Wabi-Sabi Guitar

[LouieAtienza]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

No need to apologize! I welcome discussion and dissenting opinions.

Actually, thrown pots made on a potter's kick wheel go back at least 5000 years, and there is no doubt that the classic everyday Korean tea bowls that contributed to the wabi-sabi aesthetic were thrown on wheels. Go-bar style clamping is believed to have been in use when the Egyptians built their pyramids http://theclampguy.info/hist.htm.

Thanks Howard. Believe me, this comes from someone who holds you body of work in the highest regard! It's possible my words do not accurately reflect my thoughts on this, as I think about a hundred times faster than I can type (and I can type very fast!) I also don't necessarily eschew the use of modern tools to do the job, though I think it's easier to achieve the level of "perfect imperfectness" with a different tool mindset. For example, one could use a router and a pin on a workboard to cut the soundhole and rosette channel. But one could also mark those with a compass, cut the soundhole with a coping saw, clean it as perfectly as possible to round by hand, then use a gramil to mark the rosette channel. It won't be as perfectly round as using a circle cutting jig, but it could be perfectly clean-cut with perfectly tight purflings. This is but one example.

But there's no need to look at my clamps if you think wabi-sabi means eschewing modern methods. I'm using all the usual machines and power tools on this guitar. The question is whether wabi-sabi requires something like pre-industrial revolution methods (something that has been suggested for calling a guitar "hand-made"). I have not seen that said in the sources I've been reading. Wabi-sabi should show an acceptance of imperfection and incompleteness; it should show process in the sense of the object not masking its history and the history of its materials, or that it will degrade over time. I don't think that the use modern tools necessary contradicts these things, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were others who consider traditional methods to be part of it.

Leonardo daVinci has quite a few works that were never completed. He is likely notorious for that. Some attribute it to a form of ADHD. Some believe that he "envisioned" the completed work, and thus felt he didn't have to complete it! I don't think he was practicing wabi-sabi! I don't necessarily shun the use of modern tooling for a wabi-sabi project, though it is common practice to hide evidence of its use such as planer marks, sanding lines, glazing, burrs... Which leads me to somewhat of a paradox - would leaving those tell-tale signs be a form of wabi-sabi? Aside from areas that need to be glued, they do not necessarily affect structure or function.

I knew that at some point someone would bring up Ervin's paint-spatter guitar--you will find it quickly by Googling "wabi-sabi guitar." And I'll be blunt in saying that I think his use of the term "wabi-sabi" for that guitar is misplaced. He didn't accept the flaws on that guitar; he hid them. And he hid them with an illusion, that he calls "trompe l'oeil" (fooling the eye into seeing something as what it is not). I think trompe l'oeil and wabi-sabi are incompatible.

I have not noticed the broken purflings, bad miters, excess glue, etc. thread. But as you describe it, it raises the issue whether poor workmanship is the same as wabi-sabi, or is a form of it. I think not. If the workmanship shows that they goal was achieving the kind of near-perfection that is required under the dominant aesthetic, but that the craftsperson failed, it is just poor work. A piece of wabi-sabi work does not set out with the goal of perfection and then fail. It begins with a different goal-- achieving a good functional piece of craft that does not seek perfect regulation of the work or show any need to hide its imperfections. I think it follows that the wabi-sabi craftsperson might sometimes just happen to make an exceptionally clean piece--out at the right end of the bell curve. That, too, should be accepted, IMO, although I have not seen that kind of object discussed yet in my sources.

I was incomplete in my thoughts. I brought up those two examples as opposite ends of a spectrum. One, which I also agree is not wabi-sabi, and the other I'm not so sure of. I don't think the builder of the latter thinks he or she had failed. And one may not notice the imperfections from a few feet away, under a gloss finish. As a cabinetmaker of about 26 years, I've seen visually perfect glue joints that were either starved because of glue only applied to the center of the joint, or an overzealous wipe with a wet rag while the glue was still wet, causing the glue to pull from the joint. I don't think having blobs of glue is a good thing either, but excess glue from positioning parts slipping a bit may not be such a crime. I don't necessarily think a bad miter is a bad thing in a piece where it is a recording of one's skill at that particular time.

Maybe a better example would be turning green wood. One can turn it as perfectly as possible, and store the turned piece in paper bags to control its drying, yet it will always deform slightly in the process. Or maybe the turning of burls with voids filled with crushed stone, that highlight the imperfections. Just thoughts of someone searching for the answers as well. My builds all have some flaw of some kind, whether it be imperfect woods, some slight lopsidedness, and various stages of improved miters and binding work. I might use the wabi-sabi excuse!

