The U.S. handmade-guitar industry has exploded over the past 30 years. Here’s how to find a craftsman to build your ideal custom instrument.

By Bob Frick

July 2004

As far out as it may seem, a generation ago it was virtually impossible to lay your hands on an acoustic guitar hand-made in the U.S. But now, while other artisan industries have been automated out of existence (or exported to countries with cheaper labor), American guitar making flourishes.

Peace, love and lutherie

The group responsible for the custom-made industry, which includes more than 3,000 luthiers in North America who make about 150,000 guitars a year, can be described in one word: Hippies.

Until the 1960s, most acoustic guitars in the U.S. were made in factories owned by Martin, Gibson and a handful of other companies, explains Tim Olson, the founding editor of The Guild of American Luthiers’ American Lutherie.

Then hippies came along, who, Olson says, weren’t concerned with making a lot of money. Instead, they saw making guitars as a way of life. “They didn’t come at it from an angle of ambition. It was more of a free-spirited curiosity,” he says.

Lucky for the fledgling handmade guitar industry, Gibson and Martin made some of their worst guitars in the 1970s (both have had major comebacks since then). That, combined with the folk music revival, increased demand for good acoustic guitars, and allowed the handmade guitar industry to put down roots.

And the industry continues to grow robustly thanks to one trait from its hippie past — cooperation — a trait that remains the driving force behind the industry’s culture. Leaf through a copy of the industry Bible, Acoustic Guitar magazine, and you’ll find ads for workshops taught by the top luthiers. Guitar makers swap techniques, which shores up the entire industry, creating more demand and more opportunities for more luthiers.

Cooperation extends to big manufactures as well, says Rick Davis, a guitar builder who is the head of the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans. The manufacturers have recently started hiring custom builders to help design new models, he says.

The case for custom

Custom-made guitars fall into two general categories: Those made as art for art’s sake (check out Beyondthetrees.com for examples from luthier/artisan Fred Carlson), and those made to suit an individual musician. Davis says guitar players often choose to commission a handmade instrument as “a matter of feel. A customer might say, ‘gosh I love the way Martins sound, but I hate their neck. I love way Taylors play, but I don’t like the sound very much. So I want a Martin with a Taylor neck. A custom maker can do that.’”

A custom maker also cherry picks from a woodpile to select only the best pieces. And, Davis says, a custom maker can take advantage of the wood’s individual qualities. Factory-made guitar tops (the most crucial piece of wood for a guitar’s tone) all have the same thickness, Davis says. But “every one of my tops is probably a little different, because I’m shaving off a couple of thousandths at a time, looking for that absolute moment when it just lights up and says, I’m there.”

A custom maker can also add inlays that you choose or design.

The cost of a custom-made guitar starts at around $2,000 — though the average price falls between $3,000 and $5,000 — and runs up to $50,000.

Meet your maker

But there’s more to buying a custom guitar than just price. It is a major commitment of time. Craftsmen often have a backlog of months or years. The more in-demand their skills, the longer you’ll have to wait. Small shops and few, if any, employees mean productivity is often limited to 12 to 20 instruments a year.

Your first step as a potential buyer should be to learn about guitar making yourself. Find out what goes into building a guitar so can better communicate your needs, and understand the luthier’s questions. Also be ready to describe your playing style — do you prefer flat picking, open tunings, what string gauge do you prefer?

Next, attend a guitar show where you have the best opportunity to look, listen to and play a variety of custom guitars. Take the opportunity to meet and speak with the builders. Some upcoming events include:

• The Newport Guitar Festival, August 6-8 in Newport, R.I. (www.newportguitarfestival.com).
• The Guild of American Luthiers’ annual convention and exhibition, July 7-11 in Tacoma, Washington (www.luth.org).
• Healdsburg, Calif., guitar festival, August, 2005 (www.lmii.com).

You can also browse the Web to find luthiers near you. You’ll find lists of guitar makers on both the Guild of American Luthiers and the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans Web sites.

Look for craftsmen who specialize in the type of guitar you want. Then ask for references. Talk to the musicians who play the instruments to make sure they’re satisfied with the workmanship.

Confirm the price and methods of payment. Most custom guitar makers typically expect half up front and the rest on delivery.

And finally, find out what happens if you’re not satisfied. With most makers you’re stuck, but some may offer a limited money-back guarantee.

