I finally strung up my first guitar with the help of Jason Simpson of Simpson Guitars. Man what an experience! to begin let me start by saying that i was very blessed and fortunate to have a professional luthier like jason open his house and take part of his own time to help out an aspiring luthier, people like that are far and few between. Anyways the journey started with the desire to find a way to lower my cost in acquiring custom guitars, after buying 3 custom made ones, i figured my wallet would be happier if i was able to learn how to make them! so i read books, hung out at forums like this one and AGF, and gathered all the knowledge i could capture. Then with a leap of faith i reach out to jason simpson, to see if there was any way maybe i could come into his shop and learn hands on, he got back to me and explained that he was busy and would not be able to guide me step by step, but that i was more than welcome to come to his shop and watch him work on guitars and have talk everything building! so i spent two days, and crammed in all the knowledge i could. He sent me aways with gifts such as the engelmann top used in this build, the gotoh tuners, fret wire, the mahogany neck, fretboard radii sander, etc. i got back and got to work and this is what came out of it! But i still wasn't done i needed to do the final set up on the guitar, so i reached out to jason again see if he had some time to come into his shop to work on the set up and intonation of the guitar. this time, he actually guided me step by step and showed me how to properly adjust the nut and saddle and get the action i was looking for, so we finally strung it up and man did this thing sound like a beauty! We both looked at each other in disbelief because typically a first guitar isn't supposed to sound that good, in jasons own words he said (" if you were to give me a blind fold test on you build and your mcpherson i would have chosen yours!) (i took my mcpherson to compare it to). So finally got home and did the fist thing everyone that makes a guitar does or should do, go to Guitar Center and compare it, so i went with my brother and compared it to other "high end factory guitars" and boy do i tell ya, it sounded REALLY good in relation to the others! A couple workers from guitars center tried it out and attached is a link to a video shot of singer/songwriter Zach Balch giving us his honest opinion. Enjoy the video and pics, and as always any ideas, suggestions, recommendations, etc, are welcome. Let me know what you think about my headstock design, thinking of making that my Trademark design!?
Jonathan
Here is Jason Simpson Holding the new 1st Razo Guitar
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Youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H613iVjq28s&feature=g-upl&context=G22025d7AUAAAAAAAAAA
He knows it's your first... right? This is an amazing first effort - hard to believe actually... Your rosette is really cool! Initially the headstock doesn't seem to exactly be my taste, but I'm not crazy about the Breedlove headstock either and they have a lot of fans... Your design could grow on me. What is he talking about "the lines aren't straight"? You've definitely got talent... ![[clap]](./images/smilies/smiley32.gif "adulations")
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