whitesalmonguitar

An old friend

2010-02-28T09:17:00.000-08:00

While after a long delay I have decided to return to my blog and share some new photo's of an old guitar. I recently was contacted by a guitarist who purchased one of my "Knutsen- Hawaiian lap steels" several years ago. This guitar was completed in 06' and was one of three built. Knutsen was the original patent holder of the Harp guitar as well as a predecessor of Weissenborn in the development of the Hawaiian lap steel. He was an independent spirit and insisted on doing things his own way. As a result he never did the same thing twice and created some of the most wildly imaginative instruments built in the 20th century. He also was a native of the pacific northwest and began his career in Port Townsend, Washington on the tip of the Olympic peninsula.
It was a thrill to discover that this guitar has found such an appreciative home and it reminded me of the secret life of musical instruments. The histories they contain and possible futures they may inhabit. Sometimes I can forget that I am making objects that can bring great joy to peoples lives, objects that will live much longer than I. This is a helpful reminder to me of all the music that is happening on guitars I have created over the years. Keep on picking everyone, share your music, play for your friends and family. Music is an old friend.

Throw your camera in the creek & a poem for John Hayes

2009-06-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

While I am sad to report that last weekend I was hiking on the south face of Mt. Adams and I accidentally dropped my digital camera in a creek. I was trying to jump across and thought it would be a good idea to throw my pack across first. It made it to the other side but rolled down the bank right into the creek. I dried the camera out but alas the lights are on but there's nobody home.
This means that I will be unable to post pictures of the final stages of my batch of six guitars as I will not be able to afford a replacement until I finish. I will shoot with my old Nikon film camera and I will try to get the images digitized (thats a cool word) and posted at some point.
I am just now wrapping up the carving of all these necks and will be starting finish work next week.
I did take a bit of a break from blogging this spring as i was caught up in work, teaching and parenting my son Noah on my own. But I was inspired by John Hayes's poem on "robert frosts banjo" so I thought i would try one myself. I don't pretend to be a poet but I would like to learn more. I have a lot going on right now and I do feel that poetry and music best capture the human landscape.

When you fit the dovetail
There is a certain amount of hope involved
Take one thin shaving from the cheek
Then look to see if the angle is correct

The neck must fit the body at the right angle
Or the strings will always be too high

When I said I loved you
I knew that it would take some work

If you get the angle wrong the first time
You will have to take it apart
It will never play right – if you don’t
The strings will always be too high

C. Wilson

Cascadia archtops

2009-06-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that I have completed both the Cascadia 16 archtop bodies started this spring. I am now working on finishing the necks this week and getting them ready for the finish booth. These guitars have both been incredibly satisfying to build. Yesterday found me fitting the dovetail joint, gluing the brasilian rosewood fingerboard down and cutting my pearl logo for the headplate. Today I glued the board and headplate and started roughing the neck out on the thinline.
Thurs / Fri will find me doing the same on the full depth maple / euro spruce model.
After a rather long search for figured air dried maple neck wood I decided to stick with Honduran Mahogany on both necks. This is my favorite of all tonewoods and makes great stable necks with sweet warm overtones.
I am really staying true to the vintage archtop feel of these necks with a 7-1/4 " radius on the fingerboards and a slight "V" profile with plenty of depth. I find the old "Epiphones" and "Gibsons" have really sweet necks with more depth than the more modern versions. To my mind they through the baby out with the bathwater when they started making thinner necks with a flatter fingerboard.

Teaching guitar building

2009-06-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

This spring I was approached by a local finish carpenter with an art school background in sculpture. He had built a guitar on his own from a kit and he did a fine job. He asked if I would teach him to build another. At first I said no, I did not feel I had time or space in my shop and was unsure how to go about organizing such an endeavor.
I did teach six students at our local high school woodshop several years ago through a grant from the county but that was over the course of an entire year and was a part time project for me. I did really enjoy teaching at that time and had seriously considered going back to school to get certified to teach shop during some years of financial strife (guitar building is a tough career choice) I stuck it out on my own and I am glad I did, but teaching still has appeal. After giving it more thought I agreed to teach Ernie & developed a three week program with some more follow up days to finish and set-up.
Ernie brings a lot of skill to the process and has been a pleasure to have around. I think he is building a fine guitar and has shown a lot of attention to detail. Being forced into a framework for the sake of instruction has also helped me to re-design some out dated jigs and fixtures, and refine my process. I decided the easiest way to teach was to build a guitar alongside his so I could demonstrate each step. I am happy to report that by the end of three weeks the guitar bodies were done and the necks roughed out. We have been continuing one day a week together with final carving and getting ready to go into the spray booth.
I will be shooting these guitars at the same time I spray the rest of my spring batch. This will bring my production for 09' so far up to 6 new guitars that should all be finished this month.
Here are some photo's of Ernie building his guitar.

