Cool Luthier Sites

[Ben]

I'll add

http://www.garageguitars.com/gateway.html

especially these: http://www.garageguitars.com/galleryguitars1.html

[tirapop]

Ben,

Those Totem guitars remind me a lot of Girl Brand: Tele shaped, very artsy... and they've both sold guitars to Henry Kaiser. Taking found objects and casting them in clear resin reminds me too much of "crafts" in the '70s and nautically themed restaurants (with shells and sand-dollars). I'm sure they're using the good "tone" resin. They look pretty cool.

Mick,

In that Byrd interview, he says:

My first prototypes used the Standard individual slots routed for the pickups. Fender had begun creating what was called the bathtub route in some of the Floyd Rose Strats they sent me in the 1990s in an attempt to overcome the problem of the massive locking bridges sucking the tone out of the guitar. It made the guitar sound better, and I reasoned that if this improved the sound of a guitar with a locking tremelo, it ought to make a good sounding guitar with a standard tremelo sound even better.

I thought Fender went to the bathtub route for economic reasons- quicker to route and interchangeable for all pickup configurations that use a pickguard. Yeah and other people swear that the bathtub is a tone killer. I don't think you're going to find concensus on any aspect of guitar design. I'm surprised Byrd doesn't advertise this detail on his website... he could call it the Jacuzzi-Route™.

[Robert Irizarry]

I thought Fender went to the bathtub route for economic reasons- quicker to route and interchangeable for all pickup configurations that use a pickguard. Yeah and other people swear that the bathtub is a tone killer. I don't think you're going to find concensus on any aspect of guitar design. I'm surprised Byrd doesn't advertise this detail on his website... he could call it the Jacuzzi-Route™.

I was curious about Byrd's bathtub route comments as well. He uses a very thick pickguard (plexi I think) and I suppose it could act as a tone chamber. I'm actually very curious about this...

However, you're probably right about the bathtub route being an economic thing. As to how it would rob tone, I'm not so sure. The pickups are already suspended in plastic. Can removing a bit more wood that never comes in contact with the pickups anyway make that much difference?

[Mickguard]

Can removing a bit more wood that never comes in contact with the pickups anyway make that much difference?

This another one where you'll get three sides of the story --I've read some luthiers who claim that the extra routing adds more resonance, like a semi-hollowbody.

As for the setneck vs bolton thing...I had the idea that it might be possible to build a hybrid joint --say you only glued part of it in, the rest of it makes direct wood on wood contact. You'd get the best of both worlds and shut up both sides of the argument

[tirapop]

"Tone" is wonderfully ill defined. When a lot of people go on and on about tone, rightly or wrongly, they're talking about sustain. Maybe this is because guitar with less sustain, the desireable elements of their tone decay more quickly.

Anyway, sustain is all about energy transfer from the strings to the body... the slower the transfer, the more sustain. Greater mass and greater stiffness reduce string energy transfer. Less internal dampening also improves sustain. That all happens between the tuners and the bridge.

For bolt-on necks, tight fitting neck pockets are desirable because they're stiffer. The compression load of the string on the neck bears directly from the neck to the body, instead of being cantilevered through narrow more flexible bolts. Neck through guitars are supposed to be superior because there's continuous wood from tuners to bridge.

The rap against the bathtub route, with a trem, is that between the bathtub and the spring cavity, is a thin wafer of wood. The forces on the neck go around the bathtub and the spring cavity, into the "wings" of the body and then shear back into the chunk of wood the trem is bolted to. There is a little of this with a conventional 3 pickup route, but, the standard route is stiffer and more neck load takes the direct path to the bridge and should have greater sustain.

Tone is a very subjective thing. There's lots of ill formed opinions about what makes or destroys tone. Some people rail against glue as some kind of tone poison. Acoustic instruments are held together with glue, have their voices shaped with glued on pieces, and glue comprises a much larger part of their structural weight than even the cheapest solid body electrics. I haven't heard a chorus of people bemoaning their tone-less Martins.

