Guys a newbee my latest Guitar can I get some constructive criticisium or a hoot n hauller

[FRANK]

Photos of the newest addition From 2007 I have been cutting walnut trees so I kept a few trees for acoustic guitars this is what I came up with ,#1 I couldn't afford any wood like it the price on this stuff is like $50 a board foot. to me that is money wasted when I live in AG central so here it is .The top is english walnut towards to top upper bouts of the guitar and fiddle back black walnut from just below the upper bout down this is the graft line where the rancher grafted english walnut and black walnut for a hearty sustainable tree with beautiful combination of wood . the sides are black and english mix also ,for the back I used walnut burl check that out . ERI finger board and bridge ,hickory binding the same stuff drummers use for drum stick hard as a rock .1 piece english walnut Neck 24 frets on a 25.5 inch fender scale length and nut width .Inside is true mahogany bracing that I tuned by hand bone nut bone saddle with great string action guitars like this and even more exotic if you Ask.. Grown,raised and Hand Carved right here in Modesto CA

[Murray MacLeod]

Stamping " MADE IN THE USA" on the bridge is certainly different ....many people might be of the opinion that such info more properly belongs on a paper label affixed inside, to the back of the guitar.

[FRANK]

the paper label dose not last as long to tell you the truth I have not printed any yet Murry have any suggestions on Labels ?

[Mark Dobbins]

nice lookin guitar made in usa on bridge detracts from the instrument 

 

[FRANK]

thanks FF

 

[Dave Yelverton]

Hi Frank. Great looking guitars and loved the timber!  I'd personally kill for a supply of your walnut burl!

Whilst it's true that the Made in the USA stamped on the bridge looks rather out of context, I could imagine that it could be a feature on certain guitars as part of an overall style. However, if you want to confine all your information to a label, it's easy enough to print your own (I always have) using Office. I bought in some heavier (90 gsm) yellow parchment effect paper, and separate the labels with a razorblade and straight edge. As I do a different label for each customer it's not really worth me getting a bunch printed.

Dave

[FRANK]

yea I like that thanks Dave for the insight have a wonderful day

[FRANK]

Dave the Burl is out there I picked up 80 acres to clear and I have 1000000000 Luthiers life time supply but some folks get all bent out a shape when I put that out there so hush its our secrete . not to mention I spent 3 years cutting sets for acoustic guitars and have another 20 years of that to do never ending for me

[William F.Eden]

Very nice guitar Frank .By the way if you would like to sell some just put it on E-Bay. Thats what every one else dose. good luck Bill............

[FRANK]

I am to busy for that personally Id like to have someone do that but I just keep hoarding and maby my kids will go to college with the money I,ll get them to E BAY it thanks William

 

[FRANK]

I gota ask how have my fellow Luthiers sold there instruments in the past successfully ? and how have they done it , if you would like to share id be interested ,that is why I want to build is to have the guitars I make out in the world today for peoples enjoyment ?

[Mark McLean]

Hi Frank

That walnut looks just fabulous.  Sounds like you are going to be making nice looking walnut guitars for the forseeable future.  I love the stuff.  Nice job on the whole build.  What finish did you use?

To my eye the saddle looks unusually tall - but maybe it is a trick of that photo.  It can be a problem if the rotational force of the strings acts as a lever against the front of the bridge - can snap out the bridge in front of the saddle slot.  I like to have at least 2/3 of the saddle height down in the slot. Can't find anything else I don't like about it (I wouldn't put the USA label on the bridge - but maybe that is because I build my guitars in Australia). 

Mark

[Hesh Breakstone]

Congrats Frank and she looks great.

 

I have no opinion about stamping "made in USA" on the bridge because I understand in advance what you are referring to and why.  That's the beauty of building your own - we can do what we wish just beware that if the guitar is to be commercially available others may not agree with anything that we do.

 

The one thing that I did want to bring up is that the saddle looks pretty high in the pics which can be problematic in time.  What's the action measure measured at the 12th fret measuring between the bottom of the high e and low E  and the top of the 12th fret and in 64ths of an inch?

 

I'm asking because if you can lower that action and take that saddle down you will have less risk of the saddle splitting the bridge because it's too high.  Neck geometry is key in the guitars that we build and one common measure to get the neck angle right is that with the neck installed and no frets installed (yet) a straight edge placed on top of the fret board should just skim the top of the bridge when the bridge is properly positioned where it should live.  If already fretted the space between the straight edge and the bridge should be about the height of the frets that you used.

 

Other than that congrats and this is a beautiful guitar!  Oh and since you asked selling guitars and when to do so may mean very different things to different folks.  I was taught that it's not a good idea to sell one's guitars until such time as I had the repair chops to service my guitars going forward with just about anything that they could ever need...  This is a pretty high standard and everyone else that I know just builds them and sells them without caring if they can't reset a neck, replace a top, etc.  So you can see it's a personal choice in terms of how qualified the builder is to support one's wares going forward.

 

There is also the issue that we get better as builders with every next guitar that we build.  I personally would not want too many early guitars out there if I was going to do this for a living because it's my reputation on the line too.

 

I waited to sell my own guitars until a couple things gelled for me.  First I did a three year apprenticeship in guitar repair and learned how to service my guitars and everyone elses too....  I did take early guitars and "gave" them to people, often performing musicians who would beat on them all day.  The only thing that I asked in return was for honest feed back over the next several or more years.

 

Lastly once I could service my instruments and the ones in the field had no issues AND people started asking me if they could purchase a guitar from me, an existing guitar not a commission, I sold them a guitar. 

 

But this was me and I tend to be super conservative and kind of approach this stuff like NASA....  Probably my own worst enemy...  But hopefully there is some food for thought here for you Frank.  Again congrats!!