Official Luthiers Forum!

When I started building I had this notion that I would become a better builder faster if I forced myself to play and only play guitars that I built. So I sold off some guitars that I had (a Martin HD-28V and a Huss and Dalton) and only kept a guitar that I have had since the late 70's and I purchased new. This one, a Guild, had sentimental value for me so I didn't want to toss it but I did put it away in a closet and it was not played again nor did it get any string changes....

So folks this thread is all about YOUR OTHER.... Guitar.... Now I know that some of you may take issue with admitting on a public forum that you indeed have an OTHER... guitar but perhaps no one will ever find this thread once buried in the archives....

Also it's interesting to look at your OTHER... Guitar... and see what influence it may have had on your building. I think that you will see some influence that my OTHER... Guitar... had on my building in as much as this one is dark brown.... I mean it has color and I like black guitars....

My OTHER... Guitar is a Guild D-25 that I purchased at a mall music store in 1977 or 79, can't remember and I am too lazy to look up the sn again. It was very close to Christmas and the store had received 10 of these D-25's and I made them open every single box and I tried them all looking for the best one. Once I picked it out I took it to a Luthier the next day and had him install Grovers on it. And it has served me very well ever since.

She shows no signs of needing a neck reset yet and the lower bout has some belly, I would call it 3 months pregnant but nothing to worry about.

It's time to do a fret job though and now use all that I have learned to update this guitar into a more functional player. So I plan on doing a fret job, making a bone nut, making a bone saddle, and converting the bridge/top/plate for non-slotted pins. She should sound good and play well once all is done.







Looks like BRW fretboard and bridge - what taste like....





Let's see your OTHER... Guitar(s)????

Thanks

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Ann Arbor Guitars

My wife has a '65 D35 Rio that her father bought for her new, and a '37 all black Nick Lucas Gibson that is fabulous! She also has a matching 12, but it is in a bad state of repair.

Well I have a 1974 Alvarez Yairi 9 string (EADGgbbee) that has been with me since I graduated high school. I still love tht guitar. I have a 1960 something LP Custom that is pretty much put and seldom comes out. I say 1960 something because it is one of those where Gibson messed up their serial number sequence and reused serial numbers (1963-1966) it is a later 60's model because it has the peghead volute as apposed to the straight transition on the early 60's models.. I have a 640 scale Macassar Ebony/Redwood Hauser braced Bellucci that I love. It was a surprise birthday gift form my wife and grand kids. I know Bellucci are not that highly prized among serious classical players but this guitar is awesome. It is the only one i have a picture of with me here at work.

While you have the strings off, Hesh, put a wood cap on that x brace. I did that for a friend on his old Guild and it really helped focus the bass.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

55 strat with one of those fabric amps, 56 Martin 00028, both inherited,and will pass on both. Strat almost look unplayed, case mint. Yamaha 335 some kind old classical, . Want Slobod, Moll archtop, Mayes 13 fret he is doing,hope someday anyway.

Oh the stories I could tell about guitars bought and sold... One comes to mind in particular - an all original 1960 Esquire that I bought for the princely sum of $100 dollars. When I sold it, for $200 dollars, that was what it was worth. Now?

Here is my 1960 ES-175D and a Fender Concert Twin designed by Rivera.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

1955 Martin D18, 1973 Martin D18S, 1964 Gibson J50, 1964 Gibson LGO, 1950 something Gibson RB100 BANJO . The banjo isn't mine, it was owned by my wife's late Father. I've also got a Fiddle, and Cello built by my Great Grandfather, and a Tacoma Mandolin.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

I still own (and play fairly often) my first guitar: a '69 Martin 00-28G (nylon string) that my mother got new when she was in college and gave to me when I was in high school. It's not very loud and really isn't great for playing most classical pieces but it has a really sweet tone, is nice for folk stuff and is a great little guitar to curl up on the couch with and pick on. So far I've only built classicals but I have always really liked 12 fret 00's and have been giving a lot of thought to building one soon (though not the nylon string version that mine is).
-William

I HAD a 57 D-8 that I sold to buy materials for guitar building (still miss that guitar). So I now have a Santa Cruz model H parlor, a eighty something Martin J-40, a sixties Harmony, a Telecaster etc... Managing the personal lives of all of these guitars is the hardest - the jealousy, the tantrums and now with the newest OM I'm building almost done.... sibling rivalry! It's a little like being a cub scout leader.

Hesh, I remember those 70's Guilds. My roomate in college had one and I loved it. I used to sneak onto it a play it all the time. He was constantly pissed off at me about it, but I didn't care much - just wanted to play it. You're lucky I don't live closer to you

Cub scout leader eh....

