The Acoustic Guitar Forum

Go Back   The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > Custom Shop

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
  #181  
Old 06-22-2022, 03:54 PM
dosland dosland is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: New Zealand, South Island, way down toward the bottom!
Posts: 528
Talking

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer View Post
Yes, the very one I built for a repeat customer and somehow failed to make the neck bulky enough for him. So I warrantied it, and made him a new one. He was surely right, as no one who plays it mentions it having a fat neck. It does sound excellent to me, and someone will eventually want it.
Oh no, the neck's "too slim"! [...leaves to buy another lotto ticket for the Sexauer Fund...]
__________________
Yamaha Pacifica 512, Yamaha APX6, Alhambra 7c, Taylor 110 (w/upgraded Taylor gold tuners!), Alhambra 7p, Yamaha CS-40, Samick Corsair Pawn-Shop Special Bass
  #182  
Old 06-22-2022, 03:59 PM
Dogma Dogma is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 994
Default

So inquiring minds and all...How was the Blue Grass festival this year?
  #183  
Old 06-23-2022, 11:02 AM
Bruce Sexauer's Avatar
Bruce Sexauer Bruce Sexauer is offline
AGF Sponsor
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Petaluma, CA, USA
Posts: 7,525
Default

The festival was slow, perhaps less than half its historical attendance. 7 luthiers in our pavilion rather than 20 or so, and much less jamming in the campground, so probably proportionately fewer pickers in the population. Still, after over 20 consecutive years of participation, I got to hang out with many friends I see almost nowhere else.

One of the younger pickers, John Gooding, came to play my new BRW dread at least 5 times and surely would buy it if he could. But he is 18 and just launching his adult life, so he’d need a patron to pull that off. I got video of John play it and his brother Josh playing an F style mandolin I own, but will have to process it before I can share it with you. Which I will.
__________________
Bruce
http://www.sexauerluthier.com/
  #184  
Old 06-23-2022, 02:31 PM
hubcapsc's Avatar
hubcapsc hubcapsc is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: upstate SC
Posts: 2,688
Default

but will have to process it before I can share it with you.

I'm looking forward to it, your BRW guitar looks really interesting...

-Mike
  #185  
Old 06-23-2022, 03:14 PM
Guitars44me's Avatar
Guitars44me Guitars44me is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Mountains east of San Diego
Posts: 7,376
Smile Adult life???

Launching his adult life at 18???

This made me laugh…. I am 71 and still doing my best to avoid adult life!

Carry on Bruce, and have FUN

Paul
__________________
3 John Kinnaird SS 12c CUSTOMS:
Big Maple/Cedar Dread
Jumbo Spanish Cedar/WRC
Jumbo OLD Brazilian RW/WRC

R.T 2 12c sinker RW/Claro
96 422ce bought new!
96 LKSM 12
552ce 12x12

J. Stepick Bari Weissy WRC/Walnut

More
  #186  
Old 06-23-2022, 05:42 PM
Bruce Sexauer's Avatar
Bruce Sexauer Bruce Sexauer is offline
AGF Sponsor
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Petaluma, CA, USA
Posts: 7,525
Default

Every time I do a video link I have to face my own techno-deficiencies. Perhaps I should do it more often!

Here are brothers John and Josh Gooding jamming near my table at the Grass Valley Bluegrass Festival last father's day weekend. The room is pretty live and a lot of people are talking, so the fidelity is not quite recording studio quality. John plays my new BRW/Adi D and Josh plays my Schneider F5 mandolin, both of which I hope NOT to own forever.

https://vimeo.com/723553420

Here is the embed code, if anyone knows how to use it:
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/723553420?h=f22799c153" width="640" height="564" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>
__________________
Bruce
http://www.sexauerluthier.com/
  #187  
Old 06-23-2022, 06:04 PM
Bebo Bebo is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2020
Posts: 51
Default

There was nothing wrong with that! Sounded good to me. If I could only flatpick, . . . .
__________________
1891 Martin 1-21
1924 Martin 0-21
1930 Martin (employee) 00-28
1936 Martin 0-18
2018 Collings 000-18C
2019 JC Baxendale 0-18C
2020 Sexauer FT-0C
2021 Sexauer FT-L00
  #188  
Old 07-14-2022, 12:06 AM
tadol tadol is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Berkeley, CA
Posts: 5,216
Default

Bruce has been rather busy with a couple new projects, so hasn't checked in here recently, sadly. But he’s never not doing anything, and I finally had a little time to drop by and grab a bite of lunch with him and another luthier friend, Brad Hall, just to catch up. After lunch we played a few guitars, including his recent olive guitar, and a stunning mahogany guitar, both he’s planning to take to Woodstock. Unfortunately, he hadn’t finished assembling the satinwood dread, which I’d like to hear, so next visit - I did get to try his very first Schoenberg prototype, which has been around the block a few times, but sounded really great.

He did a little check-up and adjustment on the Mad Rose he built me, bringing the action down about half a 64th since it’s now a couple years old, and then we started talking about electrics and pickups, and pulled out a couple of his archtops - Bruce has made a few of these, and has 2 in the shop, a maple one that he plays out with, and a stunning cherry one that I think he’s trying to interest me in (not hard). Both hadn’t been played for a couple years, so he gave them a dust-off and a little tweak, then decided that he needed to adjust the spacing at the saddle to fit the pickups better, so he adjusted both saddles, tweaked the action, and adjusted the intonation - using a technique I’d be scared to try, but in the hands of a master, I don’t question it - and he got it on the money very quickly!



