Guitars

[musket]

This is the second guitar I ever built, 1977. The pattern was taken from a 1930 Martin 12-fret 000-45, but it has only nineteen frets total, like the earlier ones, instead of twenty, which moves the soundhole up and to my eye looks more elegant. The planetary banjo pegs were at the request of the client; these were used on the first OM models, in 1929.

Brazilian rosewood, European spruce, Peruvian mahogany, Gabon ebony, red abalone, elephant ivory (legal).

 

[WFMartin]

Friend of mine once owned a double-neck Mosrite Guitar. Talk about breakin' your back! One HEAVY guitar. He was primarily a singer, and rhythm guitar player, so he did not play it much, but I tried it out a couple of times, off the job. What a wonderful guitar to play, though, aside from the weight!

I THOUGHT those pegs looked "banjo-ey". I played 5-string banjo, and those looked like mine at one time.

 

[Artyczar]

Musket, what an absolute amazing beauty that is. I love the inlay on the back too, just gorgeous. A piece of fine art it is!

 

[musket]

Thank you, Arty. All my instruments except the first, which I built on spec in New York in 72, were made to order in Cambridge, where I had my own store from 73-76. I was too busy with retail, repairs and restorations to have any time for building again until we had to close our doors. After that I started to build seriously in late 76 (this one was started then), but even so I spent a lot more time on repairs, which are more lucrative. It wasn't easy to sell so-called handmade guitars back then, especially steelstrings. Now it's different.

They seldom return to the market; at present I know of only four. But the original owner of this one died last year and so it was resold for six times what I got for it. Born too soon.

I paid twenty-five bucks for the set of Brazilian rosewood in 72. Today that set would be worth two grand all by itself. Brazilian of this quality is almost impossible to find now. The backstrip inlay is actually two of the top purfling strips joined together. These were as close as I could get at the time to the beautiful multicolor purfling and backstrips on old Martins from the early 1900s without making the stuff myself start to finish, which wouldn't have been worth it.

Here's a close up of the backstrip. I wasn't able to get the two pieces perfectly aligned, but close enough for the blues.

I

 

[musket]

This classical from 1980 is one of my very best. It's a little asymmetrical in the lower bout but the curve is still fair; happens sometimes when you bend sides freehand on a bending iron. I got a grand for it. It was resold two years ago for nine thousand. Seriously born too soon.

It was in its infancy when these pics were taken, before the lacquer had yellowed with age. They're the only good pics I have of it. They were provided by the original owner. I was remiss in keeping a photographic record of my own. This was the one and only time I made a rosette by hand. Too much work for too little return on labor.

The pattern on this one is my own, based on a pattern by Hermann Hauser as a starting point.

 

[musket]

One more and that be all. This steelstring was built in 78 or 79. The pattern is original. I farmed out the elaborate headstock inlay to a specialist in inlay. The guitar was made for a client who mostly played classical, hence the very wide neck. I missed by a tad on the binding join on the back, can't win 'em all. It's a good sized guitar, 15 1/2" across the lower bout.

Back and sides are East Indian rosewood, top is European spruce with a little "bear claw." The client didn't want any side position dots on the fretboard but it looks like he thought better of it when it was too late and stuck a bunch of paper dots on it! The single ring rosette was also his idea. The "zipper" backstrip was SOP on pre-War style 28 Martins.

 

[Artyczar]

Wow!!!! Beautiful. I love classicals. I learned to play on those.

 

[Dave Woody]

Hi ... I am new here...a guitarist by trade who paints for fun.
Quickly reading through the posts, I think the idea of starting a guitar Topic
is a great idea.
Until then, let me add my tuppenceworth here.

Great guitar chat and reading that some of you have built your own...that is impressive.
I am just a player, first gig I did playing drums at 13, started playing guitar at 15....I am 57.

I have toured and gigged a lot, stories and anecdotes galore to share at some point, but
right now all you need to know is that my 1962 Fender Stratocaster is retired having done 30 years on the road.
It might be heavy, but a 1990 Les Paul 'Black Beauty' Custom is my current workhorse.
My acoustic is a 1980's Gibson Dove.

For what it is worth, I took up playing BluesHarmonica 10 years ago bored with guitar...it is totally an electric guitarists
Dream wind instrument.....nuance, amps, pedals, dynamic, chords, bent notes, pretty riffs and
attacking sonics......

 

[Artyczar]

I remember taking up the harmonica when I was in my late teens and often playing it on the bus, driving people crazy!

I never got great at it, but it was fun.

 

[Dave Woody]

For fun, I have started a beginners Harmonica topic under Music thread.
I have learned a lot in the last 11 years, keen to share tips and tricks.

 

[Enyaw]

I just wish I had played guitar instead of chasing short skirts. I may have caught more!

 

[musket]

Depends on how old you are. It worked for me, but guitar players weren't dime a thousand back then. Still worked while I could still play, but only because I'd been playing the blues for forty years by that time, and anyway I hung up my serial monogamy dancing shoes almost a quarter of a century ago.

 

[Enyaw]

I can't even remberer back that far. Those days are pretty distant.

 

[musket]

When I was in high school (1963-67) it was a big deal to play guitar.

There were no more than a dozen kids in a student body of close to 700 who did. And of course, this was the time of the British Invasion. So yeah, it had some influence with girls.

As did building guitars, at first. "Ooooooo, you mean you actually made that guitar?"

A few years later it was, "Oh yeah, my cousin made a dulcimer once."

 

[Dave Woody]

I am thinking to sell my 1962 Fender Stratocaster.
I bought it in 1982 for R150.00, it had been re sprayed racing green and over the years
the original colour of pale blue has surfaced through wear and tear.

Being my workhorse for 30 years, I replaced machine heads and saddles but other than
that it is original. L 04018.

Any idea what it is worth?

 

[musket]

Depends on condition. At the height of Strat mania, an ex cond 62 in a custom color (yours sound like Sonic Blue or maybe Daphne Blue) would have been worth upwards of $30-40K, but prices have come down since then. And unfortunately, a refin seriously devalues any "vintage" (stupid word) guitar. My guess would be somewhere around $10K, but don't hold me to it. In the end, it's worth what you can get for it.

If the racing green can be removed without harm to the original finish, it'd be worth a lot more. The machine heads are no big deal as long as they're split-post Klusons or replicas of same--but if the holes have been bored out to take machines with larger posts, that's a big minus. Saddles don't matter.

 

[Dave Woody]

Thank you for your informed reply.
Yep, mine is not original Spec at all.
It is worth something though...quite valuable as a relic of the age.

 

[musket]

If the original blue finish is intact under the green, somebody who is very good with a scraper and sandpaper might be able to get rid of the green without messing up the blue, and then buff the blue out. This would substantially increase the value. Probably cost you something, but might well be worth it.

 

[Dave Woody]

The blue is coming through in places of wear, many thanks for sharing your expertise.

 

[musket]

If it was just over sprayed instead of stripped and refinished, you might want to look into it. Original finishes on custom color Fenders are often very hard to strip, so people often just spray over them. Getting it back to the original Sonic or Daphne would probably add at least five grand to the value, if the original finish is in good shape.