[riverrummed]

I continue to follow this thread with a lot of interest. It has made me think much deeper about concepts I have been interested in since I was seventeen years old and found Zen to resonate with my own sensibilities, more than any other philosophy or religion.
I think every guitar Howard has ever made, and every guitar made by all the single builder luthiers, has spans of time in their building, short or long, that reflect the mental state that-cannot-expressed-in-words that leads to a finished product that is deemed by a consensus of viewers, over time, as possessing wabi sabi. I think the craftsman just performs his craft at whatever physical level he is at, at the time, and the results become a reflection of the combination of mental state and physical skill of the practitioner...for all to see and hear. In the case of a tea bowl, the potter threw it in one, almost continuous flourish, over a relatively short span of time. He quite possibly threw it while making a "production run" of bowls for that day's work. But there is something about his mindset, or no-mind (which I believe Zen would point to) in the throwing of that one particular piece that appears in that piece, that becomes recognizable to a wider audience. It harkens back to the definition someone once gave about someone who has class; you can't describe it, but you know it when you see it. That indescribable "it", I believe, is the elusive element that the words wabi sabi refers to, as no worded explanation is possible...in Japanese or in English. And a guitar is not produced in a flourish so I think the sustained mental state to produce a guitar that is deemed wabi sabi is a much more difficult task.
I cannot produce a guitar that would be recognized as wabi sabi as I have not accumulated the physical skill set sufficient to free me from thinking about the manipulation of the tools. And I think it is not until a complete mastery of the tools and a complete familiarity of the materials has been attained that the artist's mind can then attempt the no-mind state that produces a work that even has a chance of being deemed wabi sabi.
Whew, this thread elicits some long winded thoughts!

[LouieAtienza]

Originally Posted by riverrummed

I continue to follow this thread with a lot of interest. It has made me think much deeper about concepts I have been interested in since I was seventeen years old and found Zen to resonate with my own sensibilities, more than any other philosophy or religion.
I think every guitar Howard has ever made, and every guitar made by all the single builder luthiers, has spans of time in their building, short or long, that reflect the mental state that-cannot-expressed-in-words that leads to a finished product that is deemed by a consensus of viewers, over time, as possessing wabi sabi. I think the craftsman just performs his craft at whatever physical level he is at, at the time, and the results become a reflection of the combination of mental state and physical skill of the practitioner...for all to see and hear. In the case of a tea bowl, the potter threw it in one, almost continuous flourish, over a relatively short span of time. He quite possibly threw it while making a "production run" of bowls for that day's work. But there is something about his mindset, or no-mind (which I believe Zen would point to) in the throwing of that one particular piece that appears in that piece, that becomes recognizable to a wider audience. It harkens back to the definition someone once gave about someone who has class; you can't describe it, but you know it when you see it. That indescribable "it", I believe, is the elusive element that the words wabi sabi refers to, as no worded explanation is possible...in Japanese or in English. And a guitar is not produced in a flourish so I think the sustained mental state to produce a guitar that is deemed wabi sabi is a much more difficult task.
I cannot produce a guitar that would be recognized as wabi sabi as I have not accumulated the physical skill set sufficient to free me from thinking about the manipulation of the tools. And I think it is not until a complete mastery of the tools and a complete familiarity of the materials has been attained that the artist's mind can then attempt the no-mind state that produces a work that even has a chance of being deemed wabi sabi.
Whew, this thread elicits some long winded thoughts!

Well, we would never know if that tea cup was the "tea cup the builder rejected that has become the cornerstone of wabi-sabi" or a happy "accident" that was fortuitously saved... Or both...

[Howard Klepper]

Guitar-shaped object:

[Pat Foster]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

Guitar-shaped object:

I think it may be a bit more than that, Howard.

Pat

[LouieAtienza]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

Guitar-shaped object:

I think that would hold tea fine..

[LSemmens]

Or a nice plant pot.........


Hey! Here's a thought. What about gluing a stick to one end attaching some strings and calling it, uuuuhm....say,,, a Guitar!!!

[Howard Klepper]

Binding and purfling on. Wenge binding, black/maple/black top purfling. No back purfling. I think this is the first time I have done an acoustic without back purfling. Quite a bit of the black stain from bending came off when scraping the binding; more will come off when sanding. Oh, well. I'm going with the flow.

[LouieAtienza]

I'm actually liking the no back purfling scheme... has an organic look

[riverrummed]

It's looking good. Bringing things together leaves less to the imagination and starts to show it's particular character.

[BBWW]

Sorry to add this to the thread, but let me lower the bar for intelligent conversation.

Back in my furniture days we'd just build something of quality and then beat the hell out of it with a somewhat heavy chain before staining and finishing it. We called it "distressed". Or maybe it would be like Martin releasing a Willie Nelson Signature Model - with the hole already wore through it, beat up and with lots of cleats and repairs. Obviously neither of these acts would be partiularly Zen or wabi-sabi by nature.

That said, it's always great to regenerate creative juices with a project like this I guess. Intellectually however, it is above my pay grade. Yet I totally get and love Dovetail Madness! :-)

[SJ VanSandt]

I think the guitar shaped object looks brilliant, and this thread is one of the best ever. Thanks to everyone who has contributed.

[Howard Klepper]

Body sanded, dovetail mortise cut, neck mostly fit.

[murrmac123]

Originally Posted by BBWW

Intellectually however, it is above my pay grade.

I don't believe that for one minute.

Nonetheless, IMO Wabi-Sabi isn't so much "intellectual" as it is "spiritual" ... like so much of the Japanese culture.

[riverrummed]

"Erudition and knowledge are not only useless but also cloud your awareness." That from Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen in China, as found in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, translated by Red Pine. The footnotes alone in this little book explain more of Zen and Buddhist concepts to the Western mind than just about anything I've found and make it a gem. Highly recommended, especially if this entire discussion has piqued your interest.