On The Bench

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T09:29:00.000-08:00

Well, it is the end of 2011. So it’s time for my annual Happy New Year blog post. It has been a really great year for Clay Conner Guitars. I feel very fortunate to be able to make a living doing what I love in such a rough economy. Many thanks go out to my friends at Guru Guitars. They continue to run a great shop and keep me buried in repair work! Check out their website at www.guruguitarshop.com. Better yet buy a vintage guitar or amp from them! You won’t be sad.As I sit here trying to catalog all of the news worthy items that have transpired this year, I’m finding it hard to sort through everything. So much has happened and so many ideas have floated through my head over the past year it seems like one big blur. The custom guitar side of Clay Conner Guitars has been growing slowly and steadily, but it has done so largely on its own. I have been so busy with the repair work for Guru that I haven’t had much time to work on promoting my own instruments. Somehow amidst all of the chaos, I’ve have managed to produce and sell a few guitars.One of the big highlights of 2011 was our very successful trip up to the Montreal Guitar Show. It was my first time exhibiting at a major international exposition. I was honored to be a part of it! My instruments got a lot of attention, I met a lot of great people, and sold a guitar! It was a great experience and definitely the kind of exposure I need. I’ve been invited back for the 2012 show, and I’m looking forward to the trip!Over the last couple of months, I have been thinking a bit about what goals to set for 2012. The obvious goal is more sales...but ideas of balance and sustainability have been rattling around my head for most of 2011. One of the down sides to doing repair work is that the thousands of guitars that cross my bench serve as constant reminders of just how many instruments already exist. There seems to be a never ending flood of guitar companies churning out product. I occasionally get to the point of wondering why I need to add my own screaming to the noise of it all. I recently watched a documentary about Ayrton Senna, one of the worlds greatest Formula One racing drivers. After winning his first world championship, he was asked by his mother when he was going to stop racing, he answered: “I can’t stop.” I’m paraphrasing, but I kind of feel the same way about my guitar building...I can’t stop. So the question for 2012 is: How do I grow this business into a company that I enjoy running, which creates thoughtful and meaningful products with minimal impact on the planet, and still be able to pay my bills? I don’t know that I will be able to figure all of this out in just one year...but 2012 will be all about moving in that direction.On a practical level, We’ve finally updated the website. www.clayconnerguitars.com The new site is much more dynamic and it is easy for me to make changes and updates so check back occasionally. The blog,www.projectsonthebench.blogspot.com has been moved over and included in the new site. This will be the last post here at blogger...So check for new posts on the blog button of the website. As always, many thanks go out to everybody who has bought a guitar, inquired about a guitar, sent us an email, joined us on Facebook or Twitter, told a friend about us, or sent us happy thoughts from afar. We are very grateful! Happy New Year!Clay www.clayconnerguitars.comwww.facebook.com/clayconnerguitars

Old Guitars (and a new one) Update

2011-12-02T04:44:00.000-08:00

Well, I told myself I wouldn't start this blog with a lament about how much time has past since my last post....so...er... let's just jump right into it.For those of you who follow the blog, you know that I have taken on a couple of major rebuilds lately. This past month has been all about reconstruction and restoration. Here is a progress report: After numerous patches and interior work that is hard to take pictures of, the 1956 Martin is about ready for finish. The old pearl ovals inlayed on the peghead are no more. I found some wood that matched pretty well and after some careful work it's looking pretty good...and I didn't screw up the logo. Hooray! Spraying the finish will be tricky though!

Removing and patching the extra fingerboard inlay was pretty straight forward. I had some nice ebony which matched pretty well. Here it is back to the original inlay pattern. After the new frets are installed it should look great!

The back is stripped, loose binding is glued. Everything is starting to look much better.

Here's the body and neck, ready for finish. The top is still pretty rough looking, Unfortunately the play-wear is pretty extensive. I didn't feel that I could clean it up completely without make the top too thin. With a new bridge and pickguard it should look good when it's all done.

Hotrodders have a term I remember from growing up...Resto-rod. As I recall a Resto-rod is a vintage car which looks from the outside to be original. On the inside however, many of the major components have been modernized for comfort and performance reasons. This is the idea which kept coming back to me as I worked on the old Henry L Mason Parlor guitar.Information on this guitar is pretty scarce. From what I can tell it was probably made around 1890 or so. What ever the manufacture date was, the old parlor guitar is very different now! Just for reference, here is the old top. The bracing pattern was designed before steel strings were popular. Even in good shape, it would not standup to the tension of modern acoustic guitar strings.

Here is the new top. I'm sure you can see the difference. In this photo the braces are rough...

To tune the top, I trim and shave the braces. Here the top is almost ready.

On the body, I had to fill in the areas where the old braces met the linings.

Once the linings were all patched and cleaned up, I re-notched them for the new bracing pattern.

Ready to glue the top on!

New top...ready for some finish.

A few coats of lacquer makes everything shiney.

After sanding and buffing, it was time to set the neck.

And then install the new bridge..

The neck was badly bowed. So I pulled the frets, trued up the fingerboard and..

Installed new frets. Then the it was the moment of truth...Strings!

The Henry L Mason lives again! I'm very happy with the way it turned out. It is a lovely little guitar...and it's for sale!Email me if you are interested (connerguitars@gmail) or contact the guys at Guru Guitars (www.guruguitarshop.com).I also finished up the new 504 Jazz jr. Here are a couple of photos. It's for sale as well.

