Official Luthiers Forum!

Only been playing for about 6 years - limited somewhat in my skill only having 9 fingers on my picking hand, but good enough to play rhythm with a couple bands - my voice makes up for the lack of playing ability. when my woodworking and musical passions finally came together, it was a no-brainer. I'm not a fingerpicking genius by any stretch and will yield the guitar to darn near everyone when pressed, but I know what it should sound like, and I am comfortable I can make that sound when I'm building...

sure wish I had picked the guitar up twenty years earlier...

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Mitch

I think the last time Joe and I hung out my guitar playing was described as "5 chords and no rhythm". I believe being able to play helps a builder, that's why I keep practicing. Knowing guy's like Joe is how I improve my building skills and my understanding of the insturment.

Steve

Ha ha Steve! I don't think I said that...did I?


One thing that Steve and I worked on a few weeks ago was the shaving the braces of an OM. We used some tap tuning as part of the process. One thing with having a good ear is being able to listen for things like "overtones" and the "decay" of the tap tone. Until you know what to listen for, you don't know if your hearing it. Once I was able to point out some of these things to Steve, he had the woodworking skills to bring them out of the top. Guys like Steve and John Ressler have been a huge source of knowledge for me to ask and learn from. I hope in some small way my playing skills and my ear has brought some "ah hah" moments to them as well.

The other thing that I think has helped me so far as a beginner builder is know what makes other instruments great. I have had the opportunity to play hundreds of guitars from all over the world. I usually have guitars of all styles around me at any given time. Being able to compare the constructions and materials of several at a time really is eye opening.

Thanks for the great conversatiton!

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Joe

I'm another old geezer that's been playing for 45 years or so --a bit frightening to think about ..

I try to play every day and am always trying to learn new things.

john

Great topic, kinda tells a little about another here.

I may be the youngest of all the posters to this thread, 37 and pretty much just fingerstyle player for the last 7 or 8 years.
I have had a hard time figuring out which way is most comfortable for me, left or right handed. No , really, I was one of the odd ball ambidextrous people that still has to stop and think about right and left. It helps when sawing , cutting chiseling etc, to be able to use either hand, but I think I could play better if I could decide and consistantly play one way.
As for building, I do think it helps to be able to play the instrument, even though most of the builds I do are set up and profiled differently than I like them.
I usually keep a guitar in the shop just to make sure I'm not putting the cutaway on the wrong side, another one of the right/left issues.

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Nehemiah Covey
www.coveysacoustics.com

Great topic, kinda tells a little about another here.

I may be the youngest of all the posters to this thread, 37 and pretty much just fingerstyle player for the last 7 or 8 years.
I have had a hard time figuring out which way is most comfortable for me, left or right handed. No , really, I was one of the odd ball ambidextrous people that still has to stop and think about right and left. It helps when sawing , cutting chiseling etc, to be able to use either hand, but I think I could play better if I could decide and consistantly play one way.
As for building, I do think it helps to be able to play the instrument, even though most of the builds I do are set up and profiled differently than I like them.
I usually keep a guitar in the shop just to make sure I'm not putting the cutaway on the wrong side, another one of the right/left issues.

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Nehemiah Covey
www.coveysacoustics.com

"...just a builder?" Wadymean JUST a builder???

I'm a long-time strummer and still learning to play proper-like (I'm a keyboard player really !!), and a newbie builder.

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"

I'm 42, which means I've played close to 30 years (jeeez, that long??! time flies when you're having fun). I simply fell in love with guitars...

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

"Shred" is an excellent choice of words.

"Shred" is a most excellent choice of words.

Michael, next time you listen to Mr Malmsteen trying to get into the Guiness Book of Records with the most number of notes per second follow up with some Miles Davis...the master of space between the notes.

Most people would kill to have 9 fingers on their picking hand...or did I read your post wrong?

I'm 28, been playing for nearly 5 years now, all first position fingerpicking stuff mainly and started basic repairs/setups around 2 years ago and more advanced repairs earlier in the year then started building 3 months back and should of stuck with playing as my woodwork sucks more than my playing

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

I thought that was funny! Don't be so hard on yourself, JHH!

...or perhaps you are just being honest

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I meant 3 fingers...9 total...

note to self...don't drink and post...

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Mitch

I started playing guitar at the age of 9 upon receiving a present from my parents of a red, bursted Harmony acoustic that the action was so very high on that you could use it to slice hard boiled eggs and cheese........

The other part of the present was lessons at the local Music Mart...... When I went to my first lesson the instructor was a fat, middle aged grease ball who wanted to look like Elvis. I remember that he had a 335ish guitar played through a Fender Super Reverb (4 X 10" speakers I think).

Anyway this guy and I did NOT get along and neither of us liked the other. After the 3rd lesson he called my dad and told him that he would no longer teach me and that I was the most annoying kid that he had ever met. He went on to say that I just kept asking "why" every time that he told me what to do and that bothered him. My father, being the ever helpful sort, offered to meet the guy at the public park of his choosing and "work this out....." The guitar instructor hung up on my father.

