Official Luthiers Forum!

As I've been reviewing the build threads and attempting to summarize the contest in print and photos for a notional web article, I keep going back to those folks like Peter or Jay, working on their first and second guitar, respectively. It is hard to say enough good things about these instruments, and given the fact that they were built under considerable time pressure and the additional constraint of very limited cost, I am hopeful that we will see a surge of voting this week which recognizes these accomplishments.

Frankly, I am baffled by the lack of votes for some of my favorites here...and hope that the other 5800 or so OLF members will weigh in to recognize not only craftsmanship and creativity, but also what was simply a refusal to quit. Some of these instruments were built in 30 minute stretches of time, sandwiched in between family, work, and sleep time...often before dawn or well after midnight. That alone merits a 'Determination in the Face of Adversity' award.

I'm also struck by the number of folks that threw out the rules and built something that they had never before attempted...Bryan's mando and Tony's uke are examples, as well as Dave's science experiment masquerading as a guitar (and I mean that in the nicest way, Dave...I am in awe).

Finally...there are several folks that were on the verge of finishing, or who finished and just could not get the documentation turned around fast enough (Shane W., etc.)...I really, really would enjoy a chance to see and hear these instruments, so I hope their builders continue to race for the finish line and will honor us with pictures and video of the result.

Yeah, the voting has been a lot less balanced than I would have expected. Yours was one of my favorites.

Probably would look a lot different if people had more than one pick. Seems like it's pretty much become a duel between the octomans and the broke oak, and nobody wants to waste their vote on us hopeless cases

I can understand my poor showing though, considering the poor video quality, poor playing, and average sounding guitar. It has opened up some since then, but I think I will shave the ends of the fan braces a bit to try and liven it up some more. If only it had sounded as good as coral snake right off the bat. I really wanted that chisel

Yeah, I wish I was able to get more pictures up. We took the pictures last minute and the video. I wish I could of gotten done soon so I had time to break in for the video. It sounds way better now.

Post another video.

As I've been reviewing the build threads and attempting to summarize the contest in print and photos for a notional web article

I'm also struck by the number of folks that threw out the rules and built something that they had never before attempted...Bryan's mando and Tony's uke are examples, as well as Dave's science experiment masquerading as a guitar (and I mean that in the nicest way, Dave...I am in awe).

Finally...there are several folks that were on the verge of finishing, or who finished and just could not get the documentation turned around fast enough (Shane W., etc.)...I really, really would enjoy a chance to see and hear these instruments, so I hope their builders continue to race for the finish line and will honor us with pictures and video of the result.

. . .my ever growing "wood too big to throw away but too small to do anything useful with just yet" collection!

Ah, nevermind, too easy.

Ah, nevermind, too easy.

Except that I am logged in automatically when I visit, and I bet a lot of other people do that too.

Kick everyone off and make them log in haha.

By the way something's been buggin me. Is your name pronounced "coast-uh" or "cost-uh"