I was on Craig's List the other day checking out what the latest guitar offerings were and spotted a listing for a luthier in Black Mountain, NC offering guitar building classes for fifty bucks per class. Well, that got my attention.
To my surprise it turns out to be Ken Bailey, a respected luthier and owner of Bailey Acoustic Shop. For the cost of $50 per class he will walk you through the entire process of building your own guitar. You buy the materials and he supplies the education, workshop and tools. Ken invited me to come over and see one of the classes in action and to discuss what I wanted to build. "Class" is a bit of a misnomer. It's really a few people at various stages of working on their guitars while Ken gives them guidance and help where needed.
Ken was showing me around the shop and showing me various guitars he has built so I can get an idea of what to expect. While talking about the possibility of building a 1930s era blues box along the line of Gibson L-00, Ken pulls out a 1934 Kalamazoo KG-14 exactly like the one my lovely wife Carolyn bought me for Christmas 2014. Mine of course is a 1936 model, the exact year Robert Johnson is reported to have owned and played. Ken showed me how to tell if mine needs a neck reset (it does) and showed me other various things he has done to his, like putting in a truss rod at the same time. Not sure I will put in the truss rod since its got to affect its vintage mojo, but the neck reset is on my list after I get done with this build. I am hoping I can get Ken to help me with it.
In the end I decided not to do a blues box since I have the KG-14 and also a Loar 200, which is modeled after the old blues boxes and is a great player. Maybe if I keep building I will go there.
I settled on an OM body style. When I was at the Martin factory (you should go, even Carolyn loved it) I ventured into their playing room where you can pick up any one of several of their models and play them as much as you like. I picked up an OM-45 that was just beautiful, comfortable and sounded unbelievable. I am somewhat of a porch picker. Finger picking is what I like to do best. I want this guitar to be a great finger picker.
So what you see above is not a kit guitar. This is all the raw materials needed to build the body. I have to cut, shape and glue together all of it. I went with mahogany sides and back and sitka spruce top. The neck will be mahogany with rosewood fingerboard and a rosewood bridge and bindings. Top it off with a bone nut and saddle. The only things I bought pre-made are what you would expect. Things like the herringbone rosette, the tuners, etc.
The neck itself is another matter. Ken highly encouraged me to have my neck custom made. Apparently there is a huge amount of work in just the neck alone and its easy to screw it up. I get that. The neck is where you make the notes happen and if its not just right you can end up with a very expensive piece of fire starter. It won't play right and it won't sound right. Ken said he will help me build the neck if that is what I want but recommended Jim Ethington in Plant City, FL to build it to my specs. I am strongly considering it. Of course I want it to sound and play right, but it doesn't sit right for me to say I built the guitar but outsourced the neck. What do you think?
So I will try and post the progress here after each weekly Monday class. My goal is not just to build a guitar, but to try and squeeze out of Ken all the information I can on each stage and why things are the way things are. I have been told it will take about 20 - 30 weeks to build this thing, depending. Try to keep up and send me your comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment