Guitar Building

[M.C. Gusto]

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!!!!!!!! You sir can build a guitar.

[wildwoods]

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.

I love how the fret board ends on the middle guitar. Wow.
I bit the bullet and bought a Martin a couple years ago. Amazing what good craftsmanship can do to sound. Now if only I was a better player.... it’s coming though. Slowly

[brslk]

I've never built one before but I do suffer from GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome).
I currently have around nine guitars and am seriously considering building a Telecaster from a kit.

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by 243plus

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

Have made a few axe handles and other things but never a gun stock although I do have a gun stock vise I use for guitar building. Great for holding necks.

[Big Grey Wolf]

Worked in Phillipines for couple years and bought very expensive guitar. Liked when shop selling it to me said "very exotic import wood" from Canada."Spruce"

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf

Worked in Phillipines for couple years and bought very expensive guitar. Liked when shop selling it to me said "very exotic import wood" from Canada."Spruce"

Ha! Yup, coniferous woods (spruce, cedar) make the best acoustic tops and Canada has plenty.

[Red Bullets]

Beautiful guitars. So that leads me to ask Okotok... "How much for one of your labors of love?"

I have been playing for decades and enjoy my Taylor but I'm thinking Okotok's guitars sound just as sweet or better.

I was going to go to the Acoustic Shop in Edmonton and build a guitar there. They offer guitar building courses.

[ceadog]

I used to build drums - lots of finishing advice came from luthiers.

[The Cook]

Just "WOW"

[traderal]

Aahh, nice thread. Love guitars. If I ever win a lottery will fill one room with ones in exotic wood, and another room with crown custom Weatherbys. Nice to see talent at work.

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

Beautiful guitars. So that leads me to ask Okotok... "How much for one of your labors of love?"

I have been playing for decades and enjoy my Taylor but I'm thinking Okotok's guitars sound just as sweet or better.

I was going to go to the Acoustic Shop in Edmonton and build a guitar there. They offer guitar building courses.

There's no money in building guitars by hand unless you're one of the few famous luthiers. If you paid yourself $10/hour that means about $1000 to $1500 in labour costs for a flat top and $2500 to $3000 for an archtop. Materials for a flat top are $500 to $600 and up to a thousand or more for an archtop, unless you have good sources of wood and the ability to resaw and process. I build for close friends and family for the price of materials and have a long build list.

You can build with cheaper woods for sure. I built a 1918 Martin style guitar for a woodworking 2 x 4 competition. I used one carefully chosen pine 2 x 4 and resawed slices that were then edge joined to make the top, back and sides. I reinforced the neck with 4 hacksaw blades routed and epoxied in on edge. Made the bridge and fretboard out of a chunk of hardwood I acquired at one of LeeValley's end of year sales. Some old tuners from a smashed up guitar I got at a garage sale. About $30 worth of materials. Plays and looks great and I won the competition! I'll post a pic if I can find one.

Building your own is not as hard as you think and you can get away with hand tools and home built tools, jigs etc. for the most part. I started with a book by Benedetto on Building your own archtop guitar. I still have that guitar and it turned out well if I do say so myself. Flat tops are considerably less work as you don't have the top and back to carve as on an archtop. The neck is the most work on any guitar. I slot my own boards for frets, radius and taper them etc. but it's easy to buy a pre-slotted board, just much more expensive. Carving the neck is actually fun IMO.

My first bending pipes, which I still use consist of a piece of 3" pipe squeezed into a teardrop shape with a 300 watt lightbulb inside for heat and a dimmer for control. My smaller one for doing cutaways is a 1 1/2" pipe with a halogen bulb and dimmer. I've since graduated to a sidebender I built that uses a silicone blanket and custom forms for each style I build, but still use the pipes for touch ups and one offs.

I've made a lot of my own tools. I never took any courses as the internet is a treasure trove of information on how to do it. A course would give you a jump start for sure but isn't necessary.

Stewart MacDonald and Luthiers Mercantile are two great places to get parts and hardware. LeeValley and Blackforest are both carrying a lot more parts and woods now as well. Just do it if you like woodworking and playing. It's addictive.

[Okotok]

Here's a couple of pictures of the guitar I built from a pine 2 x 4. I found a pretty clear one at Home Depot. The dark wood is from a board I picked up at a LeeValley sale. Rosewood I think? Had enough wood left from the 8' 2"x 4" to make the stand too!

[Wolftrapper]

Incredible work. Very impressive.

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by Wolftrapper

Incredible work. Very impressive.

Thanks Wolf. Fred Eaglesmith was all over the 2" x 4" one a few years ago when I showed it to him at a show.

[Okotok]

Some pics of my first guitar built almost 20 years ago using Benedetto's book and wood from the West coast harvested by my friend along with parts and pieces from online suppliers (fretboard, tuners, tailpiece cable, fretwire and mother of pearl). It's named after my wife, hence the letters on the headstock.

[Okotok]

I was also pretty proud of this bridge I made out of African blackwood for my blue guitar. It has a sliding wedge to adjust the action rather than the thumbwheels used on most archtop bridges.

[sillyak]

That's some very impressive work!!!

[DisplacedCaper]

Originally Posted by 243plus

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

I haven’t, but I have two old 22’s every now and then I get the urge to refinish them.


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[Big Grey Wolf]

Okotok, very nice woodwork, you are a true wood artist!