Official Luthiers Forum!

I thought it would be interesting to see the spectrum of experience on the forum. Let's define "completed" as strung up and playable, delivered to a customer or in inventory awaiting a buyer.

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

1-completed
1-ready for spraying
3-in construction

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

5 complete, including, two Dred Nots, one L-Double Oh, two Grand A's (a venetian cutaway and a florentine cutaway)

5 Ready for binding, Two OSJ's, Three Grand A's (one florentine, one venetian, and one standard)

5 Rimsets together on the shelf, with tops and backs joined

2 Mandolin A-Style tops and backs joined, tops braced

Four, 12 fret OOOs
Three, 14 fret OMs
Two, 14 fret OOs
One, Parlour
And one 7-course Lute (see sound hole rose on the left)

I've one more lute and another OOO in process of being built.

All have been made for my own use.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

7 acoustic flattops some with 16 frets to body and cutaway.
6 electric guitars.
1 elec. Bass

Colin, The Lute seems interesting.
       I've always wondered about building one of those.

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

It's a mere 7 completed, 6 of those being electrics. I've got two (one electric, one acoustic) that should get wrapped up in the next 2-3 months, then I'm starting on another 4 (3 acoustics, 1 electric). Going faster now than it used to..

I'll have to check my records for the total but I completed 16 last year + 4 bodies in lacquer.Tim McKnight38361.8620601852

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

I'm not exactly sure but I'm in the 21-40 bracket.
I changed my serial # system a while back and it is a running total + the year it was made and I am making #2404 right now. I'd guess brobably 10 or so before that so about 34 or 35 plus a mandolin and a violin.
I think I finished 7 or 8 last year.John How38361.7783449074

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

2 full
1 almost ready for finishing

parts for another waiting in the wings.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

18 done so far..
Mostly Rosewood and Cedar SJ styles.
2 OO Mahogany and BC Sitka.
2 on order for this building season..

Gary

2 Acoustics so far, 1 was a SJ made after my Santa Cruz F model, and the other is an SJ made from the Olson SJ plans. I'll probably start on #3 summer of 2005 if all goes well.

36 carved archtops and 1 dreadnought.
6 more archtops in process.

If you count the ones I worked on at pantheon then the number is well over 101+ but by myself in the past three years I'm in the 76-100 range... and that's how I voted.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Two completed classicals so far... 1 Ramirez and 1 Hauser style.

I have three more I'm getting started on very soon.

John

115 to date.

I am somewhere around 30 guitars and 2 f-style mandolins.
in `04 I finished 4 OM`s
                   2 00`s
                   2 dreds
                   1 f-style mando

New for `05 some 12 fret dreds, and 12 fret 00 cut aways                   

1 guitar
2 flat top mandolins

3 personal and 1 under construction
2 experiments
2 gifts
12 commissions

2 while at Galloup (1electric,1jumbo)
8 since all acoustic 000/OM
3 in works.

Wade

That lute was the most challenging piece of instrument building I have ever done. Just building the mold for the back assembly was a major undertaking. The soundhole rose is not inlaid but carved directly from the 70 year old piece of Mastergrade plus German spruce, this alone took me two months worth of evenings. Back slats are from a 1000+ year old Yew tree that blew down in a storm in 1987. The fingerboard and frets are from a Hornbeam cut from a local field hedge with the bridge made from a piece of rose briar again from a field hedge! In the fifteenth century they didn't have access to exotic imported hardwoods!

I made the lute because I felt that to call myself a luthier I had to build a Lute! I'm currently working on a 13 course swan neck lute with Sycamore back.

Believe me if you complete one you get a real sense of achievement. The colour on the rose picture has come out badly the dark lines are shadows of the strings, you can see the colour of the top from the pic of the fingerboard.

Colin





Colin S38362.4908796296

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Way Cool Colin!
My wife and I went to Hallstatt Austria recently where they had a trade school that taught instrument building. They had a few Lutes and lute-like instruments on disply their. I have wanted to build one ever since. Someday..
Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

1 finished, a walnut/cedar dred. A EIR/Engleman dred, a mahagony/AD dred and a walnut/bearclaw Sitka OM about 85% done.

8 Classicals Done
3 Under construction
2 commissions

86 guitars, including archtops, flat tops and classicals.
24 violin family.
~40 lap harps.
~40 Hammered dulcimers. (lost count)
150 mountain dulcimers (those were big for a while!)
a half dozen hurdy-gurdies.
four lutes.
maybe a dozen or so miscellaneous things like rebecs and bowed psaltries.

Yet to make:
mandolin
aoelian harp

Alan still market for mt dulcimer in ok,mo and ar near ozarks. my wife plays it and loves it, i am going to start one also. just need to make a mold or something for the sides, bought the how to build one book. i think they are a nice instrument and once learn can be great sounding. Mcspadden nice, but not like they use to be. going to make a banjo dulcimer one day also