Guitar Building

[Okotok]

Just wondering if anyone else here builds guitars? I've been hobby building acoustics for almost 20 years between other woodworking projects. Mostly hand carved archtops but some flat tops and a few ukuleles.

[Dweb]

Not hand made from scratch

But I enjoy building electric guitars from individual parts I've purchased , and then I do all the electronic install and soldering.

[mooseknuckle]

Post.some pics!!

[pikergolf]

^^^^^^^^^ X2 Love to see work like that!

[Dweb]

I'll post some pics of 80s 90s metal shredders that I pieced together and Frankensteined give me a minute

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by mooseknuckle

Post.some pics!!

Here's a few archtops. My wife surprised me by getting a photographer to take pictures of a bunch of my guitars and made me a great album. I had joked about getting a Walmart pic done at one point so the photographer mocked one up as well! The wood for these came from a buddy of mine who has since passed. He would cut and haul big leaf maple, sitka spruce and other woods from the West coast. He would resaw it on his homemade mill and I would process it further after that. I sure miss him.

[Dweb]

Originally Posted by Okotok

Here's a few archtops. My wife surprised me by getting a photographer to take pictures of a bunch of my guitars and made me a great album. I had joked about getting a Walmart pic done at one point so the photographer mocked one up as well! The wood for these came from a buddy of mine who has since passed. He would cut and haul big leaf maple, sitka spruce and other woods from the West coast. He would resaw it on his homemade mill and I would process it further after that. I sure miss him.

Excellent work !!!!!!

[Fish along]

Originally Posted by Okotok

Here's a few archtops. My wife surprised me by getting a photographer to take pictures of a bunch of my guitars and made me a great album. I had joked about getting a Walmart pic done at one point so the photographer mocked one up as well! The wood for these came from a buddy of mine who has since passed. He would cut and haul big leaf maple, sitka spruce and other woods from the West coast. He would resaw it on his homemade mill and I would process it further after that. I sure miss him.

Holy. That is beautiful workmanship .

[Dweb]

No where near as nice as yours lol but I do enjoy tinkering

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by Dweb

No where near as nice as yours lol but I do enjoy tinkering

Cool stuff. Keep building!

[DisplacedCaper]

I’ve built some electrics from the kits (basically rough neck and unfinished rough body’s) sand, stain or paint, assemble, sometimes routing involved. I put some high end pups and pots in a couple. The doubleneck tele has all seymore Duncan’s and a bigsby. The LP has cheap Duncan designed electronics and a knock off bigsby but plays great. The Fb plays great and sounds ok, I have a set of P90’s for it but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I also built a 3 string cigar box with an axe handle for a neck, a single humbucker and it sounds mean. I can’t find a picture at the moment.
My latest was a wine box with a plexiglass cover over pics of the kids, neck and a piezo pup with built in tuner from a busted old acoustic my buddy had.
I’m also in Okotoks



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[Dweb]

That red stain on the flame maple wow....

Beautiful finish

[JohninAB]

Very nice work gents.

[Twisted Canuck]

Really like those Oko....and also agree that the red stain on that maple is stupidly pretty DC!

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by DisplacedCaper

I’ve built some electrics from the kits (basically rough neck and unfinished rough body’s) sand, stain or paint, assemble, sometimes routing involved. I put some high end pups and pots in a couple. The doubleneck tele has all seymore Duncan’s and a bigsby. The LP has cheap Duncan designed electronics and a knock off bigsby but plays great. The Fb plays great and sounds ok, I have a set of P90’s for it but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I also built a 3 string cigar box with an axe handle for a neck, a single humbucker and it sounds mean. I can’t find a picture at the moment.
My latest was a wine box with a plexiglass cover over pics of the kids, neck and a piezo pup with built in tuner from a busted old acoustic my buddy had.
I’m also in Okotoks


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Very nice! Great to see some other builders here. I moved out of Okotoks a few years ago and in Marda Loop in Calgary now but 14 years there was great. Here's some pics of my current campfire beater. It's an oval hole archtop with X bracing rather than the traditional parallel. The top is cedar I got from a buddy with a shake factory in BC. The back came from my deceased buddy. It's a one piece, from a West Coast, big leaf quilt maple plank. Neck is a 3 piece flame maple with Bolivian rosewood in the center. Fingerboard is African ebony. Headstock overlay is Bolivian rosewood from the same plank as the neck. Bridge is African blackwood. I picked up a bunch of chunks from Leevalley in a sale years ago. Cutting the mother of pearl with a fret saw and inlaying is a bit of a pain but adds a bit of bling. Pickup is a K & K hidden inside.

[pikergolf]

Very nice fellows!

[270person]

Looks like some of you boys suffer from the same addiction as my brother. Here's s9me of his gear.

https://kenburtonguitar.com/gear

[DisplacedCaper]

Originally Posted by Dweb

That red stain on the flame maple wow....



