Saturday May 14, 2005 
Saturday May 14, 2005 I confess, I'm a wannabe luthier. I've always enjoyed building things (although I don't make any claim to be a great craftsman), and I love playing all kinds of stringed instruments. So why not combine the two? I love early Martin guitars, the small-body 12-fret models. But even though they don't command the ridiculous price that the Dreadnought models do, they aren't exactly cheap. Also, they aren't exactly vegetarian! So I fondly hope that I can build a bunch of instruments inspired by those Martin 0-, 1- and 2-size gems, but minus the pieces of dead animal.
How am I doing? Maybe not so well. I've been seriously interested in doing this for over a year, and I've bought a bunch of tools, plans, exotic woods, and books. How many guitars do I have to show for it? None! But I have started on a warm-up project. I'm building an electric guitar, inspired by the venerable Fender® Telecaster®. I've collected all the parts I need, and I'm currently working on the neck. I figure I'll learn to build necks from this, then that will be one less new thing to learn when I come to the acoustics. I'm hoping to have the Terrycaster finished by the end of June.
Incidentally, I'm working from plans published by the Musical Instrument Maker's Forum, which is an invaluable resource.
( May 14 2005, 12:59:41 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]