Inside The Firstact Custom Shop On Diy Network

[crafty]

Hey, tonight I watched an episode of a show on the DIY Network about the FirstAct Custom Shop building up a guitar for Henry Garza of Los Lonely Boys. Looks like it's going to air again next week:

Handmade Music

There's also an article summarizing the episode:

Article

Set your TiVos!

[Mickguard]

Set your TiVos!

And then upload a torrent for us out-o-towners!

[Guitarfrenzy]

I watched it last night, it was pretty good. I didn't have time to TIVO it though, as I only turned it on halfway through the program. I'll record it though when it comes back on again. It was interesting, and I'm always take the chance to watch guitar companies work.

[Robert Irizarry]

Cool stuff - I've seen them build some acoustic intruments on the show before but this is more in line with my interests. However, the resulting electric is ugly, IMHO. Thank goodness for all the pretty ones right here on PG...

[crafty]

Yeah, the guitar didn't exactly blow me away for being a so-called "custom shop" instrument. A few things I found funny:

1. "We aren't limited to just building a modified guitar based on one of our current designs." Then proceeds to use the same body shape, pickups, and headstock shape used in FA's current lineup

2. "We don't have any CNCs or anything like that around here. It's all handmade" Then proceeds to use a CAD program to design the whole guitar, laser cut the templates, a pin router to cut the basic shapes, and a duplicarver for the neck.

3. "The best finish for a custom guitar is nitrocellulose laquer. You have to let it sit around for a couple weeks to dry, and we sand between each coat." I'm not even going to touch that one.

4. "On a custom instrument, details are everything. Here we're painting on the binding to make it look like an electric bajo-sexto." Why not use real binding?

[Mickguard]

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[verhoevenc]

Someone get Scott French in here for the low down. He used to be one of their custom build guys. From what I've talked to him about he had a good time there, thought it was quality, and a good job to have. However, I don't remember our whole conversation and it was awhile ago. Someone PM him and get him in here maybe to clear things up?

Chris

[crafty]

Yeah, in saying that I found some of Kelly's statements sort of funny and ironic, I'm not trying to say I thought their quality was BAD. It looks like a cool shop that makes good stuff, but it was starting to get a little Ed Romanesque at times, you know?

Painting the back of a flamed maple headstock black when the front has been veneered did seem like some sort of crime, but I guess it's their signature look, too.

[Mickguard]

Yeah, in saying that I found some of Kelly's statements sort of funny and ironic, I'm not trying to say I thought their quality was BAD. It looks like a cool shop that makes good stuff, but it was starting to get a little Ed Romanesque at times, you know?

Painting the back of a flamed maple headstock black when the front has been veneered did seem like some sort of crime, but I guess it's their signature look, too.

(deleted after reading Scott French's reply)

[Scott French]

The new custom guitars I've seen are made in the same shop as the Artist guitars. As far as I know none of the players are paid anything, but many get their guitars for free.

All the vintage/nitro/paint stuff is carried over from Kelly and Bill's history at the Gibson custom shop. I'm not really into the vintage vibe stuff but its working for those guys and they want to build instrument their players will be comfortable with. This is the same kind of stuff you hear from all the vintage instrument guys.

When I was there the copy carver was just being setup. I was the only one doing anything on a computer as far as design and that was just Illustrator lines, no CAD stuff.

Kelly Butler and First Act are great people to work with and for. If there was more room for me to stretch my legs creatively I probably wouldn't have left.

[Drak]

To be honest, I didn't like the final guitar much at all, personal taste I rekon...and I think I do the 'southwestern' thing/look way better than they do, all Bajo Sexto affiliations aside, IMO.

[crafty]

To be honest, I didn't like the final guitar much at all, personal taste I rekon...and I think I do the 'southwestern' thing/look way better than they do, all Bajo Sexto affiliations aside, IMO.

I think your Floydbird is a much better interpretation of the double-cut Iceman look, too.

But hey, it's all about personal taste. Personally, I like the feel of a nitro-finish guitar BUT I like the look of a poly-finished guitar much better. Now that I know those guys came over from the Gibson Custom Shop, their design philosophy makes a lot more sense. Real bajo-sexto style binding would have looked much cooler, though, and I know that a couple of luthiers from Gibson could have done that in their sleep.

I still don't understand why you'd paint a flame maple headstock black and then use a clear finish on an Alder body, but that's just me

[ihocky2]

I watched the show and there were a couple things that rubbed me wrong. I could be wrong but I have always read that any type of figured maple is going to be weaker for a neck. You get a nice look, but you lose the hardness of plain figured hard maple. But Kelly was saying they were usign flame maple for the strength. The other thing with the neck that bothered me was that instead of using a scarf joint, they just cut the neck and angled peg head from a large blank. You now have a lot of unsupported end grain. I also wasn't big on the finished look.

Overall, I think there are a number of guys on this site that can build as good or better instruments with less specialized tools.

[Mickguard]

The other thing with the neck that bothered me was that instead of using a scarf joint, they just cut the neck and angled peg head from a large blank. You now have a lot of unsupported end grain.

I have a guitar here with an angled headstock cut from a single-piece blank, no volute, and it's a pencil neck besides...the guitar is 41 years old this year, it's been dropped and bumped around, flown across the world, and even thrown across a stage a couple of times ...it's still in one piece.

Sure, I know that there are tons of headstock breaks out there, I've read about them, seen the pictures too...but still...it makes no sense to wet your pants over the idea...I've personally seen three scarf-jointed necks fail at their joints, all guitars owned by people I know...

I have to believe that those headstocks didn't snap off all by themselves.

[crafty]

I watched the show and there were a couple things that rubbed me wrong. I could be wrong but I have always read that any type of figured maple is going to be weaker for a neck. You get a nice look, but you lose the hardness of plain figured hard maple. But Kelly was saying they were usign flame maple for the strength. The other thing with the neck that bothered me was that instead of using a scarf joint, they just cut the neck and angled peg head from a large blank. You now have a lot of unsupported end grain. I also wasn't big on the finished look.

Overall, I think there are a number of guys on this site that can build as good or better instruments with less specialized tools.

The neck was made out of quartersawn wood. It's not breaking unless you jump on it hard. Most flamed maple is cut quartersawn, too, so whatever strength you lose in the slightly weaker wood is made up for in the orientation of the grain.

[fryovanni]

I am not sure how much strength you lose with figured wood. I have heard the general statement, but never seen it quantified. I did see an example of some very wide band curly redwood that showed how much runout can occur at the curl. It was interesting, and significant as I had never really thought much about it. With finer curl you would definately have runout but it would be less significant as the curls turn over quicker and not have the same depth so to say. Maybe a good description would be to think of slicing a large wave in the middle.

Peace,Rich

[ihocky2]

I have a guitar here with an angled headstock cut from a single-piece blank, no volute, and it's a pencil neck besides...the guitar is 41 years old this year, it's been dropped and bumped around, flown across the world, and even thrown across a stage a couple of times ...it's still in one piece.

Sure, I know that there are tons of headstock breaks out there, I've read about them, seen the pictures too...but still...it makes no sense to wet your pants over the idea...I've personally seen three scarf-jointed necks fail at their joints, all guitars owned by people I know...

I have to believe that those headstocks didn't snap off all by themselves.

I'm not doubting that the full cut out piece without a scraf joint will not work and is going to instantly fail. I'm just basing my opinions on everything I have read. Articles on the net, chapters in books, and blurbs in magazines all say that scraf joints are stronger. And I will admit that one failure books have, is that they are written by people who were taught one thing and thats is what they pass on. Ash, alder, and mahoganny are the standards for building guitars, so everyone assumes that what you have to use. Budding builders are also engrained with the standard designs and rarely vary from them. Without trying things you never know how well they will work.

I did miss that they said it was from quartersawn wood. I had fliiped during commercials and must have just missed that segment. It does raise a good question though. How much strength is actually lost to figured wood, and how much figure must there be before there is a significant loss in strength?

[Mickguard]

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[ihocky2]

Correct me if I'm interpretting this wrong, but are you saying that Gibson does not use a scarf joint? I've never really looked at Gibson guitars because they just never really caught my interest. I'm not a fan of the Les Paul design, I absolutely hate the look of the SG and I prefer the look of the pointy Vee's. I always assumed that they were scarf joints.

I know the main factor in a scarf joints strength is in how well the joint is matched. Even it is even slightly off, the joint will be weak. And that is one of the main down falls of a scarf joint. If they are preparedly properly, they are very strong. If they are not however, you are relying on just the glue to hold up.

[Mickguard]

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