Official Luthiers Forum!

Happy 2009 everyone!

OK we heard about what we least like to do when building guitars so now it's time to ask what is your favorite guitar building operation?

Mine is bracing a top which includes gluing the braces with HHG and especially carving them and voicing the top. I am still amazed by how a top can come alive right before your very ears.

Let's hear what part of building a guitar is your favorite?

Stringing it up and hearing its 1st notes, that really makes one feel good and that all the work was worth it. My second favorite is hearing it played by a really good guitarist, I attend all of the Michigan Fingerstyle concerts and workshops so I have had the chance to have many really talented people play the 3 guitars I have built.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

I've really enjoyed bending as of late. It's alway the voicing or bending that I enjoy the most.

Going to a wood supplier & picking out sets !!

Also stringing them up !

Mike

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Mike Collins

Stringing it up for the first time.Then preparing the top for glueing.Then

Voicing gets me all excited

For me it has to be the look on the face of the recipient when they see/play it for the first time.

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Stringing one up and hearing it play for the first time. An equal to that is what Dave said. When someone opens the case and yells "Hot Dang" and runs in a circle, that's wonderful. When they play it and yell again, running in another circle, that is the ultimate!! Meeting the people that adopt your guitars and making new friends is the best part all in all. I deliver mine and don't ship if it is within 5 hours of my home for this very reason. I've made some really good friends who I still talk with because of a guitar.

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Brad Tucker

FINISHING!!!

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jw ( o)===:::

So far it has been carving the braces. I like about anything that involves a chisel.

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Jeremy Douglas

My dad died suddenly when I was 12 - cerebral hemorrhage - never saw it coming... he was only 42 and healthy.

I'm now 55.. and having the ability to share the joy of building guitars with my son (22) in our shop (garage) is by far my favorite part.

This all started with a dream 2 years ago - that we got to share this past May by spending a week with Kevin Gallagher. It is a week I will never forget.

My son and I had a great relationship going into this - but it is even more special now.

I'm convinced his grandpa he never met is smiling down on us from a better place.

Happy New Year.

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Seeing Paul's post.

I really like it all and then shipping them

My best time was working with Bill Moll and sharing time and learning more for a couple of years and visiting him. The vet's or their kids graditude and happiness when get it. Hearing from a couple of them who did some home recordings on ones they got.

Building wise as this thread was intended, I think the whole part of making, and carving the braces to where want them and the cutting of binding channels and binding the box, routing the rosette channel and making and inlay of the rosette. I like all those processes equal. I am looking forward to starting electric's doing more and more repair work. I am getting where like repair as much as building if not more. Harder, but love learning those challenges. May as wife has recommended look for a school that is really more repair orientated than building. Anyone know of such a place?

It may just be that this forum is one of the best parts of guitar building for me. The confidence I gain from reading
all of your posts and seeing the great work done by each of you gives me hope that I can pull it off. I started building
when there was nobody to talk to, one book, Joseph Wallo in Washington D.C. as a wood supplier (he'd rather have been building and repairing violins...) so it was tough. I slowed down, built a few guitars over a 30 year period and then realized that things had changed, there was a community of builders who were glad to share ideas and techniques, it was fun again.
So this place is one of the best things about building for me.

Paul's post was great, I lost my Dad at a very young age over 30 years ago, we share the same profession and I'd love to have him around for a day to compare notes and trade stories. My wife and I have no children so I have to imagine what
that would be like, sure seems like one of the great joys in life. I can't think of a better way to connect with a son or daughter than by building together.

My favorite part of building would have to be right after the body is joined together and you smell that great smell
through the soundhole of pure wood and glue, no finish, just raw wood. It's a great smell.. and you have not had a chance to screw up the process of routing for the bindings yet so you're still in a good mood.......

Thanks Hesh, great post.

Bruce

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

I love inlaying the fretboard that is my favorite process

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Walking into my workshop in the morning is always a big thrill; but:

Voicing a top is the most stimulating;

Carving a neck is most satisfying;

Stringing up a guitar is the most exiting;

Seeing the reaction of the buyer is the most gratifying...


Something really special about being a luthier: when meeting new people who ask you what you do for a living, the look of astonishment you get when you answer that you make guitars (or any other string instrument in the applicable case). It's like for a few seconds, they seem to be thinking: "Wow! This is the coolest job I have heard about in a long time!"

Do you guys get that reaction too?

Cheers

Pat

Ditto

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

The pure enjoyment of listening to a musician bring my guitars alive....
Where would they be without us?????

I always love spraying the finish and seeing the wood come alive. Carving the bracing ranks up there as does scraping the perflings and seeing all the tight joints.

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

I gotta go with bending the sides and gluing the braces on the top and then shaping them. That really gets me on a roll to finish the box.

Great thread by the way!

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"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

I'm with Mike...I love to shop for wood.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I enjoy everything but the sanding (of all types), but my favorite is probably carving a neck. To start with a rectangular chunk of wood and find and remove everything that isn't a neck is a real thrill.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

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

I am really impressed that some of you have a favorite part. I kind of like it all. To me, to have a favorite would imply having a least favorite. Its not a job to me. Jobs have bests and worsts. Not so in guitar building (for me).

Mike

Seeing the customer's satisfying smile.

I just love pore filling!!!... I'm being facetious, of course...

There are many steps I really enjoy. Voicing a top is always very cool, as is carving the neck and planning/executing a rosette...

Although I really enjoy stringing up a guitar for the first time, I'm always a bit apprehensive at the lack of tone and projection in the first few hours. I also really enjoy setting up a guitar. Although the steps can be repetitive and seemingly mundane, dialing in the action is what makes a player.

Speaking of which, here's a little tip I picked from K&K pick-up instalation guides. When you're setting action (intonating/shapping saddle/installing pick-ups...etc...) and you need to take out the pins at the bridge, use a capo (I like to clamp it around fret 5) so you can maintain tension at the tuners and you can secure the dangling strings instead of having the ball ends hitting your freshly finished guitar. Now why didn't I think of that!

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

Oddly enough .. buying the wood !!!!! nothing like feasting on a pile of zoot, with a not yet maxxed out piece of plastic in your hand ...

But really, I enjoy mostly everything except wet sanding and rubbing out a finish .. going thru causes so many heartaches .... but when the strings finally go on .. Mmmmmmmm

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"