regardless of it's more finesse in tones. An OM or D18 same. Musicians tend to pick one which fits their personal range they like to work in. The materials the instrument is made with can highlight particular partials which complement those primary tone of a style. A good luthier understands that and can work with their client to find that tone.  It's that which makes the cost valuable. For many, especially those whom don't have the resources, there is no value in that.

[Mark wood]

Mark is spot on here, and I would like to ad KOA to his list, it has become one of my favorite tonewoods for acoustics.

Koa, yes old growth Koa. If you can get your hands on it is wonderful.

[Jim Kraft]

I like the sound of Willie Nelson's old beat up electrified Martin classical. Trigger. Very unique sound.

[Mark Mc]

Well, I do have a hankerin' to design and build me a guitar someday.  I have everything to build a decent Strat.  But I'm not much of a guitar player.  A few years ago I was of a mind to build myself an Ukulele to teach myself.  I thought that I could practice on breaks at work. But they weren't keen on playing in the break room, and I knew keeping a good Uke in my car would ruin it.  So I designed myself an electric Uke stick to keep in my car, which was a Hyundai Tucson.  I could plug it into the radio's Aux In and play over the car stereo, or plug in a set of headphones for quiet practice at home or in a public place.  I called it my Hyundailele.  Nothing really special, but at the local luthier's group meeting it was good enough to get a compliment and thumbs up from Roger Giffin.  So I'm satisfied I did a decent job.

Mark

[Mark wood]

Thanks for the PM Will. Brought a tear to my eye.

[PerttiMe]

https://stunthanger.com/smf/open-forum/off-topic-guitar-article/msg630218/?topicseen#msg630218

Natural pine looks really good on that guitar. ...

Oh. It is ash, actually. The guy who put it together sanded the body only lightly and finished it with a thin layer of some sort of furniture lacquer. It still feels like wood. He sold the guitar pretty cheap. He said he was reducing gear because his joints were giving him trouble and he couldn't play that much any longer.

The body is from https://www.guitarbuild.co.uk/ , the chunky neck has a Fender decal on it but it is definitely not a Fender item. The "vintage hot" tele bridge pickup and strat neck pickup are from Seymour Duncan.

[Will Hinton]

Thanks for the PM Will. Brought a tear to my eye.

You're welcome, Mark.  Birds of a feather.......

[Glenn Quarles]

Here is the one I just finished and delivered yesterday.

It is really nice seeing y’all’s pics and hearing your stories.

GQ

[Will Hinton]

Absolutely gorgeous hunka wood, my friend, looks good from every angle.  I just have to play one of those things with the fan frets someday, never knew of them before meeting you.  Now my curious juices are flowing strong.

[PerttiMe]

Here is the one I just finished and delivered yesterday.

It is really nice seeing y’all’s pics and hearing your stories.

GQ

That is a good looking guitar and, having read the article, I'm confident it sounds and plays like the customer wants it to.

The body shape looks unique. At least, it is certainly not a copy of a Martin or Taylor. My Breedlove also has a band of lighter colored spruce in the middle. When looking at it before buying, I was on the edge of thinking of it as a flaw. Now, I consider it a cool feature. And that top does what a top is supposed to do. The headstock shape is certainly distinctive. The eyes might have to get used to it, but I like the idea of the strings continuing in a relatively straight line beyond the nut.

I had to google "mesquite". It doesn't grow on my side of the world, and doesn't seem to be one of the usual "tonewoods". It does look good and clearly works for building guitars. Are there any particular challenges in working with it? Like, one luthier told me that bending flame birch for guitar sides can be a little tricky.

[Glenn Quarles]

That is a good looking guitar and, having read the article, I'm confident it sounds and plays like the customer wants it to.

The body shape looks unique. At least, it is certainly not a copy of a Martin or Taylor. My Breedlove also has a band of lighter colored spruce in the middle. When looking at it before buying, I was on the edge of thinking of it as a flaw. Now, I consider it a cool feature. And that top does what a top is supposed to do. The headstock shape is certainly distinctive. The eyes might have to get used to it, but I like the idea of the strings continuing in a relatively straight line beyond the nut.

I had to google "mesquite". It doesn't grow on my side of the world, and doesn't seem to be one of the usual "tonewoods". It does look good and clearly works for building guitars. Are there any particular challenges in working with it? Like, one luthier told me that bending flame birch for guitar sides can be a little tricky.

Mesquite is very good to work with! It is pretty dense and very hard. It cuts, machines and sands fantastic and I have never had any problems bending it. I use it exclusively just for the wild, rustic character of the wood.

GQ

[Eric Jensen]

I just rejoined this forum a couple weeks ago. This is a nice thread! I have been building Steel String folk guitars off and on since 1978. Here is my size 1 from 2020. Cheers.

[PerttiMe]

^ There's uses for such small guitars, but I don't think they are for me.

It looks very neat. It has just enough embellishments but not too much. The top has some "character" which I like.

[Will Hinton]

^ There's uses for such small guitars, but I don't think they are for me.

My last three orders have been for parlor guitars.

[PerttiMe]

^ There's uses for such small guitars, but I don't think they are for me.

My last three orders have been for parlor guitars.

Just goes to show that people want and need different things. There ain't no such thing as a guitar that is perfect for everybody and everything.