Sexauer/'15

[Bruce Sexauer]

There is certainly a surge in interest in Maple, whether there is a surge in orders remains to be seen in my shop, not to belittle in anyway the lovely piece I have the honor of working on at the moment, but it would be an unusual guitar in any business climate I ve experienced.

I was going to post today's pics, but a fellow came in for a set up, 2 hours went by, and I lost my chance as Bob is ever on the ball!

[Bruce Sexauer]

Originally Posted by ChuckS

Bruce, it must be nice, and rewarding, to be at a point in your career to be able to branch out and work on whatever you want to do. I really enjoy watching the variations you are putting into your builds lately. Thanks for showing us your work.

Surely you have guessed that Bob twisted my arm behind my back . . . And, it is my pleasure!

[frquent flyer]

May the creative energies flow freely on this new L00. Make it pretty and the rest will follow...Please.

[Bruce Sexauer]

Have you forgotten this one? I haven't, and it is time to put it together. It's been curing for a few weeks, and today I finessed the surface of the neck and buffed it! The body should follow quickly.

[Bruce Sexauer]

Saturdays are tough days for me as far as getting ahead in the work is concerned in that is the one day of the week working people are able to visit me in the shop, and they often do. But I DID get something done today, and here are some pictures of the buffed mini-D body. I hope to assemble the neck to it before dinner call. There is no way I am aware of to show the beauty of the patina on this guitar right off the buffer, but I do my best and hope you are all visionaries.







Edited to say; Sheesh, at least I coulda dusted it!

[iim7V7IM7]

But it's such pretty dust...

[tadol]

Just have to pop in and say I was the cause of a bit of Bruces lowered productivity yesterday - Had a wonderful time, it is always a pleasure to see the work in person as these instruments get created.

The walnut and maple were both in finish, so I can't say much other than that as good as the pictures are, they just don't capture the depth and beauty of these guitars. The custom headstock is really sweet - when that comes together, it's gonna be breathtaking -

But since neither of those were playable, I had to "settle" for a recently completed pernambuco FT-L00. But "settle" is definitely the wrong word - this is an amazing guitar, stunning in its response, and tonally, the only way to describe it is "beautiful" - The pernambuco has beautiful color, the old german spruce top, the pernambuco bindings and bridge, just everything about this guitar is beautiful. I wish I had the cash available, but someone is going to get an absolutely stunning instrument - it's definitely amongst the finest guitars he's built. I hope to come back and see the maple and the walnut come together and get strung up - and play that pernambuco a whole lot more.

It was a great visit, and I look forward to doing it again!

[iim7V7IM7]

As Bruce is taking the maple JZ/2 through his finish process over the next 3-4 weeks before assembling and completing it, I thought that I would share some client reflections on my two experiences working with Bruce. Both projects, my '014 and '015 commissions; while different guitars, share some common aspects of the willingness of a luthier to try new things and the trust of a client in their mastery to pull it off. I will add that the experience working together has also been a blast.

I want to point out on both of my commissions with Bruce, is that they both involved guitar designs that he had never done before. He doesn't have "models" like many builders, but a series of body sizes, scale lengths and features that can be configured to meet a client's needs. Since he is one of the few luthiers that I know that works without the need of molds, this plus his experience/mastery allowed him to create a new guitar shape easily. He had never made a Gibson shaped L-00 before. He was able to apply his construction and bracing concepts to make a new guitar. The result is one of the finest guitars that I have experienced. It seems that it was successful exploration, in that another 4 L-00s have been made by Bruce following it!

Now with the JZ/2 (Bruce calls archtops "JZ" and since this only has an arched back we are calling it a JZ/2) project he is bringing to bear his experience making both flattops and archtops to create an unusual guitar. Other luthiers have made carved back flattops (e.g. Buscarino, Blanchard, Santa Cruz etc.) So this is not a totally new concept, but I expect this guitar to have the unique tonal qualities of balance, responsiveness and voice In this one that I have come to expect from Bruce.

