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#32
12-12-2012, 07:25 AM
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1.) he is a very kindly grandfather type that two people who have spoken with him on the phone so far have relayed to me wants to talk quite a lot. 2.) his explanations about what he does are frequently disjointed comments that leave you scratching your head. 3.) he is highly critical of his building record, ie: "out of 40 guitars I'd say half of them were good" 4.) he is incredibly humble with no trace of ego concerning his work. 5.) he has never considered himself to be in the guitar building business in any way shape or form 6.) he doesn't acknowledge any praise of his work no matter how many times I have stressed how everyone who plays my dread is impressed with it. I'd sum it up by saying he is unusual to say the least. The absentminded professor stereotype on steroids. He apparently can afford to build with decent materials out of his own pocket and has no concern for seeing any form of return on his investment. That was good for me and the other two people so far I've helped acquire his guitars. We have gotten fine instruments at prices we could easily afford. In my case, I have a dread I feel surpasses my Martin D28 Custom for a $370 total cash outlay. He has no intention of ever trying to become the least bit prolific with his lutherie. He uses going "down into my basement to build a guitar" as a major stress reliever in his life. When I get to add the OM to my collection, I will be set for the rest of my life with all the guitars I could ever need or want. They will make a very nice inheritance to my two guitar playing sons someday. 
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#33
12-12-2012, 09:17 AM
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Dave - got it. The builder is happy to have those who treasure the results of his hobby, and you are lucky to enjoy his work and to compliment that work by enjoying it - whether he agrees with comments made or not!
Most of us went "generic" or "universal" in answering your questions - and the answers for hobby builders is quite different than the answers for professional builders who depend on each build to be as good as they can make it but also to be their "marketing tool" as long as it lasts. I think that many of the pro luthiers would make the decision to start over or rework if they reached a point in the build that hadn't turned out to be part of a guitar they would like to finish. So - although most would not reach the end of the build and be surprised and faced with what to do with a sub-standard whole, they might very well finish some major component and decide it was not up to the standard and rework that component. Thanks for the notes back clarifying, and I understand. It's Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer's whitewashed fence observation. If a man is paid to build a guitar, it's work. If he does it for the pleasure, it's play. Cheers, Phil
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#34
12-12-2012, 10:25 AM
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I ordered an R. Taylor with Cocobolo B/S. They emailed me some photos of different sets, and I picked the one I wanted. Later, I got a call from my local dealer informing me that while they were thickness-planing the back, they found a soft spot that would not plane out. Rather than complete the build and create problems down the road, they "scrapped" the set I had chosen and sent me some new photos. I picked another set and the build was completed.
My dealer and I joked that "scrapped" would probably wind up as a Uke or something. Maybe even a bunch of those high-end money clips Taylor sells.
__________________
Dogs prefer finger-pickers over flat-pickers 35-to-1 because we give the very best back scratches!
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#35
12-12-2012, 01:53 PM
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I had a problem similar to John Mayes' once. I built an experimental guitar that was badly damaged by the airline when I took it to a luthier's convention. Years later I gave it to a friend, on the condition that he play it to death and not sell it. A year or two later I got a call from somebody who'd bought it from a local store, and wanted me to do some repair work on it. *sigh*
I'm convinced that most successful luthiers do some sort of 'voicing', whether they think they do or not. You can't help but hear the way things respond as you work on them, and after a while you'd more than likely start to remember which ones turned out better and make some connections, even if it was not consciously. Many of us have more structured ways of voicing, at various stages of construction. We all tend to feel that our way works pretty well, and the other guys' methods are for the birds. It's entirely possible that none of them really work, and that we're all like the guys who say they don't voice; we've just got enough experience that we tend to make a decent instrument no matter the methods we use. It can happen that a guitar will sound bad when it's first strung up, and then improve. I almost threw my first archtop out into the snow when I first strung it up, but fortunately I just left it on the bench and went to bed. Good thing: the guy who owns it loves it. It also can happen that a guitar one person likes is just the one somebody else hates. 'Bad' has to be determined by the customer, whoever that turns out to be.
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#36
12-12-2012, 02:21 PM
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Just Kidding, I completlely agree with you that everyone does it whether they realise it or not and who knows if it works or not. No one ever will really know. Thats part of the fun. 
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