Official Luthiers Forum!

In “Joining Backs & Tops II” was this exchange:
[QUOTE=MichaelP] [QUOTE=Brock Poling]
Is anything REALLY ever accepted? It seems that these things get debated
at least once ever 12 months or so. [/QUOTE]
Evey new batch of new member will always bring up old debates, but that
is nothing new to luthierie. there is not much we can discuss that has not
been hashed over before. But that is perfectly ok. After all that is why we
join togather.[/QUOTE]
That being the case, I’m happy to lead off the roll-call of recent newbies:

I’m Charlie from Atlanta, and I used to play guitar but no longer own one;
I had my desire to play re-ignited by my brother a couple months ago,
and discovering the existence of kits reminded me that 25 years ago, I
headed for California to learn how to build the things. Never made it to
CA, fell in w/ non-musicians, stopped playing; now I’m in a “period of
transition” in my personal & professional life, wishing I had a guitar &
wondering if I have what it takes to make one - or more - even though I
have no experience in woodworking.

So I’ve been spending hours every day devouring the archives here &
MIMF & 13th Fret, cruising luthiers’ web-pages, reading Cumpiano &
Kinkade, putting together 6-month, 1-, 3- & 7-year plans (in case I like it
& and preparing to turn a 11’ x 19’ shed into a dedicated, weather-tight
workshop before Thanksgiving.

I am absolutely determined to make AT LEAST one guitar - a Stew-Mac
mahogany / spruce D kit.

I’ve posted before this - mostly making unintentionally-dumb remarks, I
imagine - still feel too ignorant to even ask questions...but that will
probably change: in the mean time, I hope I don’t aggravate you nice
folks too much! Ron, thank you for your generous welcome into the fold
- hope I wasn’t ungracious to you (it was waaay past my bedtime, as I
recall - like now).

Hopefully some of the other beginners will sound off....

[QUOTE=chmood]
I’ve posted before this - mostly making unintentionally-dumb remarks, I
imagine - still feel too ignorant to even ask questions...but that will
probably change: in the mean time, I hope I don’t aggravate you nice
folks too much!

[/QUOTE]

I always tell my students never be afraid to ask the "dumb" question. It's probably the one all the others wanted to ask but were too nervous to do so. We were all beginners at one time and our life would have been much easier (I know mine would have been ) if we'd had somewhere, with the degree of expertise you'll find here, to ask the "dumb" question. There are 400 or so people on this forum and if just half a dozen come up with an answer for you, it will be at least a couple of decades worth of experience brought to bear on your problem.

Sometimes even for the more experienced among us it is surprising how often you see an answer to a simple question given by one of the big fish around here that makes you think "Why hadn't I thought of doing it that way".

ColinColin S38641.2089351852

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

Well hello. Let me also welcome you to the OLF. The best danged forum on the net. When I first got here I was told, and am still being told, that there are absolutly no dumb questions. They used to tell me that in school, then I'd ask a question and everyone would laugh. I felt dumb! But in truth, I was just ignorant. Which means I was lacking information. On this forum, information is abundant, so ask away. No one here will laugh, because we've all asked these questions before.
Again, welcome to the OLF. MAKE TAHT GUITAR! The folks here will guide you, challenge you,(we like to post pictures here)and encourage you.

Just to add a bit of clarification. My original remarks were a bit or tongue and cheek sarcasm because someone said something about "the accepted practice for..."

I agree... there are no dumb questions.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Hi Charlie!
Welcome to the OLF!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Charlie, don't forget to check out the search facility and the other resources from the links above. There is a mine of infromation on virtually every lutherie topic under the sun there. You can spend many a happy hour rummaging there.

Colin

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

Let me add something else, Charlie. I'm a newbie as far as building goes. I'm a senior on the forum simply because I've asked a lot of questions. The number of posts don't equate necessarily with guitar building experience. I'm still working on my first one. I've been an algebra teacher for 36 years and have answered the same question thousands of times. Some days it bothers me, some days it doesn't. We all realize that even though we've said something many times, everyone hasn't heard it. I love this forum and I appreciate the experience represented here and I appreciate that those wiser than me are willing to share. I've never met anyone here in person, but coming here is like sitting around the campfire with your best friends.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

OK, I'll step up. I've been lurking here for about 4 months. Always been a
builder, even as a child. In my 20s I started messing about with banjos
and guitars in the mid-70s. Built two banjos and rebuilt three guitars
bought at garage sales and junk shops, the most successful having been
a $25 Gibson L-00 in three big pieces. Also played in a string band.
Dreamed for years about building a guitar, but at the time, there were no
kits that I knew of, and certainly no information resources as invaluable
as OLF. Drifted away from instruments and playing, and have just recently
drifted back.

