Journey| Michaud Made

[NickJ]

I thought I would impart a story here on how I came to own a custom built guitar. This was a first for me. Perhaps anyone reading who has not embarked on a journey of this magnitude can extract something from this story.
Man, how long can a post be?
A time ago I was looking for a new guitar. My chops had gotten to a point where I told myself I could get a Martin. The one we all want. They all play D-28 it must be awesome, that's what I want! Then thinking about it and already having a D style guitar I knew. I was after something that was more sitting friendly, something smaller. Yeah I want something smaller but I don't want to have a small sounding guitar. What to do, what to do. After a few months of pouring through a daily craigslist feed I saw someone selling a guitar that was luthier made. Hmmmm luthier made, that's like someone made it with their own hands, right ? Like a Bentley . This guitar was smaller OO shape, wenge fretboard, mahogany back, very subtle. I contacted the owner and asked who had made the guitar. He said it was a very young, lesser known luthier from Canada. I wanted to know more about this guitar and this guy Joel Michaud. That is Michaud not like Meshawd but Me show as in Sho Nuff. Americans, I tell ya. So, the internet would yield, as it always does, the location and a few tidbits of this master carpenter and luthier. I found a post or two on a luthier forum and sent a message. Bingo here was the man. He told me about the guitar, it's parts and wood makeup. I was psyched. I wanted to get this guitar and then... the email.

Well, ya know Nick I could build you your own guitar and we could talk about what you want out of a guitar.

It never rally occurred to me. I mean I knew people got guitars made but what did that mean? Sure the water is warm jump in! My mind went into hyper drive as that Bentley of Tantalus was being waved above my head. Yeah, lets do this Joel!

I was always into Haida art and I thought someone from this area would be into doing a themed type of guitar. I had designs that I had drawn up in photoshop with more inlay than there is abalone in the sea. It was exciting, what could I do? Anything. Well after the phase of coming up with something that looked like decorative plate Joel did say I could do anything but anything costs a bit. Ewww, ok. Here is the start of the calm. Let's think about woods, tones you are going for. What kind of guitar do you want, for what purpose? These are the questions to lead you down a path. I wanted something OO Like but didn't want to sacrifice bass too much. I wanted a figured cocobolo. Discussions of the most stable coco ensued and Next came the pictures of Cocobolo. Then one day a picture came that opened the skies with big pad sounds! This was it!

[leftybanjo]

WOW!!! that is going to be beautiful!

[NickJ]

Next we would talk about me, me? Joel wanted to know more about where I was coming from what was my deal. Oh Kay, so the bio was sent and he kept the build going. Very cool! Next is the soundboard. I had herd of different spruce from looking at Martins and Taylor's but introduced me to a type that he was very sure of, it is called Lutz. It is a hybrid spruce and with his confidence we went with it. You see by this point there was a lot of email traffic goin round we had talk Aton and you get a trust in a person.

Shape, I knew I wanted about 14" at the bottom and I wanted a bit more at the top perhaps 11". Joel came up with some drawings and we were off. The body was to take shape.

[NickJ]

I always liked what it sounded like when I was in front of a guitar. However, when I WS playin one it was a bit more muffled. So a soundport it was. As you can see the re is quite a bit of stabilizing that is done behind the sides to make this secure.

[ChuckS]

Glad you're having fun with the process; it is exciting. Also nice to hear that your luthier is having you focus on the important stuff; what your wants and needs are in tone and playability.

[justonwo]

Looks cool, NickJ. I edited your post so that the photos appear with the text, rather than having to click links. In flickr, if you look at the bottom right, you'll see a hooked arrow - kind usually associated with forwarding email. Click on that.

You'll then get a bunch of options for kinds of links to share. Click on "BBcode," choose the size of the image you want to post, and then copy the link. The only part you need to show a picture is the part between the [img] [\img] tags. You can delete all the other parts of the copied text.

That should do it. Looking forward to more photos!