There are some pretty large variations in the tone of wood, within the same species, within the same log. Some chunks ring and others thud. If luthiers don't do controlled experiments, to isolate the effects of construction details from variations in their materials, then their result and their conclusions won't be definitive.

[Mickguard]

This guy should definitely be on the list: Specimen

[Nitefly SA]

http://www.specimenproducts.com/instru/moule2.html this seem like an easily mastered instrument.

[Robert Irizarry]

http://www.specimenproducts.com/instru/moule2.html this seem like an easily mastered instrument.

Maybe I should build my first guitar this way...

[Robert Irizarry]

Here's another cool luthier site:

Veillette Guitars - I found the construction details on the acoustic/electrics particularly interesting - Note the use of a single bolt to hold the guitar neck in place and the use of the easily removeable wooden bridge/tailpiece.

[komodo]

Definitely +1 for jerzy Drozd and for Black Machine. I think both of those are the bomb.

Here a few more, not necessarily my favs, just ones i didn't see here or missed.

http://www.heatleyguitars.com/

http://www.kbguitars.com/index.html

http://www.hguitars.com/

http://www.seibass.com/

http://www.spaltbasses.com/

http://www.auerswald-instruments.com/

http://www.thornguitars.com/

http://www.driskillguitars.com/

http://www.nathansheppardguitars.com/

http://www.mike-sabre.com/uk/menu.htm

http://www.teuffelguitars.de/index.html

http://www.parkerguitars.com/

Parker has nice website design (and guitar).

Forgive me if I have duplicated any of these someone else may have posted.

KOMODO

[GregP]

Veillette guitars remind me of Myka guitars.

[westhemann]

i can't believe you guys have not posted http://www.abyssguitars.com/

[Tiny Tim]

Here is one of my favorites

http://www.nealmoser.com/mcsguitarindex.htm

[Geetarded]

I passed through Hamilton Ontario once and came across this guys instruments:

Very cool basses

This finish absolutely floored me when I saw it in the store but pictures don't do it justice:

Black and White Ceruse Finish

The swamped ash is dyed black and the open grain is filled with a coloured grain filler.

[thegarehanman]

I love that black and white finish. It's a hard one to get right, and I can say that from experience.

peace,

russ

[goat]

you know you like `em

http://litchfieldguitars.tripod.com/home/index.html

[westhemann]

AACCCHHHH!!!!!

[cherokee6]

Did anyone mention this guy before? He uses ancient wood with sediment, amber, etc stuck in it. Must be rough on tools!

http://www.guitar.net.nz/index.html

[drbassman]

Here's a fellow that lives in my town. He does work on my vintage basses and he's great. He also builds a really beautiful guitar too!

Lehmann Guitars

Edited January 24, 2007 by drbassman

[cherokee6]

Here's a fellow that lives in my town. He does work on my vintage basses and he's great. He also builds a really beautiful guitar too!

Lehmann Guitars

Being a bit of a follower of lo-imp stuff (see my LPR in the pic), i came across his stuff. Very innovative! Would like to try some of his pups someday, though.

[marksound]

Here's one. Ok, it's not exactly cool--in fact, it's kinda cheesy. And it's not exactly a "luthier" site, but more like a repair shop site. But he does good work, and he's like 2 blocks away from me right now.

Warner's Guitar Shop

[goat]

AACCCHHHH!!!!!

But "Both guitars will become collestor's items"

[rhoads56]

But "Both guitars will become collestor's items"

But "Both guitars became mollestor'd items"

[Geetarded]

Here's another luthier:

TIMTONE GUITARS

I really admire the quality of this guy's necks:

3 Necks

Neck Closeup

Edited January 26, 2007 by Geetarded

[Robert Irizarry]

Here's one - Toone Guitars.

BTW - Great to see this thread revived!

Regards,

Rob