Official Luthiers Forum!

After I get back from seaching the local land fills, I'll post my first. If of course, I find it!

No, I think I burned it... no that was number 2!

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Thanks Hesh. Here's hoping that next spring will be fruitful.

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Aoibeann

My #1 started with such promise. An OM. Um... What happened?



Attention to detail was absolutely paramount. The disappearing red and
black purfling was an "aesthetic decision" made by the spruce. It knew
being the soundboard meant it had the biggest role any of the elements
played, but that meant nothing. It didn't want to be a guitar. When
it saw pictures of similar species on the web, it was the pictures and sites
that got it excited. This spruce wanted to be an art director and knew it
deep down. It chose my first guitar as it's first big gig.



My first guitar was clean, inside and out.



As a 17 year old, even though I really wanted to outsource the finish,
finances forced me to rely on carefully developed in-house methods and
techniques. I've never been one to keep it standard, and you can see
some of my experimentation coming out early. Unforuntately, the market
still hasn't developed it's sense of style quite enough to appreciate what I
like to call, "unmatched and mottled."

James Orr39017.8089351852

James,
Nice pic of your Olson. I've always wanted one of them!
Tracy

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Okay everybody, enough of the eye candy, here's a guitar you can all laugh at and pat yourself on the back at how much better your first attempts were. When I built this, I knew beforehand I would be building more, so my goal was to get through it and learn which processes and tools were going to be most important. As it turned out, they all were.

Here's the first pic, not too bad if you squint your eyes and back up a little:



Look at the great job carving out the headstock by hand. Oh, you can do that with power tools? I particularly like the attention to detail on the slot ramps.   




This is one of the best. That extra dark line of purfling around the top--it's actually about a quarter inch of epoxy filler. Hmm, what did you say, there is a specific angle the neck is supposed to be at? I'll just pull it forward until it snaps in place, and just fill the huge crack and gap it makes with some epoxy and sawdust filler. I particularly like how I matched the color of the sawdust to make the 1/4 inch wide crack less noticeable.




Check out the glue line on the bridge. I guess that's pretty common when you don't radius the bottom of your bridge and then you glue it on without the proper clamps. Oh, I see, you don't need to use a clamping caul under the bridge--good, that makes glueing easier.



You know how some people like to paint flames on the front of their car, well I went with the dripping lacquer theme. Pore filler, what's that? Why worry about all those little pores when I have these huge sanding grooves in the sides. Priorities folks...


Well, there it is folks. Guitar #1 sure wasn't pretty, but to this day I hang it on the wall next to my treasured guitars. It reminds me of where I came from and how much work it really takes to make master guitars. Finally, I hope you all got a good ego boost from these photos.

Cheers!

John

Well John, all I've got to say is that right now she's more of a looker than a player. But all that might change with tuners and strings.

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Aoibeann

My #1.

I recently refretted and reset the neck, shaved the braces a little. Now it sounds and plays pretty nicely. Finish is FP.

You've seen my one and only. Now I don't know if I'll ever make the second from scratch. It seems too daunting. I just broke a top in half after carefuly rosetting it. The glue join was weak for some reason. It was good old titebond though... Maybe I heated it too much when ironing out some little dents.

It's a blues creek Martin kit with koa back and sides. I won't mention the mistakes, but it sounds good.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Hey there Sergio!!! Thanks!
I am really impressed by these firsts! Especially that Olson copy James made. And The Dons avatar too! Good one Hesh!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Here is my 1st. Cocobolo/cedar OM

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Hey guys. That first guitar I posted was Don's first, not mine. I was
picking on him.

touche'!

First acoustic.....

Still needs a little work



First electric bass sporting some flamed maple.

Wow, there are some really fine guitars in this group of "firsts!"
And now for something completely different: "Angelina", my first:







(clickable) Thumbnails:


Head Down


Headstock


Tail


Neck to Body


Compound Cutaway, Adjustable Neck


Tunnel Bridge

And, one shot showing the interior parts:

Pivoting Radial (Sonic) Top Bracing, and Suspended (Structural) Bracing

-Dennis Leahy

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

[QUOTE=LuthierSupplier] James,
Nice pic of your Olson. I've always wanted one of them!
Tracy[/QUOTE]

Now that is funny! As if that could ever be confused with an Olson... LOL.
The guy who built that guitar was a hack!

