Guitar Shop In Winter

Cupid semi-hollowbody curly walnut and maple electric guitar is again progressing. Headstock has been shaped and I'm fitting the titanium backing plate that will double as a hanging ring.

Simplicity multi-scale (fanned fret) swamp ash & red oak guitar hangs near the window, awaiting the headless tuning system hardware. Once that has been fitted, ergonomic body sculpting will begin.

We had our first snow of the season last evening.

Comments

[Ola Strandberg]

Wow, that's more snow than what we've had over here in Uppsala, Sweden. It's been unusually warm actually, but dark, dark, dark and rain for weeks... I'd take snow any day.

What do you do for heat in the shop?

And lastly, the guitars look great! I really look forward to seeing how they pan out.

[Alberto Muti]

Mr. Strandberg, it's kind of the same weather we had here in Tallinn (i'm Italian, but i'm spending a university semester in Estonia with a Student Exchange program), while i was really expecting some snow...

The guitar shop has really a sort of "cute" appearance, so small in the snow... very Santa's workshop-like... and both Simplicity and Cupid look just Strapping. I'm really waiting to see them finished.

[Rick Toone]

Where are those damn lazy elves?!
Playing music...again?!

I've got a deadline here!

[Alberto Muti]

I fear someone has spoiled them,with so many fine instruments around :)

[Jesse]

I really like how your work shop is its own little building. It must be a nice little sanctuary... and likely a productive distance away from the computer, mine is dangerously close to my computer!

[Kenny Thompson]

Have you used bamboo in any of your guitars?

As far as sustainability goes, it seems like it can't be beaten. My biology teacher, whose masters thesis was focused on bamboo in construction, says that is also 30% harder than maple. In vertical stacked lamination, because of its grain structure, it would never warp.

[kerry kruger]

Check out Woodward Guitars, they're using Bamboo, and in fact made one of my designs out of it. (A lavender Lefty S-type). I think they have a MySpace page.

My biggest worry is that there's bound to be tons of glue between all those layers...it's like a butcher block of square rods, which means about twenty times the glue and a whole bunch of competing resonances in all those pieces.

The whole point of using one solid block for guitars is that the cellular structure in the wood stays consistent, and if you think about it even the stacked 'pancake' style construction guitars (like Japanese Ibanez LP ripoffs) usually sound kinda clammy.

However, I haven't heard the finished piece yet, they're showing it at the Newport Guitar Festival in Ft. Lauderdale in a couple weeks, so I'll let you know if it sounds like formica-covered plywood or not!

[Kenny Thompson]

Haha for the great reply though! I had just been talking with my Biology Professor about his love for bamboo. He has his entire house (floor, cabinets, his deck, ceiling, and furniture) built with the stuff.

I thought it looked pretty wild and different. It doesn't stain well though. I bet it is hard to work with as well.

I figure all that extra glue will either make it sound horrible, or it might just filter out some of the higher frequencies that would normally overpower a guitar made entirely out of such a hard, stiff wood.

[kerry kruger]

Well, it wasn't an 'idea' they stole but an actual copyrighted digitized outline.

Here's how it went down...I hired a luthier in Ft Lauderdale to do some wiring on a Tele for a friend. It took an extra hour or two (as he broke the damn lead wire after we'd tested it making me drive an extra 2 hours to get it fixed), and as he'd seen a few of my designs and was making a truly ugly main model himself), he asked if I'd redesign his headstock toward something he'd seen in my portfolio. ( He actually asked for one of my singlecut headstock designs outright.)

So I did a version that was more suited to a Strat type, and stuck it on a tracing of his stock model, which then looked even more horrid by comparison.

Obsessive maniac that I am, I set out to fix the body as well, and several hours later had a nice forward-leaning Strat type to go with the new head. (Actually came out very much like the Suhr Modern, developed concurrently).
So, nice fool that I can be, I give him the new headstock design as promised, and showed him the new body as well. Well even he could see it was way better, so I make him a deal, I'll give you this design, and whenever you sell one, I get 75 bucks.

Easy peasy, right? Handshakes all 'round.

He goes ahead and makes one, which was actually my first completed design (exciting for me), and then, almost immediately, starts working for this Woodward guy and right out of the gate they produce MY design and apparently figure I'm out of the loop! So far I have received no word if any of them have sold, and frankly doubt I'll ever be told, but boy was that a lesson in watching your friends.

I'm pretty sure they've run out of money, as their website has never worked properly (or they screwed that guy too), so that's pleasing to me, but still the whole deal was fairly sleazy as far as I'm concerned.