Freshly set-up and plugged in, they are both great sounding instruments. Not likely he’ll build any more archtops - lots of work, and he keeps talking about using up more of his collection of Brazilian, and Pernambuco, and Myrtle, and others, while I still think he should build more mahogany - love his mahogany guitars - but eventually, we put everything away and had a lovely dinner with his wife on their patio. Doesn’t get much better than that -



Next time I’ll try to remember to get better pics -
__________________
More than a few Santa Cruz’s, a few Sexauers, a Patterson, a Larrivee, a Cumpiano, and a Klepper!!
  #189  
Old 07-14-2022, 06:00 AM
mhw48 mhw48 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: NYC
Posts: 457
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by tadol View Post
Bruce has been rather busy with a couple new projects, so hasn't checked in here recently, sadly. -
Thanks for the update. Bruce's thread -- in fact the whole Custom Shop section -- has been pretty quiet, so it's good to hear that interesting guitar things are still happening!
  #190  
Old 07-14-2022, 08:37 AM
BradHall BradHall is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Windsor, Ca.
Posts: 956
Default

As Tad mentioned, Bruce played a couple of his Woodstock bound guitars. He always has a critical ear and decided one was superior in some fashion to another, until he played the other. What a dilemma to be in! If you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing or playing a Sexauer guitar it’s difficult to describe just how wonderful they really are. Seldom mentioned is what a great player Bruce is. In that respect he is very humble. From my perspective hearing a master play his own creations, it doesn’t get much better.
__________________
BradHall

_____________________
  #191  
Old 07-14-2022, 08:39 AM
Guitars44me's Avatar
Guitars44me Guitars44me is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Mountains east of San Diego
Posts: 7,376
Smile These guys rarely do nothing….

Quote:
Originally Posted by mhw48 View Post
Thanks for the update. Bruce's thread -- in fact the whole Custom Shop section -- has been pretty quiet, so it's good to hear that interesting guitar things are still happening!
Even when we don’t hear from our beloved Builders it is probably because they are TOO busy to check in! Hahahah

I LOVE the pic of Bruce in the shop with the music stand behind him….

Yay for PLAYING

Paul
__________________
3 John Kinnaird SS 12c CUSTOMS:
Big Maple/Cedar Dread
Jumbo Spanish Cedar/WRC
Jumbo OLD Brazilian RW/WRC

R.T 2 12c sinker RW/Claro
96 422ce bought new!
96 LKSM 12
552ce 12x12

J. Stepick Bari Weissy WRC/Walnut

More
  #192  
Old 07-27-2022, 06:29 PM
Bruce Sexauer's Avatar
Bruce Sexauer Bruce Sexauer is offline
AGF Sponsor
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Petaluma, CA, USA
Posts: 7,525
Default Ceylon Satinwood JB-16

This week I completed the last guitar I have on my bench, with nothing more "in the pipe" at the moment.

Some of you may recall that I wrote most of a book a few years back. It is autobiographical, anecdotal, possibly humorous, and has enough technical information in to build a guitar using the techniques I have developed over the span of my career, not to mention several hundred in-focus photographs. I connected with a self styled editor back then who discouraged me from proceeding, and I put the project on the back burner until a couple of months ago when I met another editor who is ecstatic about the project. Yes, I may be a bit insecure in my non-lutherie artistic efforts.

My new editor, Tim Allen, read my entire text and made about 650 corrections and comments, socially obligating me to pick up the ball. I am over halfway though vetting his work, and have added a few thousand words as well. I am about halfway through the first edit and if I start a new instrument right now I will be unlikely to complete the vetting/writing before the end of August, which is my goal. Tim is also the current president of the Northern California Association of Luthier, a title I gave up to him about 6 moths ago. He has built several guitars and is increasingly influenced by my techniques.

Now you know why I've been quiet here in the forum.

Today I made a page for the new guitar which can be viewed HERE. This is my "big gun", a fully asymmetrical JB-16, similar to the guitar that Walter Strauss is currently playing, and will go head to head with the Olsons/Ryans/Petros's of the world. The Ceylon Satinwood was a gift from one of our forum members.

And here are just a couple of the dozen pictures on that page:



__________________
Bruce
http://www.sexauerluthier.com/
  #193  
Old 07-27-2022, 06:57 PM
iim7V7IM7's Avatar
iim7V7IM7 iim7V7IM7 is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: An Exit Off the Turnpike in New Jersey
Posts: 5,152
Default

Beautiful JB Bruce…
__________________
A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings…
  #194  
Old 07-27-2022, 08:03 PM
The Bard Rocks The Bard Rocks is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Mohawk Valley
Posts: 8,711
Default

Good luck with the book. Be sure to let us (me) know when it and if is published. This is a very tough industry, now more than ever (I speak from recent experience). Remember, re-writing is your friend: Annie Proulx told me once she typically does 50 re-writes on a given book. I find that most improvement, like in writing songs, comes with making it more compact, saying more with less words.
__________________
The Bard Rocks

Fay OM Sinker Redwood/Tiger Myrtle
Sexauer L00 Adk/Magnolia For Sale
Hatcher Jumbo Bearclaw/"Bacon" Padauk
Goodall Jumbo POC/flamed Mahogany
Appollonio 12 POC/Myrtle
MJ Franks Resonator, all Australian Blackwood
Goodman J45 Lutz/fiddleback Mahogany
Blackbird "Lucky 13" - carbon fiber
'31 National Duolian
+ many other stringed instruments.

Last edited by The Bard Rocks; 07-29-2022 at 08:06 PM.
  #195  
Old 07-28-2022, 05:52 AM
Treenewt Treenewt is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: The Ol' North State
Posts: 5,182
Default

Bruce, I am pretty much over-the-moon that you’ve taken up the book again! I look forward to seeing how it progresses!
__________________
Treenewt
Closed Thread

  The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > Custom Shop

Thread Tools





All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:34 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Copyright ©2000 - 2022, The Acoustic Guitar Forum
vB Ad Management by =RedTyger=