I think together, they will make an interesting contrasting pair of fairly unique guitars. One, a modern interpretation of a classic flattop made with the most sustaining resonant tropical hardwood and the other, a more historic, retro looking guitar, made from domestic hardwoods blending the archtop and flattop design concepts.

Looking at them side-by-side at similar stages of their builds provides me some foreshadowing of how they will look side-by-side on my guitar room wall.

[Bruce Sexauer]

A really good luthier/customer relationship, which is what I believe Bob and I have, IS a sort of a mutual admiration society. There are many ways a guitar can be gestated, and at the extremes only one parent is required. Many of mine are like that, I call them spec guitars, where "spec" is short for speculative, and they are great, but for me something happens when there are two parents that brings another level of satisfaction altogether. Perhaps I am simply lonely when alone, but I don't think that's quite it. The other extreme is where a guitar is so completely described by the customer that I barely have the freedom the "do my thing". This is rare, actually, and I have never really felt quite that entrapped, but I know there are plenty of luthiers out there who fear this kind of relationship, and one or two who thrive on it.

The ideal customer is one who has some specific ideas (wood/size/neck dimensions/tonal goals/aesthetic direction) to bring to the party, but leaves the integration and execution to the luthier that they have specifically chosen. And ideally, they will have chosen their luthier because they have seen the work and found it to be Good, and they have talked to the luthier enough to have felt a kinship in aesthetics and social graces, and generally a philosophical alignment. And it cannot be over stressed that this feeling should be mutual. Bob and I have this to an unusual degree.

Nearly every customer I have had has some level of this alignment with me, or at least I think so, and I have to assume they think so or they wouldn't get involved. Even when someone buys a guitar of mine that already exists, they are getting a genuine piece of my heart, and the degree to which they can experience the truth of that is the degree to which they can truly love their guitar. When we actually build a guitar together as "parents" it is pretty much impossible for the father (yes, I am usually the "mother") not to have a deep and fulfilling relationship with the outcome.

One of the skills I have consciously worked to develop over the years is to foster the relationship with my customer in the direction I am describing. To give them the tools to describe their guitar if they haven't yet brought it into focus. I sometimes refer to this as reaching inside them and pulling out the guitar that hides within them. Sometimes a more indirect approach works better, where we simply spend what time we can chatting until I get of sense of what they want, and then describe it to them. Then the vision can be tweaked as necessary, if necessary, and we're off. Or not, but that is surprisingly rare, because it is the relationship reflected in the guitar that is what is special, and most people recognize by this point in our conversation that they are already getting some of the benefits I am describing, and that it is the tip of the iceberg . . . I mean guitar.

Like most of what I say, this was a spontaneous outpouring, and I hope I will think I said it well enough when I read it down the line. It is new ground for me to describe customer relations at this level, but Bob's last post inspired me to try.

I spent the day in the garden working with Linda, my wife, and then got distracted by the mini-D and prepared the finger board for inlay. It's geometry is exactly as I hoped, which is never a given after the neck actually goes on, so I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Time for supper.

[Bruce Sexauer]

I expect to make the bridge and glue it onto the Mini-D today, then tomorrow strings, with luck.

Here are the GrandTune Gold/Galaith tuners, evidence of the frets, and the latest rendition of my ubiquitous birds.

[Bruce Sexauer]

I have spent part of the morning playing the new Mini-D, and have put it in the case where I hope to keep it pristine till it gets to Memphis. There will still be the final cleaning and polishing, that will be necessary if for no other reason than than I will play it some, and probably force any visitors to give it a spin as well.

I used ebony for the bridge, and Tortoise TorTis for the PG. The case is a Hoffee first gen (my favorite) I had laying around, which you may recall is why I chose to make this style guitar in the first place.







The ebony FB looks a lot blacker out of direct sun, not to mention relatively polished up!

[Treenewt]

Bruce, that is gorgeous! Well done!

[jazzbone]

What a beauty! I'd love to compare it to mine. I'm sure it will be a hit in Memphis.

[iim7V7IM7]

Somebody in Memphis in in for a treat!

[frquent flyer]

I am hoping you may come across a good condition older Hoffee that will carry my L00 when its completed. Tom