Randolph my friend no problem - my Guild was once loaned to a friend for 5+ years.... When it came back it had a bunch of scratches and dings but that is what can happen when it gets played a lot so no prob. These days I see guitars as a musician's tools and not a wall hanging...

William it sounds like your first guitar has had an influence on your building too!

The Same for Woody since you have dreads and build dreads too!

Steve me too - about the stories... I was told early on to never, never sell guitars but I did not listen and I have had some guitars that are very valuable now....

Stan bro that's pretty cool that you are going to continue the tradition of passing on these guitars. Good on ya!!!

Ken my friend I will PM you with some questions. I can see that there is just a cloth patch in there now.

Man that's pretty guitar Michael!!

Haans you folks have some killer guitars! Hey if you ever wanna take some photos of the Nick L. and post them it would make this old fart's day? Thanks!

Let's hear about and/or see some more OTHER guitars!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Too many to mention them all. But I like lots of different things about different guitars. I'm proud of where I am in my building, but I also know lot's of guitars got me beat hands down. So even though I've made almost 50 guitars and managed to keep three, when it came time to making a record I went and bought a Gibso AJ,tons of fundamental and almost impossible to make sound bad!

I still have my first guitar - an Art & Lutherie Dread with a Cedar top. It's been with me everywhere - parties, vacations, campfires, ... And I played the guitar the day my wife fell in love with me... The top looks...let's say well used and starts to crack, the fingerboard has a crack, but there's no way I'll ever give it away. I had sold a Taylor GS Sitka/EIR after I started building.



best, Christian

I have a Lowden S25x, EIR with an LS Redwood top... My "honeymoon" guitar from when my wife and I eloped in N. Ireland. Also a Larrivee Pete Anderson (12-fret OM, sunburst), and a 1955 Martin 00-18 14-fret. Electrically speaking, I have a mid-80's USA Strat '57 reissue, and a '69 P-bass. My level of skill certainly doesn't warrant any of these, but they sure are fun to own and play.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

I am down to only two guitars I have not built, a 64 Gibson ES 125TDC and a Regal Dobro neither of which I play any more. The Gibson is in real good condition for its age and has a lot of versatility of sound but electric is not where my interest is anymore. The Dobro is a Piece of crap import from the east but has the great blues sound I like but it is not played much anymore. A friend brought a 1949 00-18 Martin over the other day and now I am lusting for an old small body Martin, but I hope to get over it, I'll just have to build one as the cost for a vintage Martin is beyond my finances.

The the 1969 J45 in the photo left for a new home a couple years ago and the early 70's Fender Twin has been replaced with a Roland ac90 acoustic amp.



Fred

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

Hey Hesh-

I have a 1976 Guild D-35 that I love. It has a sunburst bearclaw Sitka top and sounds great.

Other acoustics include a late 30's Gibson archtop, a 2005 DeJonge SSS, a 1990 Takamine 132s classical and an old parlor guitar. I have others but they are unplayable/project guitars. The electrics are a 1998 MIJ 50's Strat, a doublecut Epiphone with P90s, a 80's takamine mahogany strat with humbuckers, a new dano U2 and a 60's doublecut dano body/50's dano neck with 2 pickups. Again I have more than a few unplayable electric projects that will probably never see the light of day.

Having written these down I now realize I need to sell half of these.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Double post.

Acoustic - Martin 00016C RGTE. I really like to play this one, and would love to build something that sounds as good.

One thing that caught my ear when I was considering a guitar build was the comment that a luthier friend said: "Your first guitar may not look as good as your Martin, but I'll teach you to make it sound much better".

My other acoustics aren't worth mentioning.

Electrics - Too many, but the one I normally play is a Fender Mex Strat. It's a good solid, but I'm very partial to acoustics.

Between my wife and I we have 3 or 4 1970's Yamaha's, two 2000 era handcrafted Yamaha's and I have a Dobro F 60 and a martin 000-15S. My one and only guitar from the dark side is the pictured guitar, a Godin Flat Five X with a pair of humbuckers plus a set of Baggs hex acoustic pickups in the saddle.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

I have an Ibanez bass, and an Ibanez Strat copy and a 12 string Sigma. The 12 string Sigma is an older all solid wood sitka on maple. For the $250 I have invested I can't see making a 12 string because I only play it a few times a year.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

The number of guitars I have is well out of proportion to my talent as a guitarist

I just sent my first (a Seagull Dreadnought with a cedar top) to a buddy of mine who didn't have a full sized guitar. It had served me well, I no longer played it,and I believe in passing good karma on. I first played that guitar as a rental from the local music store - it hooked me on guitar playing - and so I had to own it. After some quizzical looks (you want to BUY it? It's a rental) we settled on the sum of $200.