Cascadia archtop - looking guitar like

2009-03-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed myself last week. I found the carving of the top & back plates to be both physical and meditative. I definitely had the sense that I was "removing everything that wasn't a guitar" I have always been fascinated with carving and can remember being particularly impressed with the masks & totems of the Haida nation on display at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver B.C. (my hometown) I can now say that I have the bug & feel that this first forray into the archtop guitar world will be just the first of many. I may even go back & try to finish the fiddle I started 10 yrs. ago then abandoned.
It has been really enjoyable to be able to focus on one project these past couple of weeks and to make some real headway. It is far more typical for me to be doing ten things at once, trying to get repairs done for people in a timely manner and squeezing in some time on building projects when I can. It is helpful to keep cash flow coming and pay bills but I can recognize that I need to have larger chunks of time set aside every month to make progress on my building projects. I am envious of the artists & craftsmen who had large commissions and patrons who understood what they were doing. Enabling them to work for years refining their craft. I am thinking of the stone carvers who cut the gargoyles for the great cathedrals. Working each day for a lifetime at their trade, knowing they would have their basic needs provided for.
I would gladly trade my skill for a comfortable humble living arrangement, just a small cottage with a little garden space and my shop. A bag of groceries every couple of days, some nice forest trails nearby to gather inspiration and the freedom to create instruments one after another out of the finest materials. What a liberation that would be, not to be wrestling with the wolves at the door.

cascadia archtop -top & sides

2009-02-14T18:30:00.000-08:00

Well the last couple of days have found me working away on the Cascadia prototype (16" double cutaway thinline archtop) I was originally going to build the first one with a cedar top, mahogany back & sides but I actually dreamed about this guitar & in my dream it had a mahogany top & maple back & sides. Initially I thought- no I can't do that but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. I have played some incredible mahogany topped flat-top guitars. Loud, clear & bright with really dynamic color.
I re-sawed the mahogany on my Walker turner 16 bandsaw, joined it and roughed it out on the new pantograph carver. After a couple hours of hand carving, scraping and sanding I turned my attention to bending the quilted maple sides. I used my side bender to bend the initial shape then came back and re-bent the cutaway portions by hand over a hot pipe.
I clamped the sides into the assembly molds after bending to leave overnight. This just helps to maintain the shape and reduce any tension in the sides. The cutaways are about as tight as you can bend figured maple without breaking it and I really took my time on the hot pipe coaxing the wood into allignment.
I really think this guitar is going to be a beauty. I will start carving the maple tomorow and begin hollowing out the inside of the top plate and cutting the f-holes.

cascadia archtop- molds

2009-02-10T22:02:00.000-08:00

I have been up to my ankles in dust recently. I have been making pattern molds for my new archtop designs. I just picked up this home made pantograph carver (duplicator) off another luthier who wasn't using it anymore. As you can see in the photo the router fits in the left cradle and the guide rides on the right.

I carved a pattern in MDF that matches the arch I want for the top by hand. Scraped and final sanded it, then sealed it with 5min. epoxy. In the photo I am transferring the top arch to the back mold, though I will do the top bit by hand as the cutaway is on the opposite side for the back & the lines need to be different. Now with my patterns complete I can rough carve my tops & backs in a fraction of the time and always be starting from a consistent shape as I refine with hand tools & scrapers. Its been a while since I have had to make all new molds & I forgot what a mess MDF makes when you machine it. As a result I finally hung a door separating the back of my shop from the front & made an overhead air filter. I picked up all the supplies for both projects at the re-build it center. A local re-usable building materials depot. The air filter works great. Cut way down on the airborn dust.

I am waiting for a wood shipment this week. I have purchased some incredible figured maple & german spruce. I plan on building three archtops in this first run. One Mahogany / Cedar, one Quilted maple / Sitka & one Eastern maple / German spruce. I am working on a double cutaway design I am pretty excited about. More on that later.

It has been fun to explore other blogs & look around a bit at all the interesting things people are doing with their lives. Certainly is inspirational and these hard working artists, craftspeople & musicians help to remind me to keep following my passion.

3 new projects for 09

2009-01-24T15:25:00.000-08:00

Well with the new year upon me I am excited to be starting three new projects that have been on the backburner for longer than I care to admit. I am making molds and patterns for two new models. The Cascadia 16 - a 16" single cutaway archtop and a Parlor model based on an 1877 Martin 2 1/2 - 17 .
I am using a new process to make plexi templates with a CNC laser cutter. The cutter is incredibly accurate and leaves a perfect edge on the plexi. I then can take a pattern bit and make my MDF forms fron the plexi template.
I am happy to have a 1948 Gibson L-50 that I really love and have wanted to build an archtop for years. Using this as a starting point I am moving forward with patterns on the computer. It has been wonderful to have sculpter John Mayo in the building as his background in industrial design & metal sculpture has really been opening up possibilities & new technologies I would not have found on my own. Once this process is refined my initial startup time for new design ideas should be minimal. This will free me up to explore new designs.
I have also finally returned to my Brazilian rosewood NJC & glued the sides to the top this week. Next week I will be finishing all my new molds and gluing up the back on my NJC.
Feels great to be diving back into building new work again. It continues to be a challenge to manage my repair business with my new guitar projects. I am satisfied by both aspects of my work, yet it seems to often that building takes a backseat and in many ways I feel thats where my heart lies.

