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Why guitars don't get built

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2019 11:25 pm
by Stray Feathers
I put aside several projects while working on my two first-builds, but number 3 had to be set aside this summer. I had started a restoration on my almost 50-year-old Chestnut cedar and canvas canoe, which I have had since new. It involved lots of learning curves, but turned out well, and eventually my kids will use it for another generation. I was assisted a lot by a forum run by the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association. I felt very much at home there, because the welcome and the sharing of information was right up there with this forum.
Bruce Whittington, Ladysmith BC
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Re: Why guitars don't get built

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2019 11:32 pm
by phavriluk
And I've set aside a lifelong hobby of building flying model airplanes in order to build guitars, a much more recent interest. It's all good, and I enjoy the learning and social components of all my interests.

That canoe looks gorgeous! Envy!

Re: Why guitars don't get built

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2019 11:59 pm
by nkwak
I’d rather be building, but I have a bathroom gutted and in-laws coming up for Xmas so I need to be laying tile. My wife told me I have 2 weeks to get it done. I’ve been hung up on getting the subfloor level and ready and reading up on how to mix/trawl the mortar. After that is figuring out how to arrange and cut the tiles. You guys know the drill better than I: measure twice, cut once and once you start don’t hesitate and get her done.

Re: Why guitars don't get built

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:49 am
by tippie53
beautiful canoe and one day you can float in that and play your guitar. The main point is that a Hobby is to be enjoyed and to take your mind to a place of peace and relaxation . Enjoy your time loosing track of time

Re: Why guitars don't get built

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2019 4:28 pm
by ruby@magpage.com
For the last 2, now 3 years I have built a guitar over the winter -November to March. Summer is just too full of other stuff, so I spend that time thinking about what's to come. I have all the parts for a redwood/maple 00 12 fret (copied from a tracing of Norman Blakes 1934 instrument complete with scalloping schedule), with a Stauffer neck died black having the new 10:1 banjo tuners, and a long scale. I have a piece of faux ivory that I am thinking of for the bridge. I am sure the scalloping schedule for a red spruce top would be different for a redwood top, but I am hard of hearing, so it doesn't matter much.

But summertime is for sailing. Here are my 2 boats. I am a volunteer sailor and volunteer carpenter on both. Season is over in 2 weeks, so guitar here I come.

Ed

First is the Sultana - replica from plans of a 1768 British coastwise patrol boat
Second is the Kalmar Nyckel - recreation of the first Swedish settler ship of 1638
Third is both of them at an annual tall ships event which is coming up this weekend on the Eastern Shore of MD. I live 4 blocks up the street in the background. Come on down

Re: Why guitars don't get built

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2019 8:55 pm
by Stray Feathers
Ed, that's a labour of love for sure. I have been fascinated with tall ships since I was a kid, and I work with some people in the summer for a company that does natural and cultural history cruises on the west coast of Canada and Alaska (68 foot fibreglass ketches) and some of the skippers and mates have done time on tall ships. I lived for many years in Victoria, home of the Robertson II (now gone), Pacific Grace and Pacific Swift from an educational organization called SALTS. I have no involvement in them, but we see them often on our training cruises. https://www.salts.ca if you are interested. And yes, winter is coming, and time for more guitar work. Bruce.

Re: Why guitars don't get built

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:29 pm
by ruby@magpage.com
Stray

Those are wonderful boats and it looks like they use the heck out of them - crossing the Pacific is not to be taken lightly. The Sultana - the smaller yellow boat - stays on the Chesapeake, and the the Kalmar Nyckel does not have a license to carry passengers more than 3 miles offshore, so when she goes to New England from Delaware it is just crew and no passengers.

Schooners - like yours and the Sultana - are pretty straightforward to sail. I love the Kalmar Nyckel because she is of an era where the rigging was at its most complicated. Her rigging is all very accurate as she has been adopted by the curator of the Vasa (look her up in Stockholm) and his research team keeps us honest. Really fun and unique boat to sail.

But I can't wait to bend me some figured maple. IN the mean time, I have started on the rosette:

Ed

Re: Why guitars don't get built

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2019 7:46 am
by Diane Kauffmds
It's a pretty rosette Ed.

Stray feathers, beautiful canoe.

I used to design and sew clothing. I'm not talking about simple things. I've made tailored suits and winter coats (and I need a new winter coat). I have a $10,000 Viking sewing machine sitting dormant, and a ton of expensive fabric waiting for me on the third floor of our house.

But, I sold the first guitar that I made, and by a weird turn of events, I'm in business. BTW, I'm a biochemist, so I build guitars.

Go figure...
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Re: Why guitars don't get built

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2019 3:14 pm
by ruby@magpage.com
Dianne

There must be some sort of microscopic creature you can come up with that would help the tone of a guitar?

Ed

Re: Why guitars don't get built

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2019 7:05 pm
by Diane Kauffmds
ruby@magpage.com wrote:Dianne

There must be some sort of microscopic creature you can come up with that would help the tone of a guitar?

Ed
Ed, only you could come up with this. Haha. I think the FDA, CDC, and forest service would frown on it.

It would be my luck that I'd end up being the creator of the Wood Monster that Ate Parkersburg, WV!