Getting started with guitars!
Finally got the website operational! Started it several weeks ago but really didn't get on it until yesterday, when I sacrificed about 4-5 hours of shop time to get down to brass tacks (I should look that up!).
I went away to an songwriting workshop called SummerSongs at the Ashokan Center in Olivebridge, NY, with some amazing teachers and students, if you can call them
that (many of the "students" were highly skilled and experienced performers!), that was really motivating! All excellent musicians and songwriters. I had classes with Kate Campbell, Penny Nichols, David Roth, and Sloan Wainwright and a coaching session with Glen Roethel; what a great group of professionals to get to work with and learn from!
Now I am really getting to work on my guitar business. I'm not a great typist, but this isn't War and Peace, just a blog for me to journal my building process and hopefully, make it interesting to anyone who cares to follow.
I am currently building three new guitars; one OM with a Sitka top and African mahogany back and sides, one OM with an Engelmann spruce top and Sapele back and sides, and an A Style (my shape) with Abalone rosette, Engelmann top and Curly Maple back and sides (probably a sunburst finish!).
The "A Style" guitar that I designed.
A lot of songwriters I run into prefer smaller bodies, so I expect I'll be building OM's, or the like, regularly. My A Style shape is unique and I already sold one to a wonderful woman from Texas, so I need to have one around for anyone to play to know what it is like. You can't go to Guitar XXXXX and try one!
I usually start the day with a dog walk and an hour or so of practicing guitar, singing, and oboe, before heading down to the workshop.
Dora, one of our Australian Shepherds, "feeding" a stray cat I rescued a couple years ago.
I like to build guitars on spec or with no purchaser in mind, so that I am free to follow whatever creative muse calls me to put wood together and make it sing! It also gives me samples of my work that are hands-on for potential customers, and I can play my own guitars out live, which I prefer. I am lucky to have such nice guitars to play; if I didn't like what I built, there wouild be a problem! But it also lets me see how they are working in real world situations. I used to play Larrivee's a lot and own three of them. They are nice guitars and if someone wasn't buying a new guitar from me, but needed to save money and buy used, I would highly recommend them. I do think that what I am building offers something more sound wise and in terms of individuality and uniquness.
I'm going to try and do this at least 4 times per week, so I hope you'll come back and check in often. And please contact me or friend me on Facebook if you have questions! Thanks for listening.
