Olson SJ BRW

[usb_chord]

LOL! Did you seriously re-name your upcoming Olson Bubbles? Wonderful.

[JoeCharter]

Originally Posted by usb_chord

LOL! Did you seriously re-name your upcoming Olson Bubbles? Wonderful.

Evidence that I truly value the feedback from the AGF community.

[JoeCharter]

Just received a bunch of pictures from Jim.


Another photo of the beautiful back.




Getting ready for purfling.






Inserting the paua purfling.




Purfling all done.

[JoeCharter]

I know nothing about lutherie but I suppose the bridge is being aligned and installed in the following pictures.

[JoeCharter]

Not sure what these machines do. Perhaps building my special pickguard?






A bunch of necks.

[JoeCharter]

Lastly, a couple of family shots with my guitar sitting front left of the bunch.

[cigarfan]

Looking good! Thanks for sharing those pics. The family shots got me to thinking ... does Jim share photos with each person receiving those guitars? That's a bunch of emails!

[ukejon]

That is a jaw dropping set of photos! An Olson extravaganza. Can't wait to see the finished guitar, Mau.

[steveh]

This is fascinating - I knew that Jim builds in batches but these pics give a real insight into exactly how that happens.

I know an ex-apprentice of a very successful luthier who had a long wait list. The apprentice repeatedly tried to persuade the luthier to start batching his builds, even at just 3 or 4 guitars, but without much success. Surely there are time economies at the very least to building like this, if your list is long enough to allow it? I suppose you have to be sufficiently well tooled-up for it to make sense? I think Blazer and Henkes are another shop who do this?

Mau, do you know how many batches Jim builds per year? I know of electric luthiers who batch build by instrument type. e.g. 3 batches per year, one strats, one LPs etc, with about 20 in each.

cheers,
Steve

[JoeCharter]

Originally Posted by cigarfan

Looking good! Thanks for sharing those pics. The family shots got me to thinking ... does Jim share photos with each person receiving those guitars? That's a bunch of emails!

I wouldn't know Jim's exact modus operandi but several customers are getting such pictures for sure -- and I would expect most if not all builds to be documented somehow.

Things could be worse though -- he could be building guitars one at a time...

[JoeCharter]

Originally Posted by ukejon

That is a jaw dropping set of photos! An Olson extravaganza. Can't wait to see the finished guitar, Mau.

Well, it's "your" guitar, isn't it...

Wait until you see the killer pickguard.

[JoeCharter]

Originally Posted by steveh

This is fascinating - I knew that Jim builds in batches but these pics give a real insight into exactly how that happens.

I know an ex-apprentice of a very successful luthier who had a long wait list. The apprentice repeatedly tried to persuade the luthier to start batching his builds, even at just 3 or 4 guitars, but without much success. Surely there are time economies at the very least to building like this, if your list is long enough to allow it? I suppose you have to be sufficiently well tooled-up for it to make sense? I think Blazer and Henkes are another shop who do this?

Mau, do you know how many batches Jim builds per year? I know of electric luthiers who batch build by instrument type. e.g. 3 batches per year, one strats, one LPs etc, with about 20 in each.

cheers,
Steve

I am unaware of Jim's entire build history but I know for many years he build two batches per year -- and for the last two years it has been one (big) batch per year.

As for the "batch" question, some builders build one guitar at a time, others build a couple, some others build a few, and others build several. There's a lot of luthiers out there who build in batches.

In the over intellectualized world of fine lutherie, some people tend to view production chains negatively -- but it's only negative if the product that's delivered isn't good or if excessive cost cutting measures were implemented.

In my view, I think the biggest gain is at the mental level. How big that gain is depends on the type of guitars being built and the personality of the builder.

Jim doesn't run an automated plant like car manufacturers using a bunch of robots. The machines that he built for himself would work the same way whether he builds one guitar at a time or several.

Depending on their personality, successful luthiers with a healthy wait list who build "custom guitars but not too custom" might consider the batch approach -- and I'm thinking of guys like Jason Kostal and John Slobod. They have an established customer list, established models and they know what's coming years ahead. They also do not do wildly different things like Matsuda or Leach for example.

On the other hand, if I'm a really successful luthier who has been building guitars one at a time for the last 30-40 years, good luck to the guy who wants to convince me to change my ways...

[racman]

May, do you know if Jim "voices" each top individually or uses a standard bracing design etc?

[JoeCharter]

Originally Posted by racman

May, do you know if Jim "voices" each top individually or uses a standard bracing design etc?

Hey Roy,

Sorry I never asked so I don't know the answer to your question.

I do believe Jim aims for the same sound on each of his guitars. How he does it, I wouldn't know...

I think this 1995 interview will give some insight into how Jim voices guitars. He's pretty no-nonsense about it:

http://www.olsonguitars.com/videos/jiminterview.wmv


You can also access the video from this page (it's at the bottom):

http://olsonguitars.com/interviews.html