Thanks for reading the blog! Talk to you all soon!Clay

Old Guitars

2011-10-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

It's astonishing how quickly October has dissappeared! I can't believe it has been over a month since my last post. As we careen headlong into the holiday season, it's time for a quick update. I had planned to post a bunch of pictures of the custom builds I have going, but to be honest I've spent most of the last month puzzling over repairs at Guru Guitars. Sometimes the repair load is pretty easy to punch through. I've gotten fairly efficient and comfortable with the quick setups, electronic fixes, and refrets which usually comprise our repair backlog. Every once in a while you get a project which requires some thought. About a month ago a very thought provoking repair came in...the complete restoration of a 1956 Martin D-28. The current owner said it once belonged to Doc Watson. I have no idea if that is true. I also have no way to verify the authenticity of his claim. the only thing I do know is that the guitar was in very bad shape. For a week or two, I kept looking at it on the list. Occasionally, I would take the guitar out if it's case and after turning the instrument over in my hand a few times, I would gently place it back in its musty home. I can't quite explain my unease with this project. Perhap it's the dilapidated state of the instrument. It might also be that Martins from the 50's in good condition often have a five figure price tag. The truth is, I am a procrastinator by nature and have lived with this affliction for some years now....I recognize the signs. In the immortal words of countless movitational desk calendars..."The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." The point is I finally started...this is the chronicle of my adventure thus far:Here's the guitar on day one. Despite having had at least three different pickguards on it at one time, the top is gouged out pretty badly from heavy picking. Yes, that is plaster covering the area where the bridge once was. FYI whatever problem you may encounter with an acoustic guitar top...I can assure you that plaster is not the answer. The good news is, the top is not cracked.

For some unknown reason, somebody "inlyayed" mother of pearl ovals on the peghead (I say that in quotes because they are half inlayed/half stuck on). At any rate they will have to be removed and filled with wood to match the original. My main concern with this operation is that one of them is very close to the logo. If I damage the logo during the filling process, whatever value the guitar has left will be significantly reduced.

The same hap-hazard inlay artist got hold of the fingerboard. I'll need to remove and fill the strange square-ish inlays and the randomly placed dot at the 7th fret

At some point, a previous owner attempted to remove the original finish from this guitar. They used some sort of stripper, which half worked on the back but ran down the sides of the guitar bubbling the finish badly. Usually, refinishing a valuable vintage guitar is a no-no, but the owner wanted it done. Given the state of this guitar it's probably not a bad idea.

Before I got to work stripping the remaining bits of old finish off I needed to fix this some loose binding. This is the worst of it. The binding has shrunk significantly over the years! Luckily, with some warm air and gentle persuasion I was able to stretch it back into shape and glue it down.

Just a photo of the the neck block. It looks like someone tried to change the model Number at some point. Our best guess is that this is a D-28

I was able to dissolve most of the plaster with some water and some gentle scubbing. In the process I uncovered some places where the top badly torn out. They will need to be patched in if the new bridge has any hope of staying glued on!

Here's a photo of the top after I stripped it. Oh yeah, before any of this stripping started I removed the neck. I forgot to take pictures though...sorry! Part of this restoration includes resetting the neck and installing new frets.

With the neck removed, the binding fixed and the finish stripped. I got to work gluing loose braces. Most of the back braces were loose. The top braces seem to be hanging in there. There are some issues with the bridge plate, which is a piece of hardwood (in this case Maple) on the inside of the top underneath the bridge area. It is badly worn and probably should be replaced. Unfortunately, looks as though someone might have tried to repair it with some sort of epoxy. I'm afraid removing it might cause a lot of damage. I'm still pondering plan B. stay tuned!

With the hide glue pot cooking away for Martin project, I felt like it might be a good time to work on my old Parlor guitar. It only took a few minutes to remove the crumbling top. Here is the body with the top removed.

Here is the inside of the old top. Look how lightly it is braced! It's no wonder it self destructed! That long horizontal piece of wood with the six small holes drilled through it is the bridge plate FYI.

The old top next to the new one. The old top is Adirondack Spruce, but I only had Sitka tops in the shop. I briefly contemplated ordering an Adirondack top but in the end I decided to use Sitka instead. It is a little lighter in color, but it should sound nice!

I did my best to match the rosette with the stuff I had on hand. It's pretty close!

Finally, I made a mold to keep the body in check while the top is removed. I'll need to patch in some of the linings where the old braces were notched in. There are also a couple of loose back braces. Next week I'll get to work bracing the new top, If I have time!

Back in the 21st Century...I sprayed the new 504 Jazz Jr. from the last blog post. The finish is curing and it should be a guitar in a couple of weeks. Here are a couple of photos I snapped before finish.

This guitar will be for sale. If you are interested please shoot me an email. connerguitars@gmail.com

As always, Thanks for reading the blog!P.S. We are in the process of updating the website www.clayconnerguitars.com. Some wacky stuff is going on, and the site has been up and down. Sorry! I hope we'll get it sorted out soon! As always if you have any questions feel free to email me.

Current Events

2011-09-16T04:33:00.000-07:00

Well, the last couple of blogs have been a bit wordy. So, I thought that it was time to get back to the pictures. The repair load at Guru Guitars continues to take up most of my time, but here are some shots of projects I have going on the side.A number of years ago I was given this old parlor guitar. The stamp inside the body says Henry L.Mason, who is a maker I'm not familiar with. There is some speculation on the interwebs that these guitars may have been built by the Mason and Hamlin piano company, but I have been unable to verify that. If any one out there has any info I would love to hear it. Based on the bracing pattern I think it was built in the late 1800/early 1900's. It's in pretty bad shape but I've always wanted to resurrect it. It's a simple guitar with minimal appointments but it should be a fun one when it's all together.

The top has quite a few cracks.

The neck is loose.

In fact, It didn't take much to get it out of the dovetail.

The back and sides are in pretty good shape so the plan at this point is to remove the old top and make a new one. The old top has and antiquated style of bracing which was designed before steel strings became popular. The new top will have a more modern X-brace for use with steel strings. It should sound great! Stay tuned!

In addition to the parlor guitar project I have two custom builds going.The first is a 504 Semi-Hollow with fanned frets for a customer in Japan. Here are some in progress shots.The body and neck are made from Korina. Here is a picture of the chambering on the inside of the body.

This guitar has a Quilted Maple top. Here's the top fit into the body before carving.

...and the top with a rough carve.

another shot.

Here's the guitar with the top glued in. The f-hole is inlayed and cut out and decorative purfling is installed around the top. The fingerboard is Macassar Ebony. There is still a lot of work to do but things are looking good!

