Official Luthiers Forum!

How's it going, everybody? I figured I'd post an intro here, maybe see if I can't meet up with some local guys...

Anyway, I'm a med student here in Portland, OR. I'm married, 3 kids and have next to zero time to work on hobbies so, naturally, I have lots of them and constantly looking to add more. OLF was suggested by Phillip Patton in a thread on a knife forum (BladeForums) and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching his builds so I decided to sign up here and have really enjoyed going through the threads.

Guitar making is something I have wanted to do for years now. I love playing guitar and have wanted to build one for a long time; while living in Denver, CO I was going to take a course there but ended up getting married and moving away. Anyway, I'm a hobbiest knife maker and do a bit of leather work as well (as in I make my own sheaths, rifle slings, that type of thing). I really shouldn't be looking at starting any more hobbies but have really been drawn in and inspired by all the threads I've been reading.

So, that being said, if there are any makers in the Portland area that would allow me to be a fly on the wall to help me better decide if I want to take this on right now I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for posting so much information, instruction, encouragement and advice!

--Aaron

_________________
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill

Aaron,
Welcome! I'm not in Portland, but hopefully someone local to your area will chime in with some feedback. Sounds like you have a full plate, but that won't stop you from building--it's wonderfully habit forming!
Best,

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George :-)

Welcome ! We need someone around here who can stitch up stuff , dangerous bunch this is .........Glad ta have ya !

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
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Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
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Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
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Welcome! I hope you're able to get a little buildling in with your crazy med school schedule. Looking forward to following your proigress (in both fields!)

Welcome to the OLF! One tip - Don't work tired! May not be possible in your case!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Aaron, another welcome from a part time builder up in the middle of Washington. What ever you do, schedule some time to come up to Tacoma for the GAL conference in July

http://www.luth.org/convention/2011/index.htm

That looks awesome! I will definitely try to make it up for that! Unfortunately there is no way I could get there for the activities/presentations until Saturday and have to be back Sunday morning for church obligations... Is there any way to get videos of the presentations after the fact?

_________________
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill

Most of the presentations from 2008 became articles in American Lutherie (the GAL publication). I did a little summary of the seminars that I attended at that show for another forum

http://www.kitguitarsforum.com/archives ... 72_0_2_0_C

btw - if you are at all interested in trying a build without the huge investment in tools, consider a kit. I have built several (and they are my daily players), gradually doing more scratch work with each following one. There is a kit subforum of OLF and a couple of others if that is of interest.

I've thought about a kit but just not exactly sure how I feel about them. I know there are high quality kits out there but I am kind of an all-or-nothing type of guy... With my knives I don't buy kit knives, I buy barstock and do the whole process, start to finish. Granted, making guitars might just be out of my reach to begin at a "start to finish" level and it might be in my ultimate best interest to start with a kit, I guess I just feel like that is akin to (forgive my usage of the following word, I use it only to infer how I would feel, not how anybody else should feel or how I feel about people who do build kit guitars) cheating.

The other side of it is that I try to convince myself that it is financially smarter to build it all myself, save paying for somebody else's time/efforts. However, when you factor in the additional tools I would need to start a build from scratch it would likely be much more financially viable to start with a kit guitar. Another aspect of my dilemma here is that I can, somehow, justify multiple smaller purchases a lot easier than a larger one... I dunno, I'm rambling at this point. I just know I take a great deal of pride in a product that I took through every process along the way, even if it didn't turn out as good as it would have if I had bought a kit, let somebody else do the work, etc... How am I supposed to learn the process if I don't do it? I know the answer to that and it was definitely rhetorical and shows my internal justification more than anything else

Anyway, enough rambling. I love my factory guitars, I have never touched or played a custom built guitar, am in awe when I see some of the guitars I have seen on here and other forums. I really want to get to the point where I can build my own guitars.

I know what I need to do, find somebody who wants to trade knife-shop time for guitar-shop time

_________________
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill

Aaron,

I too, am a new builder in Portland. I've found a mentor that is willing to "save me from myself" when time allows. He is very, very busy, but I would love to get together and share what I'm learning. I'm married with two kids (no med school) and have been looking for someone in Portland who is also interested in building. Shoot me a message.

