What happens to all the beginner luthier guitars?
 

I hear "You have to build X number of guitars before you build a good one".

And that's understandable - I don't expect a masterpiece first time out of the gate. If I get a serviceable instrument, I'll be tickled.

But it made me wonder - what happens to all the first attempts? Did they implode? Get turned into kindling? Go into permanent, back-of-the-closet storage? Hang on the wall as a reminder?

Got any good stories?

And thanks for all the knowledge shared here. Great resource.

I've still got the first I made(an electric), and it's not for sale. I just finished #21(a dred) a couple of months ago, and it will be for sale soon. I've sold several others(mostly electrics), and others have gone to friends and family.
Check out my website if you'd like to see them.

In the basement of my shop I have what I call, “The Rack of Shame”. If you come out to my shop you won’t see it. It has my first and second guitar. It also has several test guitars, particularly a series of guitars I did to see just how thin of a top and how low on the braces I could go. If it didn’t cave, I got in there and cut those braces down even more.
You learn so fast when you are starting out that some guitars become obsolete before you finish them and you would never want them to be out there representing your work.
I read somewhere that to be truely innovative you should shoot for a 40% failure rate. That doesn’t mean that 40% of my guitars are on The Rack Of Shame because not all guitars are an effort to try new ideas and not all failures are unrepairable or they may have failed components that I can replace.
Some do remain as a warning: Don’t do this!

I still have my very first two guitars. The first was an eletric and that pretty much jsut sits in a case. I played it for years but it was never really that good. The second was an acoustic and it sits on a stand in my basement and gets played often. I keep it in an open - D tuning. It actually sounds great but looks terrible. My two nephews have guitars, gave one to a friend and I cannot remember now what happened to the other ten or so I made before selling them.

I'm a repairman, and sometimes I buy well built guitars by unknown builders needing work. One in particular was a cedar and rosewood SJ-style with just beautiful and meticulous workmanship. The neck was bowed, and the truss rod did nothing. I removed the fingerboard and found that the single action Gibson-style rod was installed with absolutely no curve, and could not possibly work. I installed a dual action rod, and it turned out to be a fine guitar. How someone can make such a fine instrument without learning how a truss rod works is a real mystery to me!

I still have my first guitar and don’t intend to ever sell it. The other really early ones I did let out into the wild for very low prices (twice the cost of materials), but only to local folks who played the guitar and had a chance to see if they liked it well enough to part with their money. That is still the method I prefer. Of course even after 35 acoustics I still sell my guitars for way below “custom” market prices so I don’t have the “elite” reputation to uphold! This allows me to sell the occasional flub at a very low price to someone who could use a hand.

Kent

I genuinely do not know how many acoustics I have made, I know how many instruments total but that includes uke’s, mandos, electrics etc.

I kept my first few for awhile then I gifted them to family.

I make a lot as kits for others to finish in workshop classes.

Steve

https://i.imgur.com/0xBmj8c.jpg?2

My third guitar is missing as I sold it for $25, I regret it but that is a different story. From the left, I wanted a guitar to practice with that was louder than an electric guitar so I built a chambered guitar with a pine top. Never finished the bridge as the guitar exceed my expectations soundwise but it fell short of what a real acoustic instrument could be. The takeaway from it was building the neck.

So to make a real acoustic I made the one beside it. I had some good wood to build with but built this one first to get a lot of my mistakes worked out. Found out about runout as I made the sound board out of a cedar fence board and flipped the center piece around to have the grain more matched. Oops. I made the neck a little thick, just recently shaved it down and should make the nut for it today (Where did the old nut go?). Visually the binding and the neck joint could be a little better but it sounds fine. At some point it might go to a relative.

Next a nylon guitar that I built in three weeks, stripped down and with a bought bridge. Just an experiment while I was learning about baking wood, doing a Spanish foot construction. Cracked the back while building, other than that plays nice and set me on a path building softwood guitars. I pick it up often and will probably sell it cheaply to a workmate once I finish a replacement for it.

Another experiment in the foreground, a walnut guitar built out of scrap wood. Tried some alternative purfling material, it ruined the binding job. Otherwise nothing visually wrong with the build quality. I did go a little small on the bridge plate and the bridge pealed off. I replaced the bridge plate and glued on the bridge. Need to drill the holes and ream them. The guitar sounded fantastic to anyone who played it before the bridge lifted. Hope it retained some of its sound.

One thing to note, except for the second one I was not too concerned with appearances but built them as a learning experience. Each one has turned out to be more than I expected but none of them are perfect. I have a number of guitars on the go right now that have also taught me a thing or two even before there are finished. I am at the point where I know can build a visually acceptable guitar which also should be pleasing to the ear. The luthier I had look at the second build above told me to come see him with my tenth guitar. With learning what I have so far I can see why he selected ten as a number, by that time you should start to get the hang of building.

My first guitar was a solid body. I stripped it of it’s hardware to supply my second guitar. Then I threw it into a dumpster. A few weeks later I saw a barefoot ragamuffin walking down the street with my #1 slung over his shoulder and realized it was beautiful . . . To me . . . And too late.

I sold my first acoustic guitar for $175 in 1970, and that’s all I remember about it. I’d happily pay more than that for it today, working or not.

My first scratch built instrument, a mountain dulcimer, was based on a very bad plywood kit that I had assembled while I was on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. I had a jack knife, a block plane, a file, and a hacksaw blade to cut the fret slots. One of my friends in the metal shop cut me a strip of stainless steel for the frets. I got some walnut from the carpenter shop and a piece of Ponderosa pine from a crate for the top. I came unglued a few years later.

My first guitar hung around the shop for some years, until the shop got flooded and it fell apart. Just as well. I built the second one in a class, and sold it. I saw it some years later and it was better than I remembered it.

Some years ago I built a 'test mule' that I gave to a friend, asking him to play it to death if he could. He sold in instead, and every once in a while it shows up at the door in need of some sort of repair or adjustment. It was never meant to see the light of day, and I'm sure it doesn't do my reputation much good.

I play my first serial-numbered guitar. It's about 30 years old. Three others are with friends (Bainbridge Is., WA, Negril Jamaica, Los Angeles, CA). Four died of natural causes (Top crack, warped sides, dehydration, and one hit the floor during construction). One, an overbuild, got converted to my first resophonic (it is spectacular). Two others became bracing experiments, and got sold for parts.

My very first build is a Brw prewar D-28 clone built for a friend, with all-Martin parts (accumulated in the '60s when QC-fails could be bought directly from Martin). It has thousands of hours of play, and it now lives in Canada.

My son will get it. He just doesnt know yet. if its worthy and hold tune without imploding on itself.

My first instrument was a solid body acoustic bass. It was essentially a micro upright. I think I sold it for the cost of materials and parts to a local musician.

What happens to the first instruments? Honestly whatever the builder wants to have happen to them. I see no problem selling them to people that know what they are or gifting them away.

I gave my earliest builds away to charity for auction. That way, I felt that they contributed in their way to their cause, and when they were auctioned, the buyer got exactly what he or she thought it was worth.

I just saw this and am concerned about my first build - Does the truss rod not go into a straight channel between the neck and the fingerboard? What's supposed to be curved?