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The acoustic guitar is a popular stringed instrument which originated in Spain.  It has a flat, waisted body, a round sound hole, and a fretted fingerboard, or “neck,” along which run six strings.  The strings are fastened to tuning screws at the top of the fingerboard, and to a bridge which is glued to the instrument’s sound board or “belly” at the other end.  The strings on acoustic guitars are usually made of steel.  On classical guitars, the top three strings are usually made of nylon or natural gut, while the lower three strings are metal.  The strings are tuned to E, A, D, G, B, and E (starting with the second E below middle C and ending with the E above middle C).Acoustic guitars are the instrument of choice for many country and folk music guitarists.  High quality acoustic guitars generally feature solid wood construction, with spruce or cedar tops and rosewood or mahogany sides and backs.  Medium quality guitars may combine solid wood tops with laminated sides and backs, while entry level instruments are often made from laminated woods.  Guitar necks and fingerboards are typically constructed from stiff woods such as mahogany, ebony, and rosewood.  Guitars are designed for either right-handed or left-handed players.  With a right-handed guitar, the player’s right-hand fingers pluck or strum the strings while the left-hand fingers are positioned at the appropriate frets
to produce the desired pitches.
How Acoustic Guitars Work

How does an acoustic guitar produce sound?  Quite simply, when a guitar player hits a guitar string, the string absorbs energy and begins to vibrate.  However, this alone is not enough to create sound waves that can be heard.  In order to be heard, the energy must come into contact with a mass of lower density.  The guitar’s hollow body enables this to happen.  In a nutshell, the body of the guitar acts as a soundbox.  The energy from the vibrating strings travels through the saddle and bridge over which the strings pass, and eventually to the soundbox.  The soundbox amplifies the vibration of the strings, so that the sound can be heard.  The guitar’s volume and projection are a result of the soundbox.
How is the soundbox assembled?  The front of the guitar is called the “soundboard,” while the sides of the guitar are called the “ribs.”  There are small strips of wood that allow the front, sides, and back to be glued together, and these are called “linings.”  Once the pieces are glued together, the joints are hidden by “edging.”  The inside of both the soundboard and the back of the guitar will have something called “strutting” or “bracing.”  Basically, these are strips of wood that are laid across the surface in a pattern.  The struts serve to strengthen the wood and prevent it from warping, but they also allow the soundbox to vibrate and produce the best possible tone.

Tone, simply put, is what the guitar sounds like.  Even high-quality guitars will differ in tone.  The design of the soundbox will affect the sound characteristics of a guitar; as a result, many guitar makers, known as “luthiers,” will change the design of each guitar slightly to produce varied tonal qualities.  The goal of every luthier is to ensure that their guitars have even tonal gradations, with no areas where the tone or volume changes abruptly, and no areas where there is over-accentuated harmony.  Different designs mean that some types of guitars are better suited to particular styles of music.  For example, Martin flat-top guitars are popular with fingerstyle guitarists because of their clarity and defined bass pattern, while Gibson flat-tops are frequently used by country musicians because of the rhythmic sounds they produce when chords are strummed.

Guitar Shape and Size

Most acoustic guitars share the same basic shape.  The body looks like a figure-eight made up of an upper bout, a thin waist, and a lower bout.  However, the dimensions of these three parts of the guitar will determine what it sounds like.  Guitars with smaller upper bouts have enhanced treble frequencies, while guitars with larger upper bouts have enhanced bass frequencies.  Acoustic guitar sizes vary as well.  Flat-top, steel-string acoustic guitars come in standard, jumbo, and dreadnought sizes.  Today, there are a wide variety of steel-string and nylon-string guitars available on the market.

Browse this website, AcousticGuitars.us, to learn more about acoustic guitars and the people and companies that make them.

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How Does The finish on an Acoustic Guitar Affect the Sound of the Guitar?

For along time I have been very curious about this subject

It has been a long time passion. So I made it my mission and went out to find out.

I have visited countless guitars shops over the years, having found myself stranded in a strange town with some time to kill and end up in the local guitar shops playing the new and old guitars right of the shelf, you know, this is what guitar lovers do!

Any way, Here is my observation regarding guitar finishes, we are talking acoustic guitars here, electrics are a different story.

Don’t these new Taylor Guitars, Gibson and Martin Guitars and so many others look mind boggling attractive, nice shiny and spiffy?
Some of them are so shiny you can use them as a mirror and comb your hair in ‘m, if you want to. Some of them almost look and feel like there is a thick coat of plastic over the guitar. Do suppose that’s really a good thing?

Be Aware! All that glitters is not Gold!

