First Thread About Your First Time with a Handmade Guitar

[jab.phila]

So, I've been reading AGF discussions for the past year or so and finally got up the temerity to start a thread.

After moving over the last 20 years from an Epiphone to a Taylor to a couple Larrivees to a Northwood, and playing a bunch now in stores, I am dumbstruck by how profoundly different a high quality handmade guitar is from anything else. The first time I played my Northwood, it was a fairly overwhelming experience. It was like I had never played a guitar before.

So being as this is my first thread, I figured it would be about your first time. What was it like the first time you played or owned a handmade guitar? What was the guitar? How did it change your playing or how you thought about guitars? I wouldn't be on the AGF if my first time didn't change the way I thought about guitars.

So, a first thread about your first time. Gentle please

Jake

[superfluidity]

My first commissioned went like this;
-I found a luthier and we spoke extensively about everything I wanted, I chose material and then the long wait for a very expensive guitar.
-The guitar shipped out to me on a very very hot Friday, it sat in the UPS warehouse over the weekend in sweltering heat.
-I picked it up on Monday, it looked ok at the warehouse, I got it home, let it acclimate, opened it up and a fret had lifted out of the socket
-The luthier told me what to do, so I literally banged on the neck with a hammer, lightly of course.
-Intonation was way off
-Things were not looking up, my wife was going to the luthiers state so she took it back for the luthier to fix and reset it up
-I got it back weeks later and the upper end was dead, the humidity change was too much for it, even though I controlled it, the bridge was lifting
-I paid to have it sent back, the luthier refunded me but only for initial payment, I lost tons of money and a full set of expensive Ivory that you cannot get now.
-I moved on

Please don't ask who the luthier was as I would never say who it was. Everyone has a bad day now and again.

[RP]

I've never owned a handmade guitar and doubt that I ever will. Every now and again somebody posts the question as to whether such guitars are "worth" it which is kind of a silly question since worth is an individual value and not a uniform one. I hope that your Northwood offers you the pleasure and results that you sought, but the jury is still out and will probably remain so for a while as to what a handmade guitar brings to the table. Some of us, if we're honest, can readily accept that we don't have the wherewithal to appreciate the nuances of boutique guitars. My Taylor 524, 714 and 814 (along with a 614 enroute) have undoubtedly formed the upper limits of my guitar wants, needs and appreciation...

[Jackdaw9516]

Underwhelmed.


Back to Martin and Gibson for me.

[Pitar]

15 months of anticipation, one day to assess, two months idle and one day to donate it. Minus a few details, that pretty much sums it up. The lesson is to never buy sight unseen.

[gfspencer]

I've never owned a handmade guitar. I have seen some that were beautiful but I will stick with what I have.

[Ted @ LA Guitar Sales]

I purchased my first "hand made" guitar about 20 years ago from a well respected luthier. Although it was a vey nice guitar, it thought me that being hand made, is by no means a guarantee of quality, tonal, or otherwise. Since then I've owned, and played some amazing handmade guitars, but my opinion has not changed. You get what you pay for, regardless if it was "hand made" or if it came from a factory.

[mercy]

I am playing two guitars that were custom made and both are excellent. I went custom cause I want a wider nut and shorter scale on a smaller guitar. I will be taking receipt of a 3rd custom the end of Sept. There are potential problems with custom but nothing factory made is what I want. Besides there is the thought of an actual person youve talked to that is making a guitar for you. I chose the wood for the back and sides, for the overlay, binding, rosette and heel cap. I hate back marquetry so I got to choose not to have that. I got to have the scale, nut width, width at the 12 and width at the bridge pins. That is so cool to me as a guitar fanatic. Well maybe just a fan. Sure Ill probably sell it at some point down the road. I have sold every other guitar Ive ever owned so I guess but Im hoping its a lifer. Ill let you know in two years maybe.

[Hasbro]

I'm sure any range of experiences is possible but my experience was, holy smokes, No Looking Back. That was also having come from Santa Cruz Etc

[1Charlie]

All three of my handmades come from either my hometown (Staunton, VA) or my home for the last 40 years (Charlottesville, VA).

I did not have them built, but picked them up on the used market. They are everything I could ever want.

The first of them was an '09 Huss & Dalton TD-M. A whole different animal from the Guild's I own or have owned. From the first strum, it was clear that this guitar was just on another level. It had a dark, deep sweetness to it that contrasted with the Guild tone, which is a lot brighter. The bass on the TD-M in particular was just more gut-rumbling that a top-of-the-line Guild dread. And this is coming from a Guild fanatic!

FWIW, I played a whole bunch of high-end factory guitars (Martin, Gibson, Taylor, Larrivee) while at a conference in NYC this week, and none came close (except for one exceptional J-45 Custom).

[Swamp Yankee]

I guess my Waterloo WL-S is handmade - though I didn't know that till I just checked the website. I love the guitar - but I can't see much about it that tells me it's handmade. I think they purposefully downplayed the obsessive attention to immaculate finishes with this one

But lord does it play nicely

[TBman]

I see a bunch of hands making these Gibsons.... Oops. Maybe they aren't real people? What does "hand made" mean? Maybe the OP means "small shop" instead?

[The Bard Rocks]

I started off wanting to get something "better" than my M38, which I'd had for decades. I played everything I could get my hands on, for months, mostly boutiques (ie - small companies). I played one handmade, made an offer on it that was not accepted, and since it was the fellow's first build, I didn't want to go higher than that offer, Later, I played a Kinnaird and loved it. Only it was too fancy for me and not exactly what I wanted. A visit to a web site and a phone call and I realized I could have a new one cheaper and exactly however I specified. Done deal.

So I went temporarily crazy and ordered a Goodall (boutique, already made, and pretty darn nice) and a Kinnaird, which would show up 16 months later. I can't say that one is better than the other. They are different, which is what I wanted. But I can say I had so much fun planning the build with John and getting something that is one-of-a-kind, something that was exactly what I wanted, that I did it again with another builder.... And you probably know the rest of the story.

I have not been disappointed yet. Nor have I owned one which I felt was stunningly spectacular sounding, though I have played a couple since that were that way (or so I think - didn't play them long enough to be positive). Still, the ones I have are as good or probably better than anything else I would be likely to find at the same price anywhere else. And they are totally unique, which I especially like.

[Gasworker]

My small shop Halcyon AJ is fantastic in every way. It's 3 or 4 years old now. The top has darkened very nice. The tone is the same I think, it's hard to recall the original tone but I still love it. Other than a pick-up it has had no adjustments.
Ed didn't have a lot of fancy pants tools when he made mine so it's a truly wonderful small shop handmade guitar.

[vindibona1]

I was living in Mexico and there was a small artisan area, La Ciudadela. In this area were a couple guitar makers specializing in classical guitars. The guy making the guitar was right there doing all the work in a small shop. I didn't know much about classical guitars but one just spoke to me. This is the one that got me playing again.

Not too long later I came back to the states and a "friend", thinking she was doing me a favor threw it in a box, gave it to a Mexican shipping company. 8 weeks later they delivered splinters . It was a fabulous instrument. If my friend had bothered to call me first she would have known I was coming back for it.