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102. Of course, it was 10 months ago that I completed 100 so not many this last year.

I'm on my first!

Man, lot of seasoned pros here!!

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Yah, Peter, your first 'quadruple' top ...

Sam, the answer to your question might be 'Obsessive Compulsiveness'!    I know it is for me! And not to scare you, but no.2, for me, was murder compared to my first... I struggled like mad. However, no.3 has been a lot better...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Michael Collins asked me that question on a recent thread that went in too many directions before I answered, so this is a good time. I have completed 14 from scratch, and am still playing with the braces on one or two, and need to refinish the top of one due to messing up near the fretboard with a neck reset. Nine have sold, I'm keeping two, one is for sale at fineguitarconsultants.com, and I hope to sent two more soon. I have replaced tops on three of the ones here, not being happy with the first ones due to an experiment that didn't work. I felt it would be easier to do that than start over.

The second part of Michael's question involved how many guitars I've tried my theories on, which I feel is quite another thing from how many I've built. I've revoiced over one hundred guitars, from most all of the major factories and some two dozen hand builders.

So as far as trying my ideas goes, in a sense I do this at least a dozen times per re-voice, until I get the balance perfect. Using my theory to analyze why any particular string or fret is quiet, I am able to find the cause everytime, although there are sometimes more than one brace causing dampening or inhibiting release of energy.

In doing this work, I may have a slight advantage due to severe hearing damage suffered in 1977. It occurred at the end of a gig, and involved having my hands full as I prepared to leave, and being in front of the new house sound system when a drunk manager dimed it. I am still listening to that screaming feedback, and lost a big hunk of mids. Still, I can hear all of the notes on a guitar, and no one has observed any problem from that in the finished work.

Al Carruth recently posted that normal people can only distinguish a 3-4 db difference in volume, but tests then showed I can hear a spike of 51 over 50 db. The audiologist said that normal hearing needed a 60 db spike over 50 to hear it. I forget what this proved, but I think it had to do with determining if the damage was the result of a single event or chronic r 'n' r. This sensitivity has come at great cost--a threshold of pain at 65-70 db, called hypercussis. Pete Townshend has it too, as do a number of other musicians. It eventually forced me to retire from performing for a living, as the volume in most venues has risen to intollerable levels, even wearing ear plugs. Don't forget those hearing protectors around power tools!

Scott


Scott van Linge39033.727037037

wow how long have you guys been at it to get hundreds of builds completed?

Terry, you are WAY to modest! THIS guitar WILL sell! Shish Look at it! What a beauty!



LanceK39033.7008564815

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Finished building the deck 'round the pool on Saturday, started buffing out the finish on guitar #2 on Sunday.

Thinking about #3. Waiting on some wood from the Don before I commit. Lotsa projects going on, hope I'll find the time.

If I count those that have made it through to finish and play ok I probably have completed 12.

If I count the ones that were so bad in those early attempts, where I slipped with a router and ruined the back, and those where the soundboard cracked or buckled or those that wouldnt play or those that played but not well, or others that I hung on my wall of shame - or those that I simply fell out of love with after the body was finished and sold them on ebay, well if you are talking about all those guitars I think I have done around 23

Did I mention AAA behavoir and OCD tendencies?

"zero point zero"

I'm working on my first. Acutally, I've gotten most of the jigs and stuff out of the way I'm ready to start joining top and back. WOO HOO!

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nay

My blogs
Hand Made Gutar
Woodworker++

Finished 12 Classicals 13-15 on the Bench and 1 OOO steel string 1/2 done.

25-50, jigs that is!

2 guitars completed, 2 DREADNAUGHTS ahem! Guitar no 3 is started with bent sides and blocks and kerfed linings glued in, i plan on starting no 4 soon too and build 4 F-5 mandolins within the next 3-4 years, i hope!

17 guitars, 5 guitar-bouzoukis, 2 guitar-citterns, 1 appalachian dulcimer, and 1/3 of a Weissenborn . . . and a partridge in a pear-tree

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

[QUOTE=Dave White] 17 guitars, 5 guitar-bouzoukis, 2 guitar-citterns, 1 appalachian dulcimer, and 1/3 of a Weissenborn . . . and a partridge in a pear-tree [/QUOTE]

If it was me I'd cut the pear tree down for neck wood and pegs, nice purfling as well,...Oh, and eat the partridge!

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

1 fretless bass
1 acoustric Les Paul
1 reso
5 mandolins
1 dread

currently working on . . . .

doubleneck 6/12 acoustic
Cutaway mandolin
Oak/spruce kids guitar
EIR/Cedar Jumbo

and planning a bozouki and a flute

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

Nathan, I'm going to have to keep you company. Got any room in your corner there?

Well, maybe next spring, after we move again.

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Aoibeann

I'm just closing up a "Colin inspired" SJ. That puts me at 12 acoustics.

Dave,
I'd love to see what bracing you use for that Wiessenborn!


Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

I just finished FP on number three, and am carving the neck on number four.

-Mark

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Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

trippguitars.com
OR
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3 are done. Nearly ready for the finish on #4. But #4 was started before #3. Big quality difference in the overall work on #3. Parts of #4 are not as good as #3 because of poor technique and skills that jumped a level as I started #3. Got it. Bottom line - I can't wait to start #5!

My last sale said it was #51 on the label I think...I would have to check. That's if you think you can trust a label...
Then came my dobro, if that counts. But in there prior to that are several unfinished guitars.
And a few more are about to get started I think.

Now don't nobody go gittin' the wrong idea...I'm still retired.
Don Williams39034.5707291667

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

4 flattop acoustics
1 archtop acoustic
2 electrics
1 flattop mandolin
1 f-style mandolin
about 6 dulcimers...

over about 25 years...

3 guitars
2 flat top mandolins
1 A2 style mandolin (well, a friend and I worked on this together. Helping her scratched my luthierie itch so I didn't work on anything for myself.)
I just started my 4th guitar. I might start my 5th at the same time. #2&3 were built together and I liked the process.

I've been doing this for about 5 years now. It's not that I'm slow. It's that I don't get down to the shop very often.

I am late to this topic but 32 now 27 commissions, 2 personal, one display and 2 donations.