Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everybody,
I don't usually post here, just lurk even though I know quite a few of you from another forum. I wanted to share with you a bit of good fortune today. Somehow the stars aligned for me over the past few weeks and I became the new owner of the original steel string guitar who's build was documented in William Cumpiano's book 28 years ago.





It has been in the hands of a folk/country player named Taylor Pie all these years and she decided to give it up since she now plays smaller bodied instruments (also built by William).

If any of you plan to be at the NCAL meeting at the Santa Cruz Guitar Company on September 28th I will be bringing it along for the show & tell section of the meeting.

Greg Nelson

Hi Nelson, welcome! I "know you" from Luthierforum, right?

Yes, that instrument sure looks familiar! I "know" it too, from my tattered copy of Cumpiano's book, so the first thing I notice is the the fretboard inlay which wasn't there in the book. And it's had some electronics installed too... Tell us about the pinned neck joint, has it held up well?

I've never seen color pictures of it, but it sure has yellowed since it was built. No wonder, it has been a few years... Is the top sitka, I can't remember if he said in the book?

Thanks for showing this. So how did it come into your possession (not that it is any of my business, but since you are showing it...)?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Yes! With a guitar like that you can't just show and no tell.

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

wow, an amazing peice of history,

so, how does it sound? (cant believe im the first person to ask that lol)

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"Anything that happens, happens. Anything that in happening causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. Anything that in happening happens again, happens again. Though not necessarily in that order." Douglas Adams

Yes, that's me! I lurk here from time to time and used to post a little but had to flip a coin a while back to decide where to spend my online time. If I participate too many places it cuts into my shop time too much.

If you look at the end of WC's book you will see that a young lady by the name of Taylor Pie bought the guitar. William inlaid a pie at the 12th fret for her.

Taylor gave the guitar to WC a while ago to see if he could sell it for her. She plays smaller bodied Cumpianos now and finds them more comfortable. I guess she couldn't stand to see it just hanging on the wall and wanted a good home for it. William cleaned it up and put it in a friends shop for sale. Then as an after thought he contacted Mario over at sprucetonwood/luthier forum and asked if any of the luthiers he knew might be interested. (Can you say understatement?) Mario posted a notice about the opportunity and I was lucky enough to be the first to contact WC about purchasing it. I paid the asking price (more than I could afford and less than it is worth to me) and the deal was done. All that was left was to wait for UPS to arrive.

The neck was changed to WC's current bolt on configuration a while ago. You can still see the pin holes in the neck block. The neck heel has a crack in it that I can't tell if it goes all the way through and has been repaired or if it is a surface issue and still sound. It has a small amount of belt rash and other damage as would be expected from an instrument that traveled so far and played so hard. All is good.

The LR Baggs pickup was installed by someone at some point and WC offered to remove it if I wanted him to. I have left it in place for now because of a sense of history, but will likely remove it soon since I can't anticipate needing it myself and I just don't like seeing it in there.

It sounds wonderful of course. Strong and punchy and will put up with hard picking without complaint, but I am more impressed with it's dynamics when played softly. I am a hack when it comes to playing so please don't take anything I say about it's sound as gospel. I can't wait to hear it played by someone with a bit of skill.

Greg N