I bought a collapsed 1960s Gibson twelve string from the sixties and retopped it for practice, with a nice Engleman top that I had. I won't show any pictures, due to the Frankenstein job I did on the binding. It plays, but not very well, and I braced it too lightly - starting to fold up again.

I'm babysitting a neighbor's Martin 00-18G from 1970 or so. Kind of a funny story on that one - I believe her father was the manager of Grand Funk Railroad, and the guitar apparently had some past with the band

Finally, my favorite player (that isn't one of mine) is a Taylor 310 which was my buddy's favorite guitar, until he left it on the couch and sat on it - snapped the neck clean off and cracked the soundboard. He was going to pitch it, I convinced him to let me take a crack at it. After 9 months of not being able to find a replacement neck (Taylor would fix it, for $1000, including shipping), I decided to try and glue it. With just a little bit of fabrication of a mahogany shim to replace some missing wood in the joint, this thing went back together perfectly. The fit was so good the action wasn't even affected. Awesome! Sounds pretty good, plays well, and the graft on the back of the neck is always good for a conversation starter.!

I know where the LS redwood came from.

My list includes my 1963 Guild D-40, bought new in High School, a McCollum GA (from my Brazilian/Italian), a Lowden F35cx (from my figured walnut/LS redwood the George built on a quid pro quo basis), a Santa Cruz OM from 1991, my own Mauel 000-12 fret from 1999 and a Voyage Air Mahogany dred that I got while working with Harvey Leach to get the business off the ground.

So, I guess I'm in the "conspicuous consumption" category.

Now, the list of what I let pass through my hands is really sad, but that's for another thread.

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Hank Mauel

Ha, I bet you do. This one came from my own stash, but my own stash came from you.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Wow I'm seeing lots of OTHER guitars and some pretty cool ones too!!!

Hank it's great to see another Guild owner/player. You and I and John could get together and do some Alice In Chains Unplugged on the Guilds.

Corky that is a lot of guitars but you can never have too many OTHER guitars....

Steve a Bass!!!! Very cool!

Jim I like your Godin and I saw another Godin that belongs to John A. posted the other day with a through the body bridge and that was pretty cool too!

EOArnie your friend is right. I can't tell you how many times new builders at some point comment that all the new Martins, Breeds, Taylors, and Gibsons in the moldy humidifier room at Guitar Center just don't sound all that good after one has built a few of their own.... When I started building I would spend my lunches in that room at GC playing everything I could find. In a few years it did nothing for me anymore and I then spent my lunch times at Arby's....

John I always wanted a D-35 especially of the mid 70's vintage.

I knew that Fred had some cool guitars from our conversation in A2 two summers ago. I didn't know that you had a Twin though. You can always tell who once owned a Twin because one arm is longer than the other.... Heaviest darn thing...

Jon I remember the honeymoon guitar and that would be an interesting thread to link to and post again?

Christian your guitar looks like a great old friend - the best kind to have!

Med interesting that you mentioned the AJ - AJ's are one of the only usual suspect fa*tory guitars that I would like to have these days.

Let's see some more???

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I have an 0-16NY I got new in high school in '68 (I'm almost as old as Hank ), That little size 0 has been all over the world with me and it is still about the best fingerstyle guitar I've ever played. I've got it down in the shop for new frets and to reglue the bridge. My daily player is a '94 or so HD28 although that will hopefully change if I can get the neck on my 1st acoustic repaired. I also play a late 80's Taylor 12 String; its a jumbo but I don't remember the model number. When I play electric I use one I made through a 60's Fender Champ but I do still have an '89 American Strat with special electrics from the Fender custom shop.

I don't even like to think about all the instruments that have gone through my hands.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I have a 63 Strat.-
a Gurian S2M from around 1976 .
A Frank Hasselbacher (Augustine) from 1974,Brazilian and Euro.
Made for Segovias hands !!
A Southwell 1973 with adjustable neck.
A 1970 Hannabach classical with the most outrageous Braz. I've ever seen !
A 73 Blackshear Flamenco !
A 62 Gibson SG -with tremelo !
An asortmant of Stellas & Kays !
A 60's Gibson Classical -real rare but not worth much !

Sorry I can not post pics of them all !

Mike

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Mike Collins