Finally one more 504. I've been calling it the 504 Jazz Jr. It is an exercise in simplicity. I've had this idea in my head for a while now for a simple, clean guitar which I could produce fairly easily. I was afraid that it might end up being too bland, but I think there are enough details on this to make it cool.

This guitar will have an inlayed pickguard, a simple tailpiece with a floating archtop style bridge and a Johnny Smith neck pickup. The body and neck are Korina. The fingerboard and all of the appointments are Honduras Rosewood.

Well, that's all for now, I'll keep you posted as all of these projects develop. Thanks for reading the blog!

Alcatraz

2011-08-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I peruse the internet in search of inspiration. Lately I have been checking out other luthiers’ websites in an attempt to gather ideas for updates to my own site. I’ve begun to notice a pattern. Inevitably there is a photo of the builder in a spotless workshop. Often he is standing in front of an immaculately organized workbench full of expensive chisels and other hand tools. I’m always envious. Since the day I began to dream about becoming a guitarmaker I have envisioned working in the type of shops I see on the web. Perfectly organized, full of light, perhaps poised peacefully in a picturesque valley, gazing up through the mist to a majestic mountaintop. Or, Maybe nestled on the third floor of some old industrial building in a rough but up and coming neighborhood close to heart of downtown. I envisioned musicians coming and going. Downstairs, a quirky coffee shop staffed by cute artistic baristas with tattoos. I’m sure that there are a few Luthiers who have managed to make this kind of romantic vision into reality, I am not one of them.

During one of my recent excursions into the world wide web, I stumbled across video of a young builder peacefully assembling one of his acoustic guitars. His jigs and fixtures were beautifully crafted, and he deftly fit the top and back to his instrument with a quiet grace. I have always aspired to work with this careful and calm precision. In my mind this attitude has always been the trademark of a professional at work, but try as I might I never seem to quite make it to that peaceful place. It’s possible that something way down deep in my psyche thrives on chaos and is only motivated by terror. I’m pretty sure that way back at the dawn of time, when the first bit of ooze slurped it’s way onto tierra firma my amoeba self sat on it’s amoeba couch marveling “Wow! Check out the big brain on Jimmy! He just pulled himself out of the water! How awesome is that!” Perhaps it was only when an evolved ‘Jimmy’ returned with an intent to eat me that I began to contemplate my own evolutionary trajectory. I don’t know. What I do know is, unlike the young internet luthiers, I usually make a huge mess as I work. My shop is embroiled in a constant cycle of being cleaned and immediately messed up.
I have affectionately named my current shop Alcatraz. Not because I feel imprisoned there, but because it is a windowless, cinderblock cube devoid of humor and inspiration. It sits behind a pool hall in the parking lot of an antiquated strip mall west of downtown Raleigh. In the mornings, when I pull into the parking lot, I am occasionally greeted by a quasi-homeless man named Waldi. He is part of a colorful cast of characters that frequent the parking lot. I imagine it as a kind of strange sit-com. “ Oh Waldi”...Thumbs up...Wink...Freeze Frame...Roll Credits.
I am unsure of Waldi’s age. My guess is that he is in his late fifties. I often encounter him perched on a small retaining wall at the back of the parking lot reading the morning paper and sipping his breakfast from a 40oz bottle of Steel Reserve. Waldi once told me that he bought an authentic Rolex from a man in a bar for 10 dollars, only to lose it a few days later in a bus station somewhere in Idaho. How quickly greatness slips through our fingers. What I’ve gleaned from my occasional conversations with Waldi is that he speaks with a German accent and was at one time a Porsche mechanic-probably a fairly good one. He’s a smart guy, but a man over powered by his vices, and left behind by the world.

Each morning as a make my way from my parking space to the steel front door of Alcatraz, I’m careful to step around broken beer bottles and the assorted debris from late night pool hall traffic. In many ways this shop is not unlike all of the other shops I have been in. It’s hot in the summer, cold in the winter, surrounded by chaos and the occasional spat of illegal activity. A far cry from the peaceful mountain or trendy industrial chic of my imagination. During the summer months the air conditioner in Alcatraz occasionally clogs with dust and will back up draining all of the water down the inside wall of the shop. The fix is to vacuum out the drain with a shop vac. One afternoon as I dragged the vacuum and extension chord around the back of the building, I found Waldi asleep behind the air conditioner. I paused, not wanting to wake him, but eventually proceeded with my plan to clear the drain. To my surprise, the howling roar of the machine had no effect on Waldi. It was only after checking to make sure his chest was moving that I was sure he wasn’t dead.

I’m not sure how the young luthiers I’ve seen online afford such amazing workspaces and tools. I’m also not sure how they’ve had time and money to build the hundreds of guitars their websites say they’ve produced. My current theory is that there is rich aunt, trust fund, or lottery money that fuels their enterprise. But, I suppose it could also be that they’ve worked with a tenacity and determination which far surpasses my own.
Suddenly there seems to be an ominous shadow over my comfortable amoeba couch in my quiet tide pool. On occasion when I encounter Waldi in the amidst of his morning rituals, I don’t feel that far removed from him. I can feel how the relentless pursuit of some imaginary “perfection” can wear a person out.

Perhaps, I should clean up Alcatraz once again.

In Defense Of Creativity

2011-08-07T15:36:00.000-07:00

Well, It's been a little over a month since the Montreal Guitar Show. The excitement of international business travel has given way to the quiet return of "business as usual". I must admit it has been a little bit tough to get back into the swing of things. I'm not sure what I expected after the show, but it has been humbling to once again put on my repairman hat and plunge into the never ending flow of cheap broken guitars. Since joining the "blog-o-sphere" a few years ago, I have resisted going on any kind of negative rant about cheap guitars. I really do understand the need for inexpensive instruments. My first guitar was a copy of a Les Paul custom made by Memphis. I bought it for $60 and played the crap out of it for years. My whole life as I know it now was born with that guitar. So there is some value.