My next guitar was a large Kay red electric with much better action and I also now had a 10 watt Kalamazoo tube (that is all there was then) amp. The amp would distort when you passed "8" on the dial and I loved the distorted tone.......

I also tried to learn to play the violin and sax too in school and both times I was kicked out of the classes for being a behavior problem........

Anyway I have played guitar all my life, mostly electrics, and never got to be a very good player although I know all my scales and can usually learn a tune by listening to it and I will have 80% of it down before the song is over. My sense of timing was/is not unlike Steve Martin's dancing ability in the film The Jerk......

These days I only play perhaps 1/2 an hour a week and usually while sitting on my front porch. I also enjoy having a guitar in the shop to grab when I hear a tune playing that I want to play along with.

And most importantly - now at soon to be 52 I am still true to form and as annoying as hell......

Hmm.. I might be the first person to post who's not a guitar player (well, I play a tiny, tiny bit - well enough to play bass in a ska band).

I played bandura since I was about 10 or so (38 now) and got to a pretty decent level of proficiency. I only started making about 10 years ago because you couldn't get the types of bandura I play any more (there are only 7 active bandura builders on the planet today).

I'm only on my 3rd instrument (lot's of moving across oceans and babies occurred after the first instrument was completed) but have had some pretty good success. I think it's because my primary focus was playing but my schooling was in engineering. On top of that I was a budding wood worker. This confluence of skills seems to have worked well for me to design a new construction technique that seems to be hitting the mark (there are no plans for banduras - at least not any good ones)

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

I've been "playing" for 40 years too, I'm 53. Had about 2 years worth of lessons when I was a youngster, but most everything I know I have taught myself. Never played in a band or with other people very much, because I never thought I was good enough. I'm a closet guitar player.

I have gradually improved over the years, but I have to keep with it just to maintain any level at all. I can play most any chord, some in 2 or 3 positions. I have a few simple lead licks I can do. But if I slack off for a couple weeks without playing I really lose it quick. When I am playing "alot" it's only for a half to an hour a day.

I think it does help with my guitar building, because it's the only feed back I have. I'm a better guitarist than a guitar builder, but that ain't saying much. I hope to be a better builder than guitarist..... some day.

Cheers.

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Horton, MI

Only 7!!!!

One of my friends from university days, his father had a shop behind the house where he made bandura's. I only really found out about it late, and would have loved to have spent more time visiting his shop. I don't think that he's around anymore, so that would have been when there were 8 builders...

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

There are probably a lot of "closet" Bandura makers. Maybe the girls don't flock to Bandura makers like they do to guitar builders.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I played them long before I decided to start building. In the last year or two, after discovering fingerstyle playing (thanks to all the fine players at the original Fort Erie gathering!) and using a thumb-pick (again, thanks to the Fort Erie gang!) I've sort of rediscovered the acoustic guitar and I've been playing a lot more.

It's still a toss up as to what I prefer; building or playing... I guess that depends on what new song I'm strugling with, or my latest of a seemingly unexhaustable list of faux-pas in the shop! Ha!

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

And don't get me wrong, I would love to be able to play.

Thanks for the conversation.

BTW: When I said "JUST A BUILDER" ...I hope you know what I meant. I meant: Can you play the guitar and build guitars...or can you just build guitars....or heck can you just play them and not make them?

I think it seems somewhat agreed upon that being able to play a guitar helps a builder know what to look/feel and listen for whild making an instrument.

Joe

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Joe

Agreed and to take it to the next step having owned or spent time with very fine guitars is an advantage too in as much as the builder actually has some idea what to expect in a top-notch instrument.

One cannot create excellence if we have no idea what the measure is.

I’m another player/builder. Been doing both about 35 years.
In fact, for me, they are somewhat symbiotic.
I look for a guitar to inspire my playing so I build them accordingly.
One of the reasons I like building different designed guitars is the variation in tone and inspiration I get from playing them. Each instrument can take you in a different direction, so-to-speak. I am an ear-trained player so my playing style is somewhat intuitive. I suppose I build that way also. Each build seems miraculous to me when it’s finally done and playable. I think that’s what keeps me going.

It is fine to build without playing though.
If so, you may want to hook up with a good player now and then to check your progress.
Even for us that do play, this is a good idea.

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

I have to totally agree with this comment. I pickup a different guitar and I play differently. Some of my Gibson guitars tend to lend a soulful-ness to my playing, while my Gretsch's tend to make me want to play rockabilly and be-bop! I can't explain this to a non player.

My wife loves buying me guitars (WOW!!) She likes pretty ones! She doesn't alway understand why I can't bring a particular guitar to a particular gig. To her, they are all just guitars with six strings. To me, each has a character of its own.

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Joe