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The Building ProcessIn the summer of 1997 I built a guitar for my very first customer. After I had placed a flyer in my school's teacher workroom, one of my fellow English teachers kindly distributed copies of the flyer (unbeknownst to me) to members of the adult ed guitar class she was taking, and one of those members commissioned me to build a guitar for him! He wanted a dreadnought with abalone top purfling, lots of green, a rose and a bird (he lives in a section of town called the "Rosegarden" and has birdhouses), and a uniquely-shaped peghead and bridge. He also thought it would be neat (after discovering I had a digital camera) if I would take pictures of the building of his guitar, every step along the way. I thought that would be a fun idea, too. After the guitar was built, I somehow figured out how to put all his guitar photos onto a videotape in a sort of "slide show," and I presented it to him later. He was tickled. It was helpful for me, too. I can look back at any time at the photos and review, critique, and figure out how to improve upon the different tasks of building my guitars. Perhaps, too --- especially for those of you who are considering building your very first guitar --- it will be of benefit to you, by giving a brief glimpse into some of the steps involved in the process. By no means is this an exhaustive or definitive description (I'm still an amateur, and sometimes I forgot to take pictures!) ----- but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway! |