But, it is hard to remember that story in the midst of my current day to day reality. The vast majority of guitars that come across my bench are made overseas in huge production facilities. Visually they all look like classic American guitars. There is very little innovation, few creative ideas, and zero soul. After a while it just gets depressing. What are we creating with our resources? All of this precious wood gobbled up in soul-less trash. My main concern is that finely made things are becoming less and less a part of our daily lives. As we become further and further removed from objects created by human hands, we unknowingly lower our standards. Craftsmanship, care and pride, are replaced by units shipped, and everything...faster...faster... faster!

I have avoided this rant for years because there is no answer. This is the way of world at this point. I can't say that one way is better than another. Perhaps fine craftsmanship has always been reserved for the wealthy elite. Perhaps lessening our attachment to physical objects is ultimately a good thing. I don't know, my only hope is that people continue to appreciate well made things; to surround themselves with objects which inspire them. Please forgive me my self-indulgent rant. Apparently this all had to come out. I will now pay penance by posting a few things which I think are awesome!

James Krenov was one of my favorite woodworkers. Sadly he passed away in 2009, but his work continues to be a huge source of inspiration for me. I love the organic feel of it! His book "A Cabinet Makers Notebook" really planted seeds that I am tending right now.

"It’s not that I had a message that was outstanding or unique or anything like that. I just expressed the feelings that a great number of people had ... 'Live the life that you want to live. Don’t be unhappy in your work.'" James Krenov

http://www.finewoodworking.com/Gallery/Galleryslideshow.aspx?id=87

http://jameskrenov.com/

I ran across this video the other day and thought 'My god! How incredible it this!' What amazing vision! What an awesome project!

Finally, Mark Ribot. One of my favorite guitarist. A lot of his work challenges me, it's sometimes hard to listen to! He is a true original, he plays from way down deep. He's not afraid to chase his own artistic vision. Some day I will have the courage to create like him!

Montreal Guitar Show Debrief

2011-07-12T06:05:00.000-07:00

Well, We've made it back from Montreal. All of the guitars survived the trip intact. What a show! I'm not sure where to begin. The few pictures I took really don't do the experience justice. There was so much awesome work on display, I literally could not sleep. My mind spinning over all the beautiful instruments! I left feeling very inspired. If I were to write a detailed synopsis of the show, this blog post would be 125 pages long. So here are the high points.

This is the 5th year of the Montreal Guitar Show. This year the show sprawled across two convention rooms of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Montreal. One room featured acoustic builders and one featured electric builders. Although most of my work lies somewhere between the two worlds, I chose to exhibit in the acoustic room. I felt a little self conscious, because I had two electric guitars and only one which was fully acoustic. But in the end, exhibiting in the acoustic room proved to be a good choice. If there were any disparaging remarks, they were probably in French and I therefore did not understand them...ignorance is bliss! Anyway, all the instruments seemed to get a lot of attention.

Friday July 1st was opening day and it seemed very busy to me. By the end of the day, I was worn out from all of the talking. I met some really great people!

Be it ever so humble...my table...

Saturday continued in much the same way. Lots of talking, explaining fanned frets, construction techniques, and listening to people talk about their own projects. The guitars got played a lot, and on Saturday afternoon I sold the Archtop! It was really awesome. Saturday night, there was an after party for the builders on a roof top deck of the Hyatt. There was much drunken jamming...I did not partake, but it was fun to be there.

I could have sold the Archtop again on Sunday. A person who had played it on Saturday came back to see if it was still available...unfortunately, it was not. There's always next year!

Both The acoustic and electric room were filled with amazing guitars! Here are a few that caught my eye.

An Archtop by Dimitri Tenev. Very organic looking, I really like the rustic nature of this guitar. I've been interested in trying to include some organic elements in my work. I really dig the tailpiece on this guitar, Super cool!

An Archtop by Greg German. Another fanned fret guy.

William "Grit" Laskin. What can I say, his work is amazing! My photos don't do it justice. All of the inlay is hand cut and fitted by him. Here are some better pictures. http://www.williamlaskin.com/gallery2.php

In addition to his stunning inlay work, he is a very innovative luthier. Many of his designs are now standard practice for many guitar makers.

This guitar by Claudio Pagelli was really an awesome feat of engineering!

It's three guitars...and a banjo...in one!
...an acoustic...

...Loosen one bolt which holds on the neck and replace the top with and electric guitar...

...or a resonator...didn't get a pic of the banjo. Crazy!

Speaking of crazy...Ken Parker's Archtop! Crazy is probably not the right word...innovative is more like it! Really amazing!

I don't know what to say about this guitar...It was just stunning!
By Jean-Yves Alquier

This guitar by Christophe Grellier was probably one of my favorite guitars at the show. His execution was really awesome! I love the flowing design of the inlay and finger-rest. I'm sad I didn't get to play it!

Two more really nice Archtops by Pierrick Bura. I Love the sound holes!

Linda Manzer's more-strings-than-you-could-ever-need-o-caster. Her table was always crowded, this was the only picture I could get!

Pete Swanson...The amount of work that goes into just the rim on his guitars is staggering!
He cuts all those little squares on a tablesaw!

Finally I leave you with a video, which kind of captures the feel of the show. I stumbled upon this little impromtu jam on my way back to my table. This kind if thing happened all over the place! I don't know who these guys are, but they were killing it! Sorry about the video/audio quality, but enjoy!

Montreal Preview

2011-06-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

Well, somehow a month has passed since my last post. Much has been happening!

As some of you may already know, I am exhibiting at the Montreal Guitar Show this year, and the July 1st opening day is fast approaching! I must admit that the 30+ page exhibitors guide was a little bit intimidating at first. Some of the customs information is down-right cryptic. So, naturally I've chosen to procrastinate! Unfortunately I cannot put this off any longer, so this blog will feature lots of pictures of me filling out customs forms and printing shipping labels. Anyone want to be a guitar builder now?

Just kidding, I thought I would post a little preview of the guitars I'm bringing up to the show.