[NickJ]

Pretty important part if not the most important part. I was looking at a ton of guitar pictures for ideas on various parts of the guitar. I saw a lot of three, four, five piece necks that aesthetically looked really cool. The guru then let me know that if I was going to get my first luthier ( is it Looth ee er and who says Looth ee ay, just wondering?) made guitar it could be a one piece neck. one solid pice of mahogany sculpted. I like and off it went. I like looking at the various stages of the neck, going from a block of wood into the shape. Originally I was pro paddle headstock, de regueur but Joel showed me his new design for a headstock. There are points in a build where commission comes together with art. I am usually a person of vision, I know it and it is so. But really not necessarily. My vision is that I had decided I wanted a Joel Michaud guitar for many reasons. I had seen his work, I listened to his philosophy, I saw societally who he was and it all fit with me. So, you gotta go with it have some trust become part of that thing which will make you more. Go through this process is a growing process. This is the neck, this is a Michaud Made headstock and it's awesome! Justo now thanks for the tip I hope it works



image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr


image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr

[David Eastwood]

I think this one is going to be fun to watch. Keep the updates coming, Nick!

[NickJ]

This beast was not a , let's make a design and build it, project. I would continually look up new ideas. I liked the idea of a cutaway but there was no way I could cut into that perfect pice of coco. We came to find this beveled cutaway solution. Around this. I wanted a flamed koa binding with a bloodwood per fling that was wider than whatever usual is. Joel rode this one out and I think was pleasantly surprised in the end. Anyway, I wanted the flamed koa to expand at the bevel as if the bevel was the wall of the binding. I didn't realize that this was going to be such a feat. Now when you are getting a guitar built time goes by very slowly, patience is a virtue or just necessary. In the same forums I had found Joel I started looking to see if there was any behind the scenes chatter goin on about this guitfiddle. I saw a post that someone was asking about a beveled cutaway and there it was, BOOM! I saw mine, Joel had posted his example. There was a close up and a reply came that the exploding or continuing of the binding was rather difficult and that most people terminate the binding at this point. Thanks Joel, if you see it, I never thanked you about this one!


image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr


image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr

[NickJ]

I always dig themes about space. Most songs I write are in space going to space or finding a deeper space. The rosette could embody this. Most rosettes are a ring around the center hole. I wanted something different. How about having the rosette go all the way to the middle like Joel would coin it a Black Hole. Oh yeah now were gettin somewhere! The Black Hole it was knighted. I had a few other ideas throwing around and then came across an idea of another luthier that was really cool. I showed Joel and he was diff in it. He told me to let go and he will fly with it. The result is incredible in craft, art and family. Each piece is a different wood which swirls and winds around the sound hole. There are what could be planets orbiting the hole. The frame is silver and each planet is sculpted glass by Joel's cousin an artist her own right. Now we are in Bentley territory!


image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr




image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr


image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr

[NickJ]

Process is what is all about in anything that is doing. There were cool pics of the tools of the trade. There is the machine that tests the tension strength of the spruce strips to become bracing.


image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr

The side bender although I think Joel said he liked to bend em by hand.


image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr

This next one might be NSFW as it contains some bondage



image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr

Now one thing I noticed when seeing this pic is the POGO logo. I had never heard of this. Is it a Canadian thing? I checked it out and it became clear as this must have been an early influence on Joel or perhaps it could be his profile pic somewhere.



image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr

[Marcus Wong]

Hey Nick! Seems like you have yet to post the finished product congrats on the "Black Hole". It is actually my favourite Michaud to date! Fancy seeing it here on the AGF! If you haven't stumbled across my thread yet, I'm currently in possession of an OO-R Koa Engelmann with an OM-R on commission

Looking forward to the rest of your posts and some video/sound clips would simply be the icing on the cake Hope you're enjoying that work of art! He makes one heck of an instrument!

[NickJ]

Cancelled read below

[NickJ]

The holidays got crazy. I want to show some more of the build. All the designing was done. The woods , the shape, the concept. The work, the wait. Did I say the wait. This is where update pic will save your sanity as you hear it in your head every night. Anticipation is rocky and a horror. This has to be normal even for the Abby normal. But the beast starts to take shape.

[NickJ]

image by Nickelbaggio, on Flickr