1943 Gibson southern jumbo restoration

2008-12-11T22:43:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago I mentioned working on this old southern jumbo. This guitar was left to my client by her childhood friend and I understand her father bought it in a pawnshop in Lubbock TX in 1945. I was able to date this guitar to 1943 because of the maple walnut neck, 4 piece top and poplar blocks. During the war spruce was used in airplane props & components and the whole country was running on limited supplies to help with the war effort. As an aside I once restored a 56' J-45 that belonged to a Vietnam veteran. He grabbed the guitar during the pullout and it had U.S.M.C stamped on the back. I guess he figured he earned it and he probably did!

The southern jumbo had seen better days when it first arrived. The fingerboard, bridge & finish were not original or even close to correct replacements. The top had been sanded under 2mm and someone tried to correct the terrible top distortion by throwing a tailpiece on. Ouch!

I made a form to hold the sides in true until I had the new top ready to go. Then I removed the fingerboard, neck & top. I made a new top out of some Adirondack spruce that had been rejected by Martin decades ago. I was not to worried about the less than perfect bookmatch as during the war they used what they could and I wanted to keep that piece of history, although this top had great taptone. I replicated the bracing to match the original top then glued it up.
After binding and final plate tuning I was ready to spray. I tinted the lacquer to give the binding that vintage appearence.

The folks at Gibson, Montana were nice enough to provide a set of matched inlays. I used Brazilian rosewood for the fingerboard and bridge. After fretwork and set-up she was ready to go. This was a great project. The owner was very emotionally connected to this guitar. She felt that it should be returned to Texas, were it belonged so she flew down there and presented it as a gift to Texas songwriter Eric Taylor http://bluerubymusic.com.

I hope this guitar will bring another 50 years of music and memories. I know Eric is just the one to help, if your not familiar with his music give it a listen. His latest release "Hollywood Pocketknife" is a masterpiece of American storytelling and song.

Hey, that's not a guitar!

2008-12-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

Well this week finds me working on a large restoration project. From time to time I take on projects that are not guitar related and this one is particularly interesting. I am refinishing a gilded walnut hutch that I am guessing is between 200 to 250yrs. old though I can't be sure. When I first saw this piece the owner asked me if I could strip it to raw wood and finish it clear as she did not care for the look of the patina on the gilded finish & it was badly cracked and damaged. The first thing I did was try to talk her out of altering the original finish but she was not dissuaded. The next thing I did was let this piece sit in the corner of my shop gathering dust for two years. Luckily she is a patient and understanding women! Well this piece as it turns out presents some very interesting challenges as well as some life lessons. My previous restoration work has involved pieces that had lacquer, shellac or varnish finishes which respond well to chemical strippers or alcohol. Alas upon attempting to strip this large and intricate piece I discovered that these techniques did nothing but make a mess. I discovered that using dental picks, scrapers and patience I could fake the old finish off quite nicely but this is VERY time consuming. I was fortunate enough to discover the work of Nancy Thorn of (gold leaf restorations) in Portland, Oregon. She was kind enough to help me determine that this piece could be stripped with stripper made for water based finish, as the gilding is on top of a sizing or undercoat of gesso. This sealer coat consists of rabbit hide glue and calcium carbonate so it will respond to hot water & strippers used on latex finishes. Having said this I am still having better luck flaking the old finish off by hand as it leaves behind a nice burnished clean walnut without any mess. I plan on proceeding with a combination of approaches and it looks like I may be at it for a while. Pieces like this reinforce the need to live in the present moment as I can only work on one small part at a time. If I think too much about the whole picture I can become impatient and loose sight of the goal. I will come back to this piece as more progress is made.

ascthetics & evolution of design

2008-11-16T00:09:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking lately about how my tastes have changed since I started out in the early 90's When I built my first guitar at a workshop in Saskatchewan with David Freeman I wanted to build the fanciest, flashiest guitar I could imagine. I chose highly figured woods and wanted to learn all about cutting inlay etc. Recently I was flipping through a magazine and everywhere I looked there were pictures of guitars made out of this exotic figured such & such with custom inlays and new designs etc. I can honestly now say that I am a traditionalist! What I appreciate more than anything are clean lines, great sound, good set-up and clean craftsmanship. A well executed simple design is timeless and will continue to be appreciated more as time goes on. People are really trying to push the envelope with guitar acoustics and design but the results, more often than not are just plain ugly to my eye. I don't think they sound any better either. There is nothing quite like a really well played old guitar, you can see the songs and stories in the ding's and worn finish. I have been lucky enough to work on some real treasures and these are the instruments I learn from. I am currently restoring a 1943 Gibson- southern jumbo that some previous repairman brutalized. I had to replace the top, fingerboard, and bridge as well as refinishing the whole guitar. It had been stripped of its original sunburst and the top was sanded way to thin. Having said that, this is a guitar with stories to tell. I can't wait to string it up next week, just like christmas morning to a 9 yr. old. I will post before & after photo's if I can figure out how.