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Where it all started for me (m)
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Author:  LanceK [ Sat May 14, 2005 1:08 am ]
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I was browsing EBAY one afternoon looking to buy a Martin D-28 and stumbled by this Kit for sale. I thought Hmm, I could do that!



Not knowing how addictive it would be, I thought, ill build this guitar and be done, ill have what I want, and be done, I don't need any fancy tools, because its one guitar, and I'm done, see a pattern here?

Well--
Before I even finished that first guitar, I had materials for 3 more and started 2 more.

Started buying more and more tools, made due where I could,

Here is my first go bar deck






Where did it all start for you?
Id really like to hear how some of the more established builders got there start, as well as everyone else --




LanceK38486.4231828704
Author:  bob J [ Sat May 14, 2005 1:17 am ]
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When I was in Nam, I used to visit a fire-base where there was a sarg. who had a Martin 00-18 and he taught me some chords. I really enjoyed it. Sad part is he was killed by artty. So, a few months back I was listening to part of my blues collection and thoutht how cool it would be to play blues. So, naturally, I moved to the thought of building my own and viola`
Author:  Mattia Valente [ Sat May 14, 2005 1:23 am ]
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I built electrics (Bill Wyza and, mostly, Melvyn Hiscock's fault, that), read the acoustics section of the MIMF avidly for a good long while, read Cumpiano, read the MIMF library, bit the bullet, bought materials, and built my first. Then I found this place, and BobC, and now I've got 35 sets waiting to be built with...
Author:  bob J [ Sat May 14, 2005 1:35 am ]
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Bobc is insidious.
Author:  FrankC [ Sat May 14, 2005 2:02 am ]
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Like you Lance, I was searching through ebay and thought I could do that. Bought 2 kits from John Hall through recommendations from this forum (a HD28 amd OM28). And, like Mattia, I now have way too many sets that I will ever use...and keep adding more. Have 2 great sets of ziricote from Steve at Colonial that someday I hope to be able to use. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment now so building has been slow due to limited space. BUT, in one week, I move into a new townhouse I bought and will be building a small workshop in the basement. Watch out after that.

I still have a lot to learnFrankC38486.4607523148
Author:  Brock Poling [ Sat May 14, 2005 3:08 am ]
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I was buying guitars on ebay below blue book, then reselling them on ebay (or to musicians I scrounged up) for blue book.

I kept plowing the profits back into the guitars until I purchased a Campellone arch top. After I got it I really started looking at luthiers and their work -- and somewhere a copy of Frank Finocchio's tapes made it into my hands.... After watching them I thought, "I could do that", called him, signed up for his class. In the interim I watched Dan Erlewine's How to make a solid body guitar and built 3 telecasters before my class with Frank.

Now I am about 15 acoustic guitars under my belt, have been back to take 3 more training sessions, and am totally bitten by the bug.

This is my obsession.
Author:  CarltonM [ Sat May 14, 2005 6:28 am ]
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[QUOTE=bob J] Bobc is insidious.[/QUOTE]

DARTH Insidious?! I TOLD you he was getting that wood from a different planet!

Carlton
Author:  Dave Rector [ Sat May 14, 2005 7:48 am ]
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I bought a "kit" from International Luthiers Supply in 1979-1980. I read Young's book and Sloane's book and every other thing I could get my hands on trying to get enough info to begin.

I carried that kit around with me for 20 years, moving to Colorado, going to college, starting a career. After my ex an I split up I met my current wife and moved back to Okla. She encouraged me to start getting the tools I needed to set up my shop. I finally got the first one built in 2000.

After the first, I saw Frank Finnochio's video series and went to take his class. While I was there I had Frank put together a couple of kits for me to take with me.

Since then I have completed 15 acoustics and have 3 in the works currently.
Author:  EricKeller [ Sat May 14, 2005 7:57 am ]
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I had a Gibson acoustic that had a crack in the soundboard from the bridge to the neck. It had this big, nasty pickguard on it, and it looked like they had put the bridge on before they finished and then sanded around the bridge -- there was a big ridge at the edge of the bridge. I bought an alvarez and threw the gibson in the closet.

