POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

[St_Genesius]

How much do you have to do before you, personally, feel that you made a guitar? Assembled a kit? Cut a body? Carved both body and neck? Cut body/neck and wound your own pickups? Did the body, neck, pickups and forged your own metal bits like the bridge, tuners, etc? All of that AND you crafted your own potentiometers and wire? You mined all the metal and grew the trees from seedlings, before doing all of the above?

It's a bit like cooking, isn't it? There's a line SOMEWHERE between microwaving a frozen patty and raising your own cow, but...where is that line?

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

For me... unless someone cut and shaped the wood completely they didnt build it. Hardware is ok to purchase elsewhere. But if you didnt cut the truss rod channel and set it in if you didnt put the frets on the fret board you didnt build it.

Most of what people do is either assembling or finishing.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

BTW where is the poll?

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

I would put myself under the "assembly" as I don't cut out and shape the neck and body.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

It's showing for me. And someone already (not me) voted "assembled parts."

BTW where is the poll?

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

Do you look at the assembled bits and think "I made that."

I would put myself under the "assembly" as I don't cut out and shape the neck and body.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

It's showing for me. And someone already (not me) voted "assembled parts."

That t'would be me Yup, the poll is showing (sometimes there is a lag it seems)

 

[JollyRoger523]

POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

I would say at a minimum, obtaining all of the individual components (fretted necks included), doing some of your own finishing, and then doing your own assembly, wiring, and set up. There is a fine line between this and assembling a bunch of finished parts (say a Strat assembled from parted out Strats), which I would consider just assembling a guitar. Although my minimum level listed above may mean that you built your own guitar, it does not make you a "guitar builder". That would require doing your own woodwork, truss rod, pressing in frets, etc.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

What about pickups? Catch me on a particular day, and I'll feel like if I didn't wrap wire around the bobbin, I didn't REALLY build the instrument. Not every day, but sometimes.

For me... unless someone cut and shaped the wood completely they didnt build it. Hardware is ok to purchase elsewhere. But if you didnt cut the truss rod channel and set it in if you didnt put the frets on the fret board you didnt build it.

Most of what people do is either assembling or finishing.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

It's showing for me. And someone already (not me) voted "assembled parts."

It shows now

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

What about pickups? Catch me on a particular day, and I'll feel like if I didn't wrap wire around the bobbin, I didn't REALLY build the instrument. Not every day, but sometimes.

I give a pass on pickups just because most guitar companies outsource those. Most high end brand come with one or another aftermarket brand of pickups.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

The skills of the luthier and the cabinet maker are the same. They both begin from lengths of unshaped wood.

By the same token these craftsmen and women do not - as a rule - grow and fell trees. This is where the OP's cow analogy breaks down.

 

[jeremy]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

if i make the body and neck then i consider it something i made. slapping parts together is cool but you didnt really make anything, you assembled it. i wind my own pups too but i dont think you need to do that to consider it something you made. i dont think ill ever do tuners or pots or anything like that but id like to make my own bridges someday

 

[ItsaBass]

POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

Made the neck from scratch = "made" the guitar. Anything else is just assembling the guitar. You might have made the body, if you carved and painted it yourself. But you're not truly making a guitar in my book unless the neck came into your shop as a wood blank and left as a neck.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

Well, I'd put both the growing of the tree and the raising of the cow in the "Completely Absurd" category, as prerequisites for building a guitar and cooking, respectively.

By the same token these craftsmen and women do not - as a rule - grow and fell trees. This is where the OP's cow analogy breaks down.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

Well, I'd put both the growing of the tree and the raising of the cow in the "Completely Absurd" category, as prerequisites for building a guitar and cooking, respectively.

Sorta off topic but semi interesting... here in Italy they have a type of restaurant called an "agriturismo" part of being able to call your restaurant an agriturismo instead of just a resturante is that you have to either grow or raise more than 60% of the items that you serve.

We ate at one a few months ago that specialized in serving duck and on site they had a big pond and coops for raising ducks.

So maybe in some places... its not so absurd. There is another near here that does the same but for horse meat.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

I'm not saying doing it is absurd. Just that pointing to someone who DIDN'T raise the duck and saying "you didn't really cook this meal" would be absurd.

So maybe in some places... its not so absurd. There is another near here that does the same but for horse meat.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

I'm not saying doing it is absurd. Just that pointing to someone who DIDN'T raise the duck and saying "you didn't really cook this meal" would be absurd.

Nah i know where you're coming from, I'm just giving you tenuously related ,irrelevant semi interesting information.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

I've heard of some places where you get to go out back and pick out the cow you want your steak from, while it's still mooing.

I've also been to dockside places where you can bring them the fish you caught and they'll cook it for you.

As for guitars, the definitions of "build/built" and "make/made" are already broad even when not applied to the current topic. I have made several mutts that involved nothing more than moving a neck with the tuners, locking nut, trem, and even the strings from one body to another all in one go. I have others where I put heavy sandpaper to the back of the neck. I did not start with rectangular wood pieces, they were pre-fabricated in the shape and configuration I desired. That doesn't mean I didn't build/make it, that just means I'm not a luthier.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

For me... unless someone cut and shaped the wood completely they didnt build it. Hardware is ok to purchase elsewhere. But if you didnt cut the truss rod channel and set it in if you didnt put the frets on the fret board you didnt build it.

Most of what people do is either assembling or finishing.

Exactly. I love my Warmoths but I can't take credit for building them! I only put the parts in. I assembled them but I did not build them.