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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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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What Gives a Custom Acoustic Guitar that Exceptionally Great Sound? Part 1.

Many factors come together into the puzzling and complex issue; what goes into a custom acoustic guitar to make it sound great? To answer this question is very complex and I’ll suggest to you step by step. Articles will follow this one that will encompass the details of each of the factors involved.

THIS ARTICLE IS INTEND TO BRIEFLY TOUCH UPON SOME OF THE BASICS OF THIS SUBJECT – Great sound in Custom Guitars

First of all, the sound that comes out of any guitar is just what it is, as you hear it. Our Judgment of it is based on what we come to judge throughout history and what we have come to accept as todays standards set by others to what a Good or Bad Sounding guitar for should sound like.

In other words, in nature there is no such thing as a good or bad sound in a strict sense. It’s only what we have come to accept as standards to what a guitar should sound like. Developing this idea further, hopefully, in the future we can learn to set higher standards and maybe the custom guitars at that time would even sound better than todays guitars. Woudn’t that be awesome?

The standards were achieved by ground breaking companies such as Martin Guitars and Gibson, who spent money and research to allow standards to exist within the ’sound’ of a custom acoustic guitar, or any custom guitar for that matter.

OK, let’s get to it.

When you pluck a string, this produces an energy wave that we know as sound. What this guitar must do is transfer the energy introduced by plucking the strings. This is what I call the ‘final common denominator’.

The guitar string energy in motion is transferring through the whole thing (glue and everything, with a dependance also as to the current temperature), how this perceived sound being generated by a complex system, finally producing that resulting factor we call ‘resonance’.

In other words, everything combined about this “Complete Unit” and all its complexity called a “Guitar”, contributes to the sound you are hearing at the moment the strings are put into action.

Therefor the sound depends on:

• The Design of the guitar, it’s shape.
• The construction, the manner in which the guitar is constructed.
• The types of woods used in the guitar making process
• The types of bracing inside on the soundboard.
• The materials used for nut and sandal, including the bridge pins.
• The finnish used on the outside of the guitar.

There’s more on this later. Ideally a guitar should sound like, what? It’s only limited to our imagination. Therefore a custom guitar builder of any size has the same ability to further advance the sound quality of any custom built guitar.
What I’m going to share with you over the course of several articles, are some secrets about this and how do we go about constructing a great sounding guitar in practice.

This article will concern itself with the Construction in general and we’ll touch upon the woods and others stuff in a later article. After I built my first Martin Guitar, many years ago with the guidance of my Father a Master craftsman himself during my youth;
I discovered that:

As a general rule, a lighter built guitar would bring out tones more clearly, and with the right construction technique, a louder response.

The energy brought forward by plucking the strings had less mass to hide in, less places to get lost or trapped. The energy had less ‘knee jerk’ obstacles to overcome hence forth, due to fine shaped braces, more on that later. In other words as a direct result, the guitar became more alive and responsive.

The advantage of that is that the whole guitar becomes more flexible and at the same time more producing a likeable and even louder sound. The thinner I made, the back, sides and top, (up to a point, more later) the more sound was able to transfer through the woods. The wonderful advantage of this is that the player can feel the sound transferring into his ear, guts, and body while playing my guitars. As a result, a better and direct connection and relationship with the musician. The guitars simply talk better to the players.

This has to be done within it’s own limitations for obvious reasons, the overall strength of the guitar must be maintained we’ll discuss it in a later chapter.

THE INSIDE GUTS

When you look at the basic Martin Cross bracing pattern for the sound board, you’ll feel the representation of a water reservoir or lake. The idea is that if you throw a rock into a calm lake, it produces wave patterns, getting smaller the farther they travel until they disappear back to the balanced state of the water surface or to its original neutrality.

Because the waves of water are essentially the same as the waves in the air, slower because of a thick medium; the idea is to construct the soundboard bracing pattern in such a way that the wave energy generated by the strings, is gently and ’smoothly’ transferred into the guitar’s soundboard. To help transfer this energy wave back to a state of natural balance of the sound board shape, just like it’s counter example in nature, the rock thrown into the water.

These are the kinds of revelations one receives as a master guitar craftsman, like myself. This way we can create the sound waves the way that I want. This is the doorway to understanding a bit more on creating even better sounds in the future, like the sounds that are produced in the Peace Guitar.

In the case of making a guitar sound good, or Great, on this one point:

It is the individual shapes of the braces that represent water waves. And, the idea is to help the energy waves return to their original balance of rest.

But the fun of all this is, that I get to surf the waves right in my guitar building shop. I am proud to say that the more attention I pay to this phenomena, the better the guitars turn out and come to sound.

My favorite quote: “better sound is a concept that may be in perpetual changing mode due to human perception.”

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