I took up woodworking seriously and started reading about guitars, Cumpiano & Natelson had just come out and there was a review in fine woodworking, so I bought it. I decided to replace the top on the Gibson. I did that and built one from scratch, except the neck. Then I decided to quit the Air Force and go back to school. The move threw things off, and then I worked hard to get a degree, then I worked hard at my new job. So almost 10 years between when I started and now with out any finished guitars. Now I'm going to finish and build some more.
Author:  Don A [ Sat May 14, 2005 9:26 am ]
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I was buying guitars left and right with a plan of having one from each major manufacturer. I then ran across two of John Hall's kits on eBay. Like Lance, half way through the first kit I decided this is something I really enjoy. I then began buying all the tools and books necessary to build the kits right (radius dishes, binders, benders, etc.) and began to lay in a supply of wood for future projects. Now if I can just find room to finish my shop (12x10)around all the supplies (24x20). By the way, BobC I'm out of the wood market for a while, blown heat pump, so please please don't tease me with more pictures of zoot.
Author:  RCoates [ Sat May 14, 2005 4:01 pm ]
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My turn. I started with absolutely no woodworking experience. I had played guitar(rock) for almost 20 years collecting lots of toys along the way. I started learning classical and along the way began lusting after $8k-$10k guitars. Well the wife would have none of that so I decided to build my own.

#4 is on the bench now...
Author:  Skip Beach [ Sat May 14, 2005 4:54 pm ]
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A few decades ago (24 years to be exact) I had a guitar custom built by a luthier from the neighboring state of NC. Luckily, after many phone calls & letters, the guitar turned out to be a real beauty & a fabulous-sounding instrument.

In going through this long-distance luthiere experience, I got to know the luthier, Billy Chapman, quite well. He was looking to relocate to a larger city & start a full-time guitar building & repair business. My wife & I convinced him to relocate to our area (Columbia, SC) & even found him an apartment/workshop - in the vacant apartment above us.

Well, needless to say, I hung out at his place at every opportunity just fascinated at the building process and interested in the repair challenges he faced as well. I knew a bit about electronics & helped him repair several electric guitars by soldering switches, etc. Sadly, I had no previous experience in woodworking ... none. It seemed like voo doo or magic - something I couldn't possibly do. Man, I was so stupid to not take advantage of that incredible opportunity to learn.

In the intervening years I started doing more & more woodworking for my own enjoyment ... starting quite basic & over time developing finer skills & accumulating some decent hand tools.

Having been a guitarist since the age of 15, I'm still deeply in love with the instrument. So ... I was becoming a decent woodworker & thought that the ultimate woodworking project for a guitar player would be to build an acoustic guitar. Sensible, I thought.

I started gathering design ideas, lurking at the MIMF & OLF, tooling up, and learning everything I could about the process. It was six months of study & planning, and five months of part-time S L O W building but finally finished my 1st guitar in January of this year. I was surprised and pleased at the result - not perfect but pretty good.

Guitar # 2 is half way finished and back & side wood for # 3 has been purchased. It's been a long time getting to this point - I guess there's no turning back now.

