POLL: At what point did YOU build the guitar?

[Securb]

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

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?

Good analogy. If I make a spaghetti dinner do I have to make my own pasta from scratch? What if I buy jar sauce, did I still make the meal? There are so many parts of the guitar we can not make ourselves, tuners, bridges and in most cases pickups. It is difficult to draw the line on what can be purchased and what needs to be manufactured by the individual. I think it comes down to the person if you feel comfortable saying you built the guitar then by all means proclaim it with pride.

 

[Dahla]

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

Use the same tactics as the big boy corporations: you builda guitar, but outsource certain levels of manufacturing using clever economic tactics.

"Did you cut and/or shape your guitar neck?"

-Nope. I outsourced it and passed the savings on to the "client" (ie me). Haha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rgand]

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

My first build was a neck-through mandolin from a block of kiln dried spruce and a length of maple. I put an old Tele neck pickup in it and electronic parts from the shop. To keep the neck from warping, I sawed lengthwise and glued it back together then glued on a pre-fretted rosewood fretboard. The thing sounded good and played well. I'd say I built that one.

 

[AlexR]

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

All businesses rely on others previous to them. I mean can you really be called a pickup maker if you didn't mine the ore for the metal parts yourself??

I think if you can claim at least some shaping from raw materials or a creative/physical content then you can be called a maker.

But there is a wide range that can be called that - it is neither a narrow nor rigid definition.

 

[crusty philtrum]

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

Despite playing guitar for forty years when I 'made' this LP-based instrument, I'd never built anything, but had a block of Honduran mahogany. As a critical player, i needed the neck to be excellent, because i wanted to actually play the resulting instrument and I only had one shot to get it right. If I had more blocks of the same body wood, no doubt the second or third effort would have some kind of neck that I'd attempted to build from scratch. But I'm a player, not a luthier.

SO ... did i get the title of the thread right ? You decide ... over 100,000 views for this lil 'assembly' so far.

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...uilds-A-Les-Paul-(How-Not-To-Build-A-Guitar-)


And yes, I acknowledge (and did so in the thread) that others here have done something like this, including making the neck, and done a better job.

 

[Will S-T]

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

I believe it matters not what hand is driving the tool or CNC machine to make all the components,
it is th design and vision of the end product that counts and more importantly it's usefull ness.
Very few are experts or capable in producing said components.

Having said that, the blueprint is all that really matters

 

[MetalManiac]

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

For me, I didn't "Build" the guitar unless I actually hand hewed the wood from a mature old growth tree, waited thirty years for the cut lumber to air dry, shaped the body and neck by hand using regular tools, mined and forged the silver and cobalt for the pickups, strings and frets myself, and then formed all parts out of my own machine shop.
Sorry, I'm a purist.

 

[AlexR]

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

Well, you seem to spend a lot of your converting necks originally in one piece to multiple pieces, so I can imagine you'd want to be as thorough going the other way.

 

[Snake Aces]

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

Despite playing guitar for forty years when I 'made' this LP-based instrument, I'd never built anything, but had a block of Honduran mahogany. As a critical player, i needed the neck to be excellent, because i wanted to actually play the resulting instrument and I only had one shot to get it right. If I had more blocks of the same body wood, no doubt the second or third effort would have some kind of neck that I'd attempted to build from scratch. But I'm a player, not a luthier.

SO ... did i get the title of the thread right ? You decide ... over 100,000 views for this lil 'assembly' so far.

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...uilds-A-Les-Paul-(How-Not-To-Build-A-Guitar-)


And yes, I acknowledge (and did so in the thread) that others here have done something like this, including making the neck, and done a better job.

That's a classic thread. I love the way it turned out. You did great especially for a player.

 

[astrozombie]

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

If I cut the body blanks into the shapes...i built it.

 

[jeremy]

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

I believe it matters not what hand is driving the tool or CNC machine to make all the components,
it is th design and vision of the end product that counts and more importantly it's usefull ness.
Very few are experts or capable in producing said components.

Having said that, the blueprint is all that really matters

so an architect builds the building?

 

[St_Genesius]

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

So...Leo Fender actually built every Telecaster ever?

I believe it matters not what hand is driving the tool or CNC machine to make all the components,
it is th design and vision of the end product that counts and more importantly it's usefull ness.
Very few are experts or capable in producing said components.

Having said that, the blueprint is all that really matters

 

[Will S-T]

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

So...Leo Fender actually built every Telecaster ever?

Jeremy and St Genesius, it's Leo's genius I'm talking about.

Leo, Earnie, Dan and Seymour started out with a design and made it happen
with the hands on skills and more importantly the resources at hand.

These days you can outsource every component and manufacturing process
right down to the final Pleking, packaging and distribution right to your door.

I saw Crusty's LP from a plank of wood on the mantelpiece to the amazing instrument it became.
Contrary to what he says, he is a luthier, and a good one because he is a fantastic player and knew
exactly what the end result would be even before he picked up a ruler or router.

Given the resources and materials, I'm sure could he set up a plant anywhere on the planet and
even exceed the quality of the product he so skillfully created by hand.

He was a builder the minute the vision and process came to mind and the eventual emerged.

I'm a lucky fcuker, I've played the beast and you should all be jealous, it is ###### great!

I on the other hand am a Fender bloke and have access to amazing custom neck and body
makers that produce custom shop quality at Warmoth prices but I get to pick the lumber
from their stash. Hardware is the best I can get given the application and electronics to suit.
I start out with a recipe with exact specs, order, assemble tweak and finish.

Am I a builder or assembler?

 

[Gaspasser69]

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

I would consider assembling putting together all premade parts with little to no modifications need. Building is when machining is needed on some level or another. Using the router to make pockets or cavities. Using wood working or metal working tools to finish the piece. If it is a kit and you machine it then you built it, but dont claim you did all the work.

A luthier makes everything from scratch - raw wood blanks. Adding a finish is not building, thats just finishing. Part of the process though. I work in a wood shop making day trading desks mostly. For my kit builds i just include that i built it from a kit.
Gonna do a from scratch build soon, got some aged black walnut sitting as huge logs from the wood lot.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

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

so an architect builds the building?

Not exactly, but if you take two identical guitar kits and have two different people put them together, while a third person does the final bridge and pickup setup on both, they will sound different for reasons not directly related to the tonal variations of the wood.