Guitar builders and players

[Larry Meyer]

Noticed on Doug Ingram’s blog site that he’s a guitar builder too. Out of personal curiosity, I wonder how many others here are guitar builders and players. I once got some great advice here on what guitar polish to use.

 

[Mark Adams]

Not here! I tried to learn to play when I was a kid. I discovered then I don't have any musical ability whatsoever. I sound so bad I don't even sing in the shower for fear of embarrassment!

 

[Jim Okkema]

I play guitar a bit. I haven't built one, but I'd like to once the unfinished project list goes down a little. I did build a ukulele from the Stew Mac kit. It would make a great tripping size instrument, but mostly I use it while commuting.

 

[Douglas Ingram]

Thanks for looking! More than a few here, I know.

 

[Dan Miller]

I've started a couple of instruments, including a guitar, but they get packed away at each move and never finished. Maybe this time is the charm, I got another new shop for Christmas!

Dan

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

I play quite a bit and have dabbled in some fairly simple building projects. It seems like over the years I've supported my canoe habit with money made with guitars and my guitar habit with money made building canoe stuff, so I guess they go together pretty well. Here is a folder of photos of an electric mandolin I built for my brother from a kit and a new solid maple body that I built for one of my basses. It's mostly sanding and paint work, though I veneered the mandolin top with curly maple veneer set in WEST epoxy. Then they both got about 19 coats of sprayed acrylic varnish, followed by a lot of wet-sanding by hand (all the way up to 12,000 grit) and finally hand buffing.

http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/Music stuff/guitar building/

You can hear a sound clip of the finished bass here (third one down).
http://www.broadjam.com/artists/hom...onID=a8nqkub9f8khps5qk3jl129oj5&sessionINDEX=

 

[dumbquestionsguy]

I have a '69 tele thinline reissue that looks suspiciously similar to your mandolin (especially in the pickguard configuration). The bass looks like an old Rickenbacker - very cool.

Talent wise playing guitar is far higher on my list of abilities than building boats actually (one of the things that intrigues me about building boats is that it's something that I don't have any natural talent at!). One of my other main hobbies is building (and using, of course) recording equipment/guitar pedals. I'm fleshing out a studio in my basement. I have been playing guitar for over a decade - I love it. Never trained or anything - just picked it up. I'd love to build a hollowbody archtop electric someday, but you know, gotta figure out this boat thing first. If anyone ever wants to talk guitars, I'm always game. Can you tell? Apologies for the over enthusiasm. You're blending two of my main interests. I can't help it.

And yes, doug, I'm jealous of your guitar making abilities - dragon inlay and all.

 

[Larry Meyer]

Todd, are you the guy who recommended Preservation Polish (silicon free) for use cleaning old guitars? That was one of the best pieces of guitar advice I ever got: did a bang up job on my 73 Martin. I suppose why I made the post was that my occasional posts on musical instruments here (I recall hijacking a thread off to the subject of vintage violins) have always elicited some very high quality expertise.