Skip
Author:  Glen S. [ Sat May 14, 2005 9:40 pm ]
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It started for me in the Summer of 2003, when I met George Morris of Vermont String Instruments. I enrolled in a 2 week guitar building course, and headed to Vermont.
I have a bad back, and doing this was really in doubt. But He had a bad back also! And He had techniques that enabled me to get it done.
He was at the very first class at "Earthworks" ( Charle s Fox's first school), and He also taught there./ And when GRD ( Guitar research and design) was formed, He was involved with that.
He is my mentor and friend, and has given me the knowledge and confidence to perform these task's, and I will always be grateful to him for this and his willingness to help me out when I am in a bind.
I now have a nice big shop in Rochester NY and anybody who wants to come down here and build, is invited to. We have bench's for 7. If you are in the area, and in need of shop space, drop me a line./
Glen
Author:  Pwoolson [ Sun May 15, 2005 12:40 am ]
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When I was in junior high a friend gave me a Sears hollow body in exchange for my GI Joe collection (man I wish I had that collection back, it would draw a small fortune on ebay)
First thing I did was rip the sucker apart to find out how it worked. My family was never a "figure out how things work" type, more the "pay someone else to figure it out for us" type.
My grandfather was a wood carver and I was always amazed at what he could do with a little jack knife.
Flash forward about 15 years. I had been a stay-at-home dad for my two girls for 5 years. They were getting to the point that they didn't really need constant attention so I was starting to think about what I wanted to do when I grew up. I studied graphic design in college but didn't do well in the corporate world. Tried my hand at boat building, which I liked a lot and will still continue as a hobby if time ever permits, but the space issues were definately real. I would need to rent a warehouse space just to get going. So I started thinking of guitars. Read EVRY word written about their construction. And felt I was ready to take the plunge.
Still a bit nervous I enrolled in Charles Fox's 2 week class. I did more learning in that two weeks than in my entire high school career i think.
So Charles and I hit it off well, he's sort of a father figure to me. I asked him about the possibility of being an apprentice but he told me that, as a policy, they didn't use apprentices. A few days later he contacted me and wondered if I would be interested in coming back to healdsburg and helping him out with a class. I jumped on that opportunity like my pants were on fire. Didn't even ask my wife, just said Yes. So I got to spend another 200 hours not only learning from but also working beside a true ledgend in this trade. Pretty humbling.
Now here I am trying to make a go at this full time. Been on my own for 4 years now and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.
One word of caution for anyone thinking of doing a long intensive study from any school. And don't get me wrong, I'd do it agian in a heartbeat. But they teach you the "hows" but don't really have time to teach the "whys" of building. So when you get out on your own and start having your own design ideas, there are lots of voids in the science of the whole thing that, if filled, might tell you sooner if things will or won't work well.
Author:  JeremyC [ Mon May 16, 2005 1:46 am ]
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After seeing Lance’s nostalgic pictures and while I was helping my mom clean out her basement I found something that I thought people would find humorous and would also fit in this topic.

See, I could play violin before I could read and have been an instrument junkie since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I was always interested in the construction and acoustics of stringed instruments and was actually a bit of a weird kid. In the sixth grade I did a science fair project on the acoustics of a violin top plate.
Have a laugh!

And a close up of my “cornstarch patterns”

And just for kicks a really unflattering picture of a budding builder circa sixth grade



Not that anyone would mistake me for an established builder yet -I picked up my first chisel in February - but my goal is to one day have added something to the instrument world.

Thanks for the inspiration everyone.

Cheers,
Jeremy
Author:  JeremyC [ Mon May 16, 2005 1:54 am ]
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WHOA those pictures are HUGE sorry. I didn’t mean to post the LARGEST pictures known to man. Just a display of my blatant lack of computer related skills. Sorry.
Author:  LanceK [ Mon May 16, 2005 2:05 am ]
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Hey! No prob JC - Those are cool!

Thanks for sharing --


Author:  Michael Dale Payne [ Mon May 16, 2005 5:36 am ]
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It was almost the same for me Lance except I started with the Martin D-28 rosewood kit then did OM rosewood next. Then I did an OM from scratch (all but the neck). I said that was going to be it.....Well # 28 is on the bench and I have no plans to quit now MichaelP38488.6088773148
Author:  Colby Horton [ Tue May 17, 2005 1:01 am ]
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When I was 16 (I’m now 19) I saw an ad in acoustic guitar magazine for LMI it said “build the guitar of your dreams” It really got me to thinking. I started to by a kit but my dad talked me out of it and told me to bite the bullet and start from scratch. I had no previous woodworking experience so that first one is quite rough. I’ve been working at it every since. We also did not have the internet when I got started and that made it tough.
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