It's a good thing for the world of luthery that he's retired...
Don Williams39017.9359375

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Okay, this doesn't really qualify but it might give some of you a good laugh.

I had to make a special trip to Florida and I found out about it about a month in advance. I knew I would see my godson there and it would be near his birthday.

This is how you can build a 5 string bass guitar in a hurry. My good friend did it in about 3 weeks.

My Godson actually plays it professionally on stage occasionally for the effect and says he likes to practice with it unplugged at home.

OK, here's some lousy pics of my one and only again. First ever woodworking project and built from scratch. Quickly became and remains my #1 player! The next few are in the planning stages and most of the wood is in my closet, just waiting to get my new shop set up. The wait is killing me! I'm about to have to start clearing off the coffee table and start on #2!

Good news is the coffee table's right next to the couch...




westex9339018.0303356481

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

No pictures exist of my first, and the guitar itself passed into other, more needy hands than mine long ago....

Imagine a day when all we had to work with was the 2 Sloane books and the David R. Young book, which was brand new. No Internet, not even in the imagination of a young college student. I had built a few dulcimers but a guitar, my dream goal, still daunted me. So many details... I ran across a local luthier who had trained in Britain as a violin maker. He was offering semester based Saturday classes, and even though most of the students were there to build violins, he was willing to add a guitarmaker. So, I started in under his tutelage. He provided some nice pieces of mahogany for back and sides, a couple of handplanes, a little instruction, and had me start thicknessing the old-fashioned way. The class was about 5 hours a Saturday, an hour of which being general instruction in the history of instruments and their construction - focus on the violin. By the end of the semester, I had wrestled the back and sides down thin enough, glued the back together, and bent sides. At this point I looked at the progress my fellow students had made, and realizaed that at this rate, it was going to take me several years to build a guitar. So, I took my back and sides, bought some top wood from him (3 piece spruce top, of course), and continued at home. What resulted was not terrible for an initial guitar - a mahogany and spruce semi-classical shaped 12 string. It didn't sound too bad either - until I built the next one I was happy to pass it on to a guitarplayer at church who was needing a guitar. No pictures survive.. for which I am thankful....

Thanks Pat, Lillian and Hesh for your words of encouragement regarding my first, i really appreciated that, like John Elshaw, i filled the the purf line with epoxy, although i added plastic shiny beads to pretend intended decoration! It also has a very crooked neck but hey, to my defense, that top was a one piece ply aweright?



See how far from the guitar i am with that camera!



I do appreciate my first for what it taught me and it was a great deal, it's just that you can't show it to people without feeeling a bit sick!

Serge, I got a piece of 8/4 white oak in the garage which I've been threatening to turn into a guitar. I think I'm going to do it after seeing yours. I saw one other, I like the looks of it. Is that a maple neck?

   Good work for a first Bud!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

My first guitar (discounting the Warmoth parts strat) was a chambered carved top electric in the PRS vein:



A good while (and about 4-5 electrics later) came my first acoustic, scratch built, own design, rough dimensions taken from a Taylor 14 series, an Italian/EIR Grand A:




Got about a million pics that show the little flaws here and there, and the big flood of glue on the inside (ie, reverse kerfed linings, cut through the sides, thin superglue, all adds up to floody mcFloodness.), and there are plenty of other bits that could do with improving, too, but it's breaking in very nicely.

[QUOTE=Billy T] Serge, I got a piece of 8/4 white oak in the garage which I've been threatening to turn into a guitar. I think I'm going to do it after seeing yours. I saw one other, I like the looks of it. Is that a maple neck?

   Good work for a first Bud! [/QUOTE]

Thanks Billy , yes, a lamination of 4 maple planks but laminated the wrong way! luckily, it turned out ok looking. The fretboard is a piece of oak though and the headplate is oak ply! Talk about a guy who wanted to learn very quickly huh?

Serge Poirier39018.2887152778

Here's my first. It's an LMI kit with some changes to the binding.
It's got some warts but it sounds great!
I've got the bug now, and am currently working on #2,3,& 4.

Lot's of incredible "first" here and some noble efforts as well.
I can't wait to post my first but it will be near Dec or so before it's
complete. I do have an electric that I built about 15 years ago.
I'll have to see if I can gather some pics.

This has been a very fun and encouraging thread for a first-timer.

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Christopher C. Cordle
North Muskegon, MI

http://www.yardsaleunderwear.com
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.cordle