I am not bashing these companies or their finish work but I’d like to make the point of caution here; a very high end guitar from these companies most likely will have indeed less of a finish coat on them, it just makes sense. Over finishing a guitar to make it look shiny and pretty can be detrimental to the sound quality.

Well I set out to talk to many store owners and I found out that these shiny buffed instruments are what people like and pay the big bucks for.
I got to think about the motives of why these potential customers really got attracted to these guitars to begin with. Are these people buying the looks and shine of the guitar or are they buying the guitar for the sound that comes out of that thing, probably both right? Well, I find out that surprisingly and unfortunately, most people are buying it for the shiny looks, not knowing any better or not educated. Therefore to many people are not realizing that the payoff may be very possibly a lesser sound quality from the guitar.

HERE IS MY POINT:

Here’s what I did through personal experimenting. I completely stripped one of those high lacquered perfectly good guitars, and refinished it. My method of finishing an acoustic guitar, usually, is; 2 coats of vinyl sealer over the bare wood and at most 4 coats of nitrocellulose lacquer. I do experiment also with other finishes but for now this will make my point. Some of these guitar companies especially the guitars made cheaply and mass produced in Asian countries may be spraying up to ten coats perhaps more of these lacquers.

WHAT DOES THAT DO THE SOUND OF THE GUITAR?

Of course this would muffle the sound a bit! It over tightens the soundboard, the neck, and the rest of it, like the head of the guitar. Overkill in layers is preventing the guitar to move or at least restricted the energy that goes trough it to the point that the sound has a harder time to make it trough these layers.

Think about it yourself, if you were wearing jacket that was way too tight, would you feel like dancing to the music?

WHY ARE THEY DOING THAT?

Just know that the more coats you put on an acoustic guitar( it is a bit more complex than that but for now I can make the point ) the more shine you can get as a result, more on this process later. People just like shiny things! This leads to more people buying them and more business right?

YES, BUT AT WHAT PRICE? Well at least more kids are learning to play the guitar.

So what I find out with my experiment was that the guitar I refinished sounded so much louder, warmer, brighter and clearer. So my point when it comes to guitar finishing: LESS IS BETTER ! Of course, the whole guitar needs to breathe, flex and dance with the music. I was astonished when I discovered the difference.

It is argued by the classical master acoustic guitar builders in Spain that the best sounding guitar has no finish on it at all! Wow!

Here is my conclusion: It’s best to stick with limiting the amount of lacquer coats on the guitar’s surface. It’s best to coat it just enough to have a good and acceptable protection from the elements and players usage. Some woods require more coats than others. Therefore if you see a little less of a shine on a guitar, you know that the guitar builder would not sacrifice sound for shine.

There clearly is a difference, but I believe that these practices make the difference between hand built customized guitars and mass produced. As a guitar builder, it is definitely worth the trade off. To me it is all about the sound and that has no price tag. Why should we want to trade; diminishing the sound quality with finish overkill?

Another favorite quote;

“When choosing the guitar of your dreams, go for the sound! the rest is icing on the cake.”

Find out the ‘rest of the story’ at jonasguitars.com/Custom-Guitars

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The acoustic guitar is a popular stringed instrument which originated in Spain.  It has a flat, waisted body, a round sound hole, and a fretted fingerboard, or “neck,” along which run six strings.  The strings are fastened to tuning screws at the top of the fingerboard, and to a bridge which is glued to the instrument’s sound board or “belly” at the other end.

The strings on acoustic guitars are usually made of steel.  On classical guitars, the top three strings are usually made of nylon or natural gut, while the lower three strings are metal.  The strings are tuned to E, A, D, G, B, and E (starting with the second E below middle C and ending with the E above middle C).
Acoustic guitars are the instrument of choice for many country and folk music guitarists.  High quality acoustic guitars generally feature solid wood construction, with spruce or cedar tops and rosewood or mahogany sides and backs.  Medium quality guitars may combine solid wood tops with laminated sides and backs, while entry level instruments are often made from laminated woods.  Guitar necks and fingerboards are typically constructed from stiff woods such as mahogany, ebony, and rosewood.

Guitars are designed for either right-handed or left-handed players.  With a right-handed guitar, the player’s right-hand fingers pluck or strum the strings while the left-hand fingers are positioned at the appropriate frets to produce the desired pitches.

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• What Gives a Custom Acoustic Guitar that Exceptionally Great Sound? Part 1. (0)
• The Acoustic Guitar – Hand Built (0)
• My Process for My Cherrywood Acoustic Guitar (0)
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