Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello luthiers. By way of introduction, I'm a guitar building newbie and am embarking on my first build, a redwood/walnut tenor based on the Antes plans. My day job is as a graphic designer and on the side i also draw fonts.

One thing I've noticed that has me puzzled. There are many extremely talented builders here and elsewhere who make these fantastic fully custom instruments, and then for the headstock slap on a font that is the best of what was on their computer. Custom lettering for a custom instrument seems appropriate, but I suspect many have no idea where to turn for such work, or how expensive it would be.

So here's the question: I'm wondering if someone would be willing to barter wood or tools or jigs etc for some lettering work. I'd gladly document the process here if that's of interest to the group. I'm not really interested in making money, as much as getting the materials without having my hobby show up on the credit card bill

You can see some of my commercially available fonts here to get a sense of my lettering (though I can do any style)
Phaeton:
http://images.veer.com/IMG/PTYP/UMT/UMT0000447_P.GIF
http://marketplace.veer.com/font/Phaeton-UMT0000447

Olduvai:
http://images.veer.com/IMG/PTYP/UMT/UMT0000054_P.GIF
http://marketplace.veer.com/font/Olduva ... UMT0000054

Moped:
http://images.veer.com/IMG/PTYP/UMT/UMT0000436_P.GIF
http://marketplace.veer.com/font/Moped- ... UMT0000436

Eason:
http://marketplace.veer.com/font/Eason-Pro-FOT0000085

Other lettering:
https://img.skitch.com/20120829-btuixcx ... tmingp.jpg

Hey I know exactly what you're saying!

This is what I did:
First I got paper and a drawing utensil and spent a lot of time designing the headstock shape. After I got that all squared away, I advanced to the logo. I wanted something different yet not too difficult to execute. After I settled for both, I scanned the drawings into my computer and downloaded Inkscape. Imported both images in there and tweaked with them until they looked perfect for my liking. From there, I tried doing everything by hand but moved to CNC to have a more consistent result. Now having both drawings in Inkscape I could size to to a 6 string, 12 string, or classical all fairly easily and throw the logo in there and size that perfectly and have those images sent to my CNC guy and voila!

Best thing, It's all free. Just requires some dedication to follow through all the way. Sure looks Better and more original than a regular computer font

Yikes! Those first two fonts look like pretty tricky inlays
That's pretty much how I chose my font...based on my limited (pathetic) inlay skills

Quine, easier to draw it on paper than to draw it in wood for sure!
Maks, hats of to you for taking it on.

I did get some interest via PM and will post up the process once we figure out what we're doing so you can follow along. If anyone else is interested feel free to PM.