Currently building my first, an LMI RW OM, which is in the white, first
played a week ago today. Watching and waiting as a wolf tone drops
slowly in pitch, but not intensity. Otherwise very happy with the results so
far. It's been a great experience. Couldn't have gotten this far without you
all. burbank38641.4433333333

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Wow...I'm glad to see you "new" guys coming out of the woodwork. That's great! Please ask questions, that's why we're here...and exchange.
Someone recently reminded me that there are indedd no dumb questions...except for those that are never asked.
So ask away. Hopefully somebody here will have an answer. I suspect that's how most of us learned what we know. I owe a great debt to folks like Mario Proulx and others who hung out on the MIMF prior to the OLF's existance. We have great resources on the web today. It sounds like Charlie and Burbank have started in a good place too.

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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."

IN my guitar building classes I am amazed at how guys come up with ways of doing things I had never thought of. It is like we get set in our ways sometimes and then when we see someone eles's approach and the light comes on. Sometimes I feel I learn just as much from them as they learn from me. Welcome to all the newer folks and Happy Building to everyone.     

You'll note that (at least now, as I post this) beneath my name will be the ridiculous words "Senior Member." I will not be a "senior" for 14 years, and until I complete at least one guitar, I am certainly not even a distant cousin, twice removed, of a luthier.

So, just to let you know, if you ask enough questions here, you will eventually become a "Senior Member" and maybe even a "Grizzled Veteran." But you'll be welcomed, and given assistance, and quite possibly no one here will poke you with a ten foot pole even if you insist on building an experimental design for your first guitar.

Dennis (pre-newbie, in lutherie)

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

I think we all realize that the labels associated with our names are really just our activity within this forum, certainly not our prowess as builders.

Some of the guys I see that have fewer than 25 posts are the heros of our world. (Bill Moll, Tom Ribbecke, Dan Erlewine, Lance McCollum, Mike Doolin, David Berkowitz, Rick Davis, ... just to name a few). (And there are some really great builders who are frequent participants.... which is always appreciated.)

It seems almost a crime to see the words newbie by their names... but again, these titles are nothing more than an expression of how windy we are... nothing else.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Howdy and welcome. There is an immense wealth of info and knowledge to be gleaned here, not only in luthiery, but everyday life with all it`s trials and tribulations.
I`m still a newbie also (I have yet to finish #1), so don`t let "senior member" fool you on my part!
Great bunch of people here!

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

Charlie,
welcome to the OLF! I'm new here as well. I am currently building an electric. I know this is a primarily acoustic builders forum. I was a bit apprehensive to join at first, but decided "what the heck"! I introduced myself, let everyone know I was building an electric, and waited for hardly any response. To my surprise, many people welcomed me, welcomed any questions I might have, and have been very helpful, even for an "electric builder like me"! I plan on building an acoustic when i can in the future and I know this is"THE" place for help and friendly advice from real builders who cares.
Mark Laura

Welcome Charlie, we have e-spoke here already and welcome Pat. Glad to have both of you with us. Everyone is right, there are no dumb questions here and like my quoted point was intended, rehashing or going over old ground only makes us re-examine the way we do things. As often as not I find the insight to tweak the ways I do things, hidden in the questions of both veteran and newbie members almost every day.

If a good teacher will learn as much from one student as he will teach two, then he is a good teacher indeed.

Hi Folks,

Another newbie to the forum here. I worked as a piano tuner/technician in NYC during the seventies but changed careers in the early eighties when my wife (prof. classical violinist) and I decided to move out of NYC to raise our kids.

Since then, I've been involved in systems & network engineering (they didn't teach that stuff to music majors at CCNY, for sure! ) in international telecom.

I'm just getting started on a square neck reso. This weekend I started laying out the patterns from a Paul Beard plan. I'll post pics when I get a little further along. It will be a present for my wife, who after hearing a Mike Auldridge recording, became facinated with the sound. It will be interesting to see if she can learn to play it. She is a fabulous violinist but can't seem "fiddle" very well.

Lots of good ideas, methods, tools, & opinions on this forum! (and great pics too!)

Regards,
Chris

Be warned ;once you make that first guitar you could be hooked like many on this forum.
   good luck

OK, I'll chime in. I've owned a decent amount of guitars (they usually come and go) and had always flirted with the idea of building one - "some day". So, late last year, desperate to find someone in my area to refret a guitar, I hooked up with a builder named Brad Nickerson who agreed to "teach" me to refret. He did, I had a blast, and the bug bit. Unfortunately, about that time, my wife and I had a few significant medical issues, and I dropped the concept. Fast forward to January of this year. I met, via the internet, an awesome builder, and ran with the hunch of my luthiery lifetime. I ordered my first custom guitar from none other than Don Williams - and in July, he delivered a work of art. I received the best guitar I've ever owned, bar none. It staggers me to this day.

Don and I have become friends, and he's now being supportive and suggesting I get back to the idea of building one of my own...especially since our medical emergency "seems" to have passed. So, I'm sort of in the process of making a work space, hanging out on this, and other, forums, gathering a needed tool list (and money)...and, generally, trying to find out what I'd be getting myself into. When it comes time, I'm going to order a kit from John Hall, possibly ask Brad for more "lessons", bribe Don if I have to...and bug you folks.   :-)

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Bill welcome to our little twelve step program Don't worry about the money there is always the kids college fund. Trust me on this, the Zootman will get sooner or later. But I would guess DonW already told you that.

[QUOTE=Simplyhere]Don and I have become friends, and he's now being supportive and suggesting I get back to the idea of building one of my own...especially since our medical emergency "seems" to have passed. So, I'm sort of in the process of making a work space, hanging out on this, and other, forums, gathering a needed tool list (and money)...and, generally, trying to find out what I'd be getting myself into. When it comes time, I'm going to order a kit from John Hall, possibly ask Brad for more "lessons", bribe Don if I have to...and bug you folks.   :-)[/QUOTE]

Be Warned!!! Before you *** REALLY *** get the bug consider that you could probably go out and buy yourself a Traugott for less money than what this will eventually cost you.

After you acquire a shop full of tools and a few hundred sets of wood (luthiers have W.A.S as oppossed to the players' G.A.S) and you will understand.

It is tremendous fun, and is extremely rewarding... but you have been warned. Brock Poling38643.2274652778

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Welcome, EpeeDad. I hope you enjoy lutherie as much as we all seem to.   I too, am an Epee Dad. My son fences both foil and Epee here in New Hampshire. I've started on foil myself because I was spending so much time sitting around at the club I figured I might as well try it. So far, I'm enjoying it.

Mike Mahar - Rennaisance Man.

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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."

Mike Mahar - Rennaisance Man.

Uh, A.D.D can be your friend. If I could only concentrate on one thing for awhile, I might get good at it.

[QUOTE=Brock Poling]
Be Warned!!! Before you *** REALLY *** get the bug consider that you could probably go out and buy yourself a Traugott for less money than what this will eventually cost you. [/QUOTE]

Man-o-man, ain't that the truth! But I am reminded of the old saying (in so many words): "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life."

As it pertains to somebody like me, who has played guitar for many years, and who has often lusted over guitars that I couldn't afford without undergoing considerable sacrifice, now I can pick and choose which one I wish to have -- because I can build it, and I can do so for a small fraction of the cost of buying a new or vintage guitar. And as if that wasn't enough, I have found that the guitars I build almost always sound better than what I find on the racks -- even the high dollar ones. And I've been doing this for less than two years.

I consider myself to have reached the "experienced novice" stage. My builds have reached that point where I consider them to be good enough for me to put my name on a label and offer them for sale to the general public. For me, it took eight guitars before I was able to accomplish this. But it will likely take dozens more before I'll consider my build quality to be high enough to compete with some of today's outstanding builders.

Building guitars has been liberating for me. It has empowered me. True, I could have bought some excellent guitars for what I've invested so far in tools and tonewood, but where's the fun in that? I'd rather build and enjoy the fruits of my labor, and share them with others who can appreciate them as I do.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

That’s really the hook, isn't it, "Fruits of my labor" That point when you set it on a stand, look at it from all sides, pick it and set it in your lap and play it for just a min or two and look up and 2 hours have passed.

That is the payoff. The moment of adulation when you know all the hours of work and money invested has produced this wonderful creation and the realization that you get to do it again.

God blesses fruits of hard labor