The first is a little video my friend Rob Basile shot using the 504 Semi-hollow. Rob is a really creative guy and a super talented player! I cannot thank him enough for his help.

The second video is a little more magic from Rob Basile. It features Jared Wofford playing the new 415 Archtop.

Third video is a slide show I put together of the 510 semi-hollow. The music is performed by Mark Boling using the 510. Please excuse my amateur video editing skills!

All three of these guitars will be at the show. If you are in town please stop by and say hello!

Post Partum

2011-05-12T05:05:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official, the archtop is alive! All of the months of sanding, scraping, tapping, and tuning have produced a guitar. Someone recently asked me if I had a hard time letting go of instruments once they where finished. At the time, I said no, but that was probably not entirely true. I've noticed, that the excitement of working out the final details often recedes into a kind of melancholy once the guitar hangs on the wall. It helps when they sell, and I don't just mean the cash, There is a kind of relief that comes from finding the guitar a good home. That process starts now!

Overall, I'm really happy with this guitar! It sounds very warm and rich. I hope to record some sound clips and possibly a little video or two stay tuned!

Tradition and the New Guitars

2011-04-22T05:56:00.000-07:00

Whenever I begin a new guitar, I usually have some idea that has been floating around in my head which I want to explore. Sometimes It's construction related, design related, or sometimes it's a sonic investigation. Sometimes it's an idea which is brought to me by a customer. In this case, I wanted to use the Archtop and Flat top projects as an excuse to delve into tradition a bit.

One thing I've always been curious about, is Hide glue. It's a subject of much debate in the guitar nerd community. Some say there are tonal advantages to using it. Hide glue dries really hard and brittle, and the theory is that it transfers vibration through all of the glue joints better than the modern alternatives. I've used hide glue a bit for repairs, but never built a complete instrument using it. For those of you who don't know what hide glue is...it's a glue (shocking! I know) made from animal parts all boiled down to a goo... I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. By the time it gets to me, the glue is in a dry powdery form. I have to add water and heat to reconstitute it. Ethically I'm not sure I can get behind this glue, but I'm drawn to the tradition of it. Hide glue has been used as an adhesive for nearly 5000 years (if you believe Wikipedia!) Certainly some of the finest instruments around have been constructed with hide glue. In my world, the jury is still out, but I like the process of using it. I like that it takes skill and care to get a good glue joint. Skill and care seem to be disappearing from our world.

As I near the end of this build, my thoughts turned to the inevitable question of what finish to apply. The traditional finish for most Archtop guitars and most Flat-tops is Nitrocellulose laquer. I've sprayed my fair share of it over the years. These days I'm using a water based spray-on finish which I really like. It's less toxic than Nitro, it dries really hard and buffs out very nicely. My intent was to use this finish on the Archtop, but I could not stop myself from investigating another traditional technique...French Polish. Basically to French Polish, you apply very thin coats of shellac with a small pad, rubbing vigorously until each new layer blends with the previous one. It's a finish which has been used for years by furniture makers, violin makers and classical guitar builders. French Polishing quite an art! An art I would like to be good at, but after nearly a week of swirling shellac onto the Archtop, I decided that it was not to be. I love traditional ways of working and I enjoy exploring traditional techniques, but as I become more and more professional I'm finding a need to balance tradition with technology. In the end, I felt like French Polish was a lot of work. Shellac, even when applied correctly is a delicate finish. It can be damaged by water, sweat, alcohol etc. So, I decided to spray over the shellac with a few top coats of my tried and true water based finish. I'll let everything cure for about two weeks, and then the Archtop becomes a guitar!

Sanding the archtop between coats of finish

The archtop in the spray booth.

While the finish cures, I've turned my attention back to the flat top. It's pretty close to being done. I just need to do some fine tuning.

One of the last tasks is to inlay my logo on the peghead. I often feel that I need to get my "branding" together and come up with a better logo, but for now, I'm inlaying the letter "C" and some swirly bits. I made a crude jig to speed up the process. I use the plywood template to rout the recess for the scrolls.

I print the letter C out on to a piece of paper and glue it to some mother of pearl.

Next comes the careful work of cutting it out. I use a jewlers saw with a fine blade.

...And done...

The next step is to rout out a recess for the letter to fit into. It takes a steady hand...and a bit of patience. I scribe the outline of the "C" with a xacto knife and then use a white pencil to help me see the line. I do the routing with a Dremel tool and a very small bit.

Here's the finished inlay. The "C" is mother of pearl and the scrolls are thin aluminum which I bend to fit. The only thing left is a bit of sanding and then this guitar is off to the spray booth as well!

The Archtop is Getting Close!

2011-03-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

Well, the repairs keep piling up at Guru, but I managed to squeezed out a few moments to work on the Archtop this past week. it's getting really close to being finished! I'm down to a bit of fine tuning. I spent most of the time this week, working on all of the appointments.

First up, was the tailpiece. I've been experimenting with a new design a bit. The Idea is that a pin is dovetailed into the end block and the tailpiece clips onto it. the string tension holds it all in place. I really like the look of it! Here's the dovetail cut into the end of the guitar.

And then the pin slides in. The pin is oversized in this picture. I cut it down a bit...

and the tailpiece fits over it! A lot of work goes into building the tailpiece... Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures. Here's the final product.

With the tailpiece about finished I turned my attention to the pickup. This guitar is really designed to be an acoustic instrument, but so many people like play amplified these days I thought I would include a pickup. Most electric guitar pickups and made of a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet. As the guitar string vibrates, it influences the magnetic field. This interaction creates a small voltage in the coil of wire. This becomes the guitar's signal which is sent to the amplifier. I've been using an old Singer sowing machine to spin the bobbin around while I guide the wire on to it. The wire is very fine, it's about as thin as a hair. It's pretty delicate work. Here's a freshly wound bobbin. This pickup will need two bobbins.

Each bobbin has a slot cut for a magnet to be inserted. Here's the whole assembly with magnets in a wooden cover which I made.

This is the top view.

Now that the pickup is wound I turned my attention to the finger-rest. It's pretty straight forward, but I did need to spend some time figuring out how to attach the pickup and get everything at the correct height.