Gage

Thanks for the offer, Gage! PM sent!

_________________
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill

Aaron, you might also consider taking a class, particularly if you want to build from scratch and don't have a big shop or want to make a huge investment in tooling up. There are a couple in the Seattle area, don't know about Portland.

My arguement for building a kit is both the cost of tools and that there are a few operations that you can screw up pretty easily. Each of the following can be done with hand tools of course, but some power or special tools make it easier. Bending sides takes either a hot pipe ($100 or home made) or a bender ($400+). Carving the neck is a pain - having a band saw and spoke shave will help. Mitering the fretboard needs to be perfect - you can do it by hand or with a table or radial arm saw and special blade. Thinning the plates can be done with a hand plane or a drum sander. Inlaying the rosette takes a circle cutting dremel base. These will all be done for you with a good quality kit.

I am doing all of those things now as I build guitars 9 and 10, and I have added the necessary tools to my small shop. However my first ones were done with a small router, a drill motor, a saber saw to make the molds and a dremel, combined with some special lutherie hand tools and a few chisels, plane, clampes, etc. From your knife building you'll know how to make them scary sharp. I once did a thread on my minimum shop to build my first kit

http://www.kitguitarsforum.com/archives ... 46_0_5_0_C

Finish is always a problem for a home builder - you can hand apply finish (brushing lacquers, French Polish), spray nitro from rattle cans, or use a small spray gun and compressor. I did the rattle cans on the first few, now spray waterbased lacquer.

Get a couple of good books on guitar building - Cumpiano, Kincead. Read as many building blogs as you can - I have done several and can give you links. PM me a phone number or e-mail - next time I'm in Portland I'll bring a couple of kit guitars and you can play them (these are kits)

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/ ... G_1418.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/ ... G_1419.jpg

Come to the GAL conference and play some of the wonderful handbuilt guitar that will be on display. Warning - it is addictive.

Welcome to the forum amcardon! I am in NY so I am not much help in the Portland luthier department. I am certain you will get hooked on this lutherie thing of ours. Its addicting.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

http://www.nwmusicalinstrumentshow.org/ ... s2011.html
There was a guitar show just out of Portland last weekend. Many displays were from Portland builders. You could try one.

Of course there was one last weekend! Just my luck...

_________________
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill

Hey Aaron,

Welcome aboard! Glad to see you here. I warn you though, your wife may regret it.

Phillip

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Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Trust me, you wont feel like you are cheating when you unpack your box of wood blocks with no instructions!


Kit is kind of a misnomer for guitars, although I suppose you COULD have so many things done for you that you may get into 'kit' territory.

My first came with sides and binding bent, fingerboard slotted, top and bottom thicknessed, and a few other minor things, but I sure never felt like anything was done for me at all with everything I still had to do.

She already regrets it, Phillip! She doesn't remember many names of the knifemakers I know/talk about but she knows your's! "Patton... Isn't that the knifemaker/guitar guy?" Watch out buddy, she just might start blaming you for this!

_________________
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill

Aaron,

I'm in Portland, you can visit my site at www.tsiorba.com
I'm building mostly nylon, so I'm not sure if that is your interest or not. I don't have time to be a dedicated "regular" on forum discussions (building full time plus young kids) so I totally missed this post to invite you to NW Hanmade Musical Instruments Exhibit in Portland (Merylhurst University). Stop by for a cup of joe and a visit, if you wish.

Best regards,

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Flamenco and Classical Guitars
Maker and Restorer

hope you enjoy it here!

cheers,
Miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Thanks Miguel. I do stop by and read here from time to time. I appreciate the welcome.

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Flamenco and Classical Guitars
Maker and Restorer

I would love to come by sometime! I've actually spent quite a bit of time on your website, awesome stuff! I'm not opposed to nylon/classical and it sounds like you've had a lot of experience and exposure to guitarbuilding world-wide. I'll have to see what my schedule will allow me and see what yours allows you, I'm in SE so we're not too far apart either.

Thanks Peter!

--Aaron
amcardon@gmail.com

_________________
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill