Official Luthiers Forum!

I have completed just 10 guitars. I still play my first guitar. I like it a lot, but the neck is not so good. I'm thinking about fixing that, replacing the bridge with my new design and getting her refinished. It is cedar on IE rosewood and IMHO it sounds great, rich over tones, nice balance and bass etc. This way I'd have a great demo guitar. As it is, I really don't want to let anyone play it although I still enjoy it.

So - What do you think?
Leave it alone for sentimental reasons or spruce it up?
What have you done with your first guitar?

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I'd fix it up. I have been playing my second guitar the most, but I'm about to go back and
trim down the bracing in my first, plus reset the neck to get a lower action.

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

Steve,
Unbelievable timing. I just pulled my first out of the case yesterday and put new strings on it. I was amazed at the sound! My problem is the neck is too fat. I was just thinking of recarving it to make it play better. The radius on the fretboard is not correct either, so I was thinking of refretting and fixing the radius too. I say go for it!

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Steve,
every time I look at the first guitar I actually completed, it needs so much work I may as well make a whole new one and leave that one as a reminder of the learning curve!

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

I went back and worked on my first. Shaved the braces, reset the neck, reshaped the neck.

It's a much better sounding guitar these days than it was, it's also a lot better to play.

Go for it.

I'd be inclined to leave my first guitar alone, no matter how bad it was (as a reminder of how it all started) and make a new demo guitar.

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Steve,

On my first, my daily player, three years after I finished it I tweaked the truss rod to get less relief, reset the neck to get the strings higher off the top with the same action, and shaved back braces to bring down the resonant frequency of the back. It's like a different guitar. I was able to get the action lower without buzzes, and it's more responsive and has a fuller sound.

It may become my shop mule. I have other plans for it. Maybe even a refinish.

I say go for it!

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I know that I am too planning on redoing my first right now. It was a old, mid 90's squier stratocaster that I bought off eBay for about 50 dollars. I stipped the paint and put some new hardware on it. But I have decided that it needs a facelift, so I will be repainting it and putting some new pickups in.

I personally think that your first can be your best, because you the more you know the more you want to fix the mistakes that you made on your first one.

I'd say go for it. It would sure be a new and interesting project.

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-Rob Eckert
Ann Arbor, Michigan

My first, a kit, went out with the trash last Sunday evening.

Geeze Hesh -- I was going to invite everyone out to the lake to use their number one's to paddle the barge across Zukey next month!

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

My first was sold, and came back, perhaps 3 years ago.
The headstock was broken off the neck shaft.
No question there, it needed a new neck.
So I sawed off the overlay and fretboard, reusing them on the new neck.
That retained the original flavor, but gave the owner his instrument back.
I'm with (nearly) everyone who said go for it.
Only, I'd keep the original bridge, if it's still functional. That way your customers can see how much your design skills have improved, you will remain more humble as the years roll on (looking at your first bridge) and when you are famous-- but dead-- that guitar will be the one that makes your heirs wealthy.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I still have my first guitar, albeit in bits.
When i needed to learn how to remove a bridge I needed to practice on something.
So far i've practiced removing a bridge, a fingerboard, and the back using that guitar.
But i still can't bring myself to throw it away.
I'm sure it will come in handy to practice something else on, including a possible rebuild

Cheers,
Claire

Around 1972 I converted my first guitar (built in '66) from a six string to a twelve string.....and sold it to someone in NH where I was in school at the time.
I still have the original peg head though which is enough to remind me of how bad it really was.
I feel fortunate in that I had little idea of what a good guitar was when I started building. A lack of awareness which served me well as I slogged ahead, unfettered by just how far I had to go before producing something decent.

I use my first as a soundboard testbed for all the crazy ideas I get. I've routed off and glued on about a half dozen tops so far.

I've often wondered what happened to my first guitar, it was sold shortly after I finished it in 1973, I wonder if it's still intact or has folded up in half. I doubt it, I think I made it like
a Panzer tank so it's probably being used as ballast in some boat. Come to think of it, maybe I don't want to know what happened to it.....

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

By a strange twist of fate I just bought my first guitar back for what I sold it for which, by the way, was a pretty good deal for both of us I would say. Other than needing a neck reset and moving the bridge just a tad for better intonation its a powerhouse of a bluegrass guitar. Its honduran mahogany/englemann with tortoise binding pretty similar to a D 18. A few fit and finish spots but otherwise much better than I had remembered in the 10 plus years it has been gone. I wouldn't be afraid to fix it up and send it back out into the world considering the tone and volume. Not too bad for a first build but some of you guys on here have "first builds" that look absolutely fantastic. Glad I didn't see those ten years ago

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Like many first guitars, I overbuilt mine.When I get the time I would like to work
on it and improve the tone. Yeah,I would go ahead and spruce it up Steve.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

I had a number of false stars before finally completing one, so I'm not sure what would be considered my first. But come to think of it, the only first of any kind of instrument project I still have is the combo amp I built two years ago.