Here's the result. it looks good...if I do say so myself!

The last thing to make is the bridge and the guitar will be ready for a final sanding and spraying the finish.
it will be a guitar soon!

The Archtop and Flat-top Get Their Necks.

2011-02-24T05:43:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody I just wanted to post a quick update. The two guitars are progressing nicely, and
I'm getting close to having finished instruments!

I used the old inner tube trick to glue the binding onto the peghead of the flat-top neck...

...And the same for the Archtop

Then it was time to get to work carving both necks. This is one of my favorite parts of the guitar building process. For some reason putting a contour on the neck marks the point at which the guitar begins to feel like an instrument and not just a hunk of wood. It might be because the neck is really the main interaction point of the instrument, sure you need the body to amplify the sound, but the shape and feel of the neck really informs your sense of the guitar....at least it does for me. Anyway...it's a dusty job, but I love it!

I start by roughing out the shape with a rasp...

...And then I fine tune things with a cabinet scraper.

After a bit of sanding, I give it a coat of shellac to seal things up.

I go through the same process for the Flat-top neck.

After carving, I usually like to let the necks sit for a day or so, and then re-check them for lumps and bumps I may have missed. Over the next few days I'll refine them a bit more...

Here's a little preview, I'm getting close!

Repairs, Repairs, Repairs!

2011-02-02T20:22:00.001-08:00

Well...I took a little bit of time off for the holidays. Consequently, I've spent all of January and most of February digging out from under the mountain of repairs that came in while I was gone! I wish I could say I was making progress, but they just keep coming in. We are running a two-three week back log right now with no let up in sight. For my own sanity I decided it was time to squeeze in some work on my own projects. So I'm back to spending a few hours working on the Archtop and Flattop before the shop opens each morning.

The first order of business was to build a jig to cut the binding channels around the outside of the guitars. I have made a couple different versions of this jig over the years but it was time to make a nice permanent one. Here's a pic of the cradle with adjustable slidey thingys that hold the guitar body.

The other part of the jig is a small router mounted on a sliding mechanism. the router has a bit that cuts the binding channel as you feed the guitar around under it.

Here's a close-up of the business end of things. The white collar rides on the top of the guitar. the grey cutter underneath cuts the channel and the bearing rides on the outside of the guitar. The cutter is slightly larger than the bearing so it cuts a consistent rabbit around the outside of the guitar.

Here's a picture after the binding channel is cut. I cut some thin pieces of wood which will be bent to the shape of the guitar and then glued back into the channel. It may sound like a strange process to cut out wood and then glue it back but, it helps to seal the end grain on the top and back and it looks cool! At any rate, It's called binding

I've recently discovered the magic of bicycle inner tubes...they are awesome for clamping odd shaped things. I've been using them to clamp the binding into the channel while the glue dries.

Another shot.

Here is the semi-finished product, the back of the flattop with the binding installed. I cut the binding very slightly oversized and then scrape it all down flush. I've still got a bit of work to do!

Here's a detail shot.

...And a shot of the end graft.

The back is done. Now, same thing for the top!

And then repeat for the archtop.

A few more hours of scraping and the guitars are starting to look pretty good!

The next step is to rout the mortise for the neck pocket. Once again, I've worked out a new jig...

After some nervous routing and a little bit of preliminary neck fitting, everything seems to line up! Whew!

Stay tuned, I hope to spend some extra time on these instrument over the next week or so. I hope I can get them nearly finished!

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T07:43:00.000-08:00

Hello Everybody, Happy New Year!

I wanted to say thanks for all of the support this past year. 2010 has been great for Clay Conner Guitars! I know some of you have been following the progress on Facebook www.facebook.com/clayconnerguitars and here at the Blog, But for those of you who haven’t seen the posts, here are the highlights.

I am now working nearly full time at Guru Guitars www.guruguitarshop.com here in Raleigh NC. We have so much repair work to do, that I have to squeeze in growing my own business whenever there is time. It means that I have put in some long hours, but I’ve learned a lot. My guitar building has been steadily moving forward, and I’m really excited about all of the new instruments I’m turning out! I feel like I’m reaching a new level with my designs and skills. My guitars are getting a lot of attention in our shop.

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching this year trying to decide which direction to take the business…what kind of business I want to run…what impact I want to make on my community and the planet etc. So far there have been a lot more questions than answers, but the idea of community has been coming back over and over again. So much so, that I’ve begun to think of my clients and everyone who I interact with as a big family. The Conner Guitars family! It’s been nice to think of this business as our business. I would like to start including you all a bit more in the process. So…one of you needs to meet with the accountant next week! Just kidding! All joking aside, I’ve been posting photos of my most recent guitar builds here at the blog. I plan to keep this up for 2011. People seem to be really interested in the process. It’s fun to let people behind the curtain so to speak. I have some ideas about a group project of sorts, but I need to flesh them out a bit before I announce it. Stay tuned!

In my mind, 2011 is all about going to the next level!...and that’s the plan! We’re working on updates to the website. We hope to have some t-shirts for sale fairly soon. We are trying really hard to make it to the Montreal guitar show in 2011. Beyond that…

I can’t wait to see what is coming and to welcome some new members to the Family! Thanks again for all of the love this past year! It keeps us going! I look forward to talking with you soon!

Clay
www.clayconnerguitars.com
www.projectsonthebench.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/clayconnerguitars

More Guitar Building Photos

2010-11-23T05:34:00.001-08:00

Picking up where I left off in the last post...The neck building continues. The headstock design I use is a bit wider than the neck blank. So I have to glue some extra wood to make up the difference. Believe it or not, this is pretty common practice. The pieces of wood are often called the 'ears'.

Once the glue dries, it's time to start profiling the neck. I've made some plywood templates to shape the necks. Here's the headstock pattern which I attach to the neck using double stick tape.

First I rough cut the profile on the bandsaw and then head over to the router table to clean everything up. The cutter I use is called a pattern bit. It has a bearing which is the same size as the cutter head. The bearing rides against the plywood template and the cutter will trim the wood exactly to the shape of the template.