Beautiful finish

Thanks Dweb and TC, I’m very pleased how that turned out!
And wow Okotok, I’d love to do one from scratch with some nice woods one of these days, they’re amazing!


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[Okotok]

Originally Posted by 270person

Looks like some of you boys suffer from the same addiction as my brother. Here's s9me of his gear.

https://kenburtonguitar.com/gear

The link doesn't work for me?

[Twisted Canuck]

Oko....that 'campfire beater'?...

You got skills man.


I had a friend in Winnipeg I worked with 20 years ago, who liked to build guitars. He was a finish carpenter by day, and I helped him demo an older house to renovate. All the doors went (hollow core), and the casings...which were solid mahogany. He saved every last piece, and stacked it up. I saw two guitars he did, using a Gibson D7 design, and he resawed that mahogany for the sides. Steamed them up, and when he was done it was incredible. He made a beautiful guitar, and played even better. Wish I had pictures, but my flip phone didn't have a camera then...

[DisplacedCaper]

Originally Posted by 270person

Looks like some of you boys suffer from the same addiction as my brother. Here's s9me of his gear.



https://kenburtonguitar.com/gear

That’s a lot of gear lol. I’ve been thinning the herd the last few years but still end up picking more up. My wife has a lot of patience, but does do a lot of eye rolls


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[Okotok]

Here's one of two bass archtops I built. One for a buddy and one for my musically inclined wife. This is my buddy's. Both made from West Coast big leaf maple backs/necks and sitka spruce tops. Ebony fingerboards. About the biggest guitar possible to play without standing them up. 20" lower bout and a 34" scale. I like doing the side sound holes as it directs sound toward the player as well when in a group. Pickup is a Kent Armstrong floater off the ebony pickguard. You can see how big it is standing beside a regular archtop with 18" bout and an archtop, tenor ukulele in the background on the one pic.

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by Twisted Canuck

Oko....that 'campfire beater'?...

You got skills man.


I had a friend in Winnipeg I worked with 20 years ago, who liked to build guitars. He was a finish carpenter by day, and I helped him demo an older house to renovate. All the doors went (hollow core), and the casings...which were solid mahogany. He saved every last piece, and stacked it up. I saw two guitars he did, using a Gibson D7 design, and he resawed that mahogany for the sides. Steamed them up, and when he was done it was incredible. He made a beautiful guitar, and played even better. Wish I had pictures, but my flip phone didn't have a camera then...

I know where his head is at Campfire beater means different things to different people, but I have the resources to fix or refinish at will. Patina is a cool thing though!

[270person]

Originally Posted by Okotok

Here's one of two bass archtops I built. One for a buddy and one for my musically inclined wife. This is my buddy's. Both made from West Coast big leaf maple backs/necks and sitka spruce tops. Ebony fingerboards. About the biggest guitar possible to play without standing them up. 20" lower bout and a 34" scale. I like doing the side sound holes as it directs sound toward the player as well when in a group. Pickup is a Kent Armstrong floater off the ebony pickguard. You can see how big it is standing beside a regular archtop with 18" bout and an archtop, tenor ukulele in the background on the one pic.

Very nice. You've got talent man.

[DisplacedCaper]

Originally Posted by Okotok

Here's one of two bass archtops I built. One for a buddy and one for my musically inclined wife. This is my buddy's. Both made from West Coast big leaf maple backs/necks and sitka spruce tops. Ebony fingerboards. About the biggest guitar possible to play without standing them up. 20" lower bout and a 34" scale. I like doing the side sound holes as it directs sound toward the player as well when in a group. Pickup is a Kent Armstrong floater off the ebony pickguard. You can see how big it is standing beside a regular archtop with 18" bout and an archtop, tenor ukulele in the background on the one pic.

I can’t imagine the hours that went into any of those. They’re works of art, good call on getting a photo shoot for them


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[Okotok]

Originally Posted by DisplacedCaper

I can’t imagine the hours that went into any of those. They’re works of art, good call on getting a photo shoot for them


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Thanks. About 300 hours or so in an archtop and lot's of potential blisters from the hand carving. Those are just phone shots from me though. I'll have to dig up the pro shots from the album sometime and scan them as they're hardcopies.

[Zip]

Awesome....Awesome...love this kinda stuff, Thanks for sharing some of your passion with us...
Zip

[double gun]

My father went to the school of the guitar in Vermont in about ‘82 learned from Charles Fox himself. Now 77 he no longer builds - shame he has a lot of exotic wood that’s at least 30 years old that was destined to become instruments. It would be scary to know today’s value...

[Stinky Buffalo]

Unbelievable, guys. Nice work!

[243plus]

Beautiful, beautiful work guys. Have either of you ever tackled gun stocks?