Official Luthiers Forum!

Would like to introduce myself and say "Hi everyone"

Tell us where you are from and post a pic of some of your work if you have something to show. Plus, consider posting a bio beside Vivian Ecker's. We all want to know what makes you tick. N is that Nathan, Nicholas, Nick, what's the N for? In my case N is for nosy....

Greetings Nelson!
Enjoy!

Lance

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

James (Jim?)--I'm from North Central Kansas--Beloit, so we're nearly next door neighbors!   You can see some of my earlier archtops if you bring up the website listed in my profile.
Lance--thanks for the welcome, I'm looking forward to hanging around.
Nelson

Holey Moley...those archtops are beautiful! Welcome aboard Nelson!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Welcome Nelson. Great looking guitars. Don't be a stranger. Paul

Welcome. YOu are one awsome builder. Those archtops are something. Great to have you here and see what you do

Welcome Nelson. Just what we needed an archtop builders brain to pick. Beautiful work.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Nelson,

Welcome. Your archtops are beautiful! Tell us more about your building process when you get a chance.

Jeff

I browsed your website and you really do make exceptional guitars. I for one want to tackle an archtop but have a long ways to go with flattops first. You and Sylvan Wells can bring the rest of us to speed on the ins and outs of archtype lutherie. Again, Welcome to the OLF.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Thanks for the warm reception guys!   I've been a reader of and sometimes "poster" to the Mimforum for several years having learned archtop building from Bill Moll's course there.   Still much to learn which keeps it interesting and very rewarding to discover or learn from someone else an easier and/or more precise method.
I was extremely fortunate to connect with Lou Del Rosso of guitarsnjazz.com early on and thru Ebay no less. I do not play guitar but Lou is a Jazz player who had been trading in vintage archtops for a number years. He has provided and continues to provide a great deal of guidance regarding what the players out there want and expect in an archtop. There is a picture on the website, taken at the Long Island Show in 2001, of Lou next to George Benson playing his new Palen. I try to build 10 to 12 per year which is a time challenge in addition to my day job designing farm machinery. (I'm just a Kansas farm boy at heart)
I would be happy to provide input on archtop building and also appreciative of help from anyone elso on building in general. That's really what it's all about.
Nelson

GLAD TO HAVE YOU WITH US

and usually only when I'm in trouble. All my friends call me Bruce. I have a cousin named James, and we all call him Jim. He doesn't build guitars.

Nelson, Beloit is a ways up there. My wife and I drove to Wyoming once and stayed not far from you at Hays on the way up. That state seems as wide as Tennessee on the highway.

Way cool that you build Jazz guitars, maybe you can give me some pointers on an F5 Mandolin soon. I have some gouges and violin planes. I just filed away a Bennedetto article my Brother-in-law passed on to me.

I'd be interested to know how you finish those babies. They just seem so huge. Are the French Polished with shellac or sprayed with Nitrocellulose? I 'aven't a clue. Oh, I forgot all about Sylvan, he builds archtops. I'll tell him you're aboard. Bruce Dickey

Bruce--I would like to build an F5 someday. It looks to be a much more daunting task than an archtop. That scroll scares me! Carving it would be one thing but binding it......
I do nitro on the archtops but would someday like to try something less volatile like the KTM9.
I'll bet Sylvan could give us some pointers on archtop building.
Nelson

Welcome to the group!!

Hi Nelson! Glad to see you here.
How did that Susan tail piece archtop turn out?
Did the client like it?
I know it was a while ago!


Anyway. I frequent here as my home. Glad to see you made it.

Craig Lavin

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www.handcraftinlay.com

Bruce--You mentioned Bob Benedetto and that brought to mind a little story. I had read Bob's book back in '99 when first getting into archtops. His book has full scale drawings of the arching templates but none for the body. I got up the courage to write him and ask him if there was any way I could possibly get some body dimensions. He responded with a very gracious phone call and said that he would send dimensions. A few days later I received a large piece of brown wrapping paper on which he had traced the outline of his 17" mold. What a guy!
Nelson

Craig--Great to "see" you again.   The customer was elated with his "Susan" archtop. He's a smart guy having his wife's name inlaid into the tailpiece. Much smarter than a tatoo which is difficult to remove.
You do very nice work!
Nelson

Nelson, that was terribly funny! Much much smarter!

Okay, I just visited your website and looked at your guitars. Now I'm embarassed to call myself a guitarmaker. Wow.

Here is a link that will load a pic of Nelson's guitar, for sale on GBASE: (now you know what I'm talking about)



Dickey38364.5979166667

Isn't it amazing what a good coat of STP will do for the gloss!
P.S. My wife, Joan, built the water garden by herself. Puts me to shame.

Hey guys, just kiddin' about the STP. Probably would
make a finish "slick" however. Well at least for a little while.
Nelson

Quote: "If guitarmaking is allowed in heaven, that's where I want to go. Otherwise, well at least the wood is probably dry."

Okay, had to read that six times over six days and I finally get it. In Hell the wood is dry!   ROTFLMAO!