Here's a shot of the headstock after routing.

Using the same procedure, I taper the neck.

And here's the final product. The Archtop neck.

I follow the same steps to shape the Flat top neck, here they are side by side.

After the shaping is complete, I glued a vaneer over the top of the headstocks on both necks. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera so I didn't get any pictures of the process. The vaneer is decorative but also helps to strengthen the headstock.

I've been putting graphite spars into my necks to help with the long term stability. Once the neck is tapered, I rout two slots on either side of the truss rod to drop the graphite into.

And then it's time to make the truss rods...I mentioned in an earlier post that the truss rod is a steel bar which is inserted into the neck to counteract the tension exerted by the stings. There are a few different systems to make this happen, the one I use basically works like this: The steel rod is threaded on both ends. One end attaches the an anchor point at the heel end of the neck, and the other end sticks out at the headstock end with a nut and washer on it. I mentioned earlier that the slot I cut into the neck is curved, so I bend the rod to match that curve. I then install the rod into the neck and cover it with a piece of wood called a spline. Once the fingerboard is glued on, the rod is sandwiched into the neck solidly but it is still curved. So here's where the magic happens...Once you string up the guitar and the strings pull the neck forward. You can tighten the nut on the headstock end of the guitar. This forces the rod to try and straighten out, and if everything is installed correctly, pulls the neck back flat against the string tension.

You can buy pre-made truss rods but I've been making my own for a while now. I start with some 3/16" steel rod. After cutting it to length, I thread both ends.

Here's a blurry picture of the threads.

I install the anchor on to one end.

Here's the finished truss rod ready to be installed into the neck.

Here I'm gluing the truss rod in with the spline on the flat-top neck.

I do the same for the Archtop.

Once the glue dries, I trim the spline down flush with the top of the neck. Then I glue in the graphite, and finally, it's time to glue on the fingerboard.

Here is the Archtop neck with the fingerboard glued on.

I couldn't resist setting the neck up on the body to get an idea of how it will look. Looks pretty cool! I'm excited to hear how it will sound!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! talk to you soon!

Archtop Update

2010-11-17T04:46:00.000-08:00

I came in this week, and as always, I started my morning by tapping on the archtop and acoustic guitar bodies. Each morning I like to spend some time listening to the guitars and making small adjustments. They are both sounding pretty good, but I felt like the archtop back was a bit too stiff. So I got to work thinning out the edge. This area on an archtop guitar is called the 're-curve'. Once the box is together, you can make adjustments to this area on both the top and back to help the plates to vibrate more freely. I set to work scraping...

Sometimes it's hard to see where you are scraping so I used a white pencil to add some contrast.

Partially done.

Done for now. I may go a bit further, but I want to get strings on the guitar and see how it sounds before making the final adjustments

After an hour or two of scraping and taping I set the archtop aside and got to work on the necks. First step, was to get the fingerboards ready. A few years ago I got some really nice pieces of Maccassar Ebony. I resawed a couple of fingerboard blanks from one of them.

After milling the boards down to size, I got ready to cut the fret slots. On the left is the fingerboard for the flat-top which I slotted but forgot to take pictures of. On the right, is the archtop blank with double stick tape ready for the plexiglass fret scale template.

Here is the template in position, it has little notches cut out at each fret position.

The notches fit perfectly onto an indexing pin in a jig I made for my table saw. All it takes is one cut for each fret slot. This system works great for a standard fret instrument. When I make fanned fret guitars, it' s bit more complicated. Both of these guitars will have standard frets.

Presto! Two slotted fret boards.

Time to layout the necks.

After some careful planning I cut the necks out of the blank using the bandsaw.

The rough neck blanks cut out.

When a guitar is all finished and strung up to pitch, the tension of the strings cause the neck to bow upward. It's important to build in a way to counter-act this tension. The solution is to add a truss rod. Almost every guitar made these days has one. There are many types of truss rods, I prefer the Gibson style rod. Installation involves cutting a curved slot down the middle of the neck. I have a jig I made to do this, of course forgot to take pic's of the process. Anyway, here are the necks with the slots cut.

Traditionally, guitar necks are attached to the bodies with a dovetail joint. I got kind of involved with making the jig to make this all happen and forgot to snap some photos. Here is the end result.

On the left is flat-top neck, and on the right is the archtop neck. Because of the way the archtop neck attaches to the body I needed the install a bit of wood which extends beyond the dovetail. This is to support the fingerboard and is appropriately called the fingerboard extension. Anyway it requires a bit of fancy joinery to get it done. That is the reason for the notch which is cut from the end of the archtop neck.

Here I glued the extension in place.

Pretty soon we'll have finished necks! Stay tuned!

Photos from the new Archtop Build

2010-11-12T04:00:00.000-08:00

After the 'my week in pictures' posts, I got a lot of feedback from people asking to see more photos of the new achtop build. So here's a quick update...

Sometimes it's hard to visualize the final product without actually creating it. I took a chance on these f-holes...I wasn't sure that I liked the shape of them, but I decided to cut them out anyway. Unfortunately when it was all said and done, I didn't like the f-hole at all. So I put the top away while I worked on building up the ring. Long story short, I pulled the top out this week and and spent some time with a pencil drawing out ideas to help the f-hole design. This is what I came up with. I think it works!

It was pretty hard to inlay the design however. I spend quite a few hours hunched over the work bench!

After getting the f-hole situation sorted out. I got started on the braces. Because the top is arched, you have to shape the braces to the contours of the top, It takes a bit of time to get it right. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the fitting process. Here are the rough braces fit and glued to the inside of the top.

Once the braces are glued you have to shape them. The shaping helps to tune the sound of the guitar. Here, I'm just getting started.

Everything is starting to sound pretty good! I'm almost done

Here's the top is ready to be glued onto the ring which I built a week or so ago.

The top I glued on!

So now it's time to glue the back.

Here's the finished archtop box next to the flat top. Now that I have them both to the same point, I'll push them forward together.

Now it's time to do some neck building!

My Week in Pictures: Friday 10.29.10

2010-10-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

Friday, 8:30am

Today started much like yesterday...with some clean up!

Hide glue fingerprints are everywhere!

After a little bit of sanding everything is cleaned up! The next step is to add the vertical reinforcement strips which help to strengthen the sides.

One more.

Here's one with the clamps taken off.

With the vertical strips installed I add a bit of kerfed lining over the top. When the glue dries, the ring is ready for the top and back

11:00am
As the glue drys, I head over to Guru. During this week My brothers in arms, Gene and Horward had their own projects to tackle...

A customer brought in his 60's Vox Starstream. He asked Gene to reverse engineer the onboard effects and build them into a stompbox!

It's a huge project. Here's Gene in middle of the prototyping process.

A few of the parts in the original are not available any more, so Gene had to figure out some modern alternatives. Wires everywhere!

So far, it looks, and sounds cool though!

Meanwhile, Howard, is in the home stretch of refinishing a mid 60's Fender bass 5. I had no idea that 5 string basses were made that early!. When the customer brought this bass in, it was in bad shape. Someone tried a DIY refinish job and the body was pretty awful! After much rebuilding, he's getting close now! It's ready to assemble with a fresh finish and a custom machined re-production bridge(the old original was missing).

I was interested to see how the Yamaha was doing!

The bridge glued on great! so it was time to make the saddle.

And then a new nut.

I drill the bridge pin holes a bit small so I can ream them out for a nice fit.

With the strings on everything is looking good!

The finished nut.

Action is looking a lot better!

This guitar really turned out great! All of the hard work paid off!

It plays great! Another one brought back from the edge! I'm sure the customer will be really happy!

On to the next one...and oh what a tough one it is! Just kidding. Only a bad output jack! It takes a couple of minutes to solder in a new one.

Up next? a funky...

Conquerer Bruno!

...and by funky...I mean funky!

It's nice of somebody to mark the bridge location! Ha!

The electronics were not working. I thought there was a big problem, but they just turned out to be really dirty! So, A good cleaning was in order.

Before I knew it, 5:30pm rolled around, and I had to get going...We're off to be reasonable and non-confrontational at Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity! Have a great weekend everybody! Thanks for checking out the blog! I plan to keep posting pictures of the archtop build. Stay tuned for that!

My Week in Pictures: Thursday, 10.28.10

2010-10-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Thursday, 9:00am

Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at working cleanly with regular wood glues. However, I seem to always make a mess with hide glue. This morning was all about clean up.

So, I hit the linings with a bit of sandpaper.

they're looking a bit better now.

With the top linings clean, I got to work on the back linings. Deja Vu.

Looks familiar huh!

11:00am
I finished up the linings and headed over to Guru. First order of business is to remove that hideous bridge from the Yamaha. I use a heat lamp to warm the bridge and soften the glue.

Heating up the bridge is patient work. You have to be careful not to heat everything too much! Aluminium foil helps to keep the temperature down on the top. Too much heat and you might loosen some of the bracing inside the body. I definitely want to avoid that!

It takes a bit of time for the bridge to warm up. I use a putty knife with the edges ground down to work it loose a little bit at a time.

A little bit here...

...a little bit there.

You have to take your time, and work your way around the bridge. As everything warms up the glue will release.

It's getting there...

We're close now!

...And there it goes. The bridge came off pretty cleanly, no major damage. Yay!

The next step is to fill the holes left by posts of the old saddle assembly. We are definitely getting rid of that!

I found a piece of rosewood that was close to the right size for the new bridge. The grain was a bit askew so I laid out the new bridge to match the direction of the grain.

First I straighten one edge, with a bandsaw cut...

and a quick trip to the edge sander.

Then I traced the old bridge.

And started to shape the new one.

Making the end cuts.

The rosewood blank was a bit too thick so I sent it through the sander. When I thought had it to the correct thickness I took the bridge back to the shop to check it on the guitar.

First I had to shave down the plugs which I glued into the top earlier. Lucky for me I sharpened my chisels yesterday!

With a straightedge on the neck I checked the clearance at the bridge. Everything looks good! Time to finish shaping the bridge and cut the saddle slot.

Back to the bandsaw...

And the edge sander.

On to cut the saddle slot. For the guitar to play in tune, the slot needs to be angled. There are probably better ways to accomplish this, but I've been cutting the slot on my router table with an angled caul. Don't try this at home!

But seriously, I just set the fence, and mark the width of the cutter onto the table.

I double stick tape the caul onto the bridge, and mark the length of the slot I want to cut. I then lower the whole assembly on to the cutter and mill out the slot using the reference marks on the table as guides. I should have taken a lot more pictures!

Here is the end result.

Then I drill out the bridge pin holes.

The final step is to fit the bridge to the top of the guitar. Unfortunately, the top on this guitar is plywood and it has badly deformed over the years. There is a huge hump behind the bridge...Check out the gap! ouch!

I begin the fitting process, by positioning the bridge on a couple of pieces of tape. Using a sharp xacto knife I cut through the tape around the bridge. I then peel the bridge shape out. Next I scape and sand away all of the old glue to create a fresh surface to glue the new bridge on. Once this is done I place the bridge back in position and scribe around it to get an idea of where to remove wood in order to make it fit the curve of the top.

Next I stick a piece of sandpaper over the bridge location, place the bridge on top and sand away. The sandpaper conforms to the top of the guitar so eventually the bottom of the bridge gets shaped to match, at least in theory! In this case I wanted to try and flatten out the bump in the top a bit. So I took the bridge most of the way, but left a little bit of a gap. I then made a flat caul to put inside the box under the bridge location. When I glue the bridge on, I will clamp everything down to the flat caul. When all's said and done, I hope the top will look a little bit better. One thing's for sure, this bridge will sound much better!

Here's the new bridge, next to the old bridge. The glue surface is prepared and everything's ready to go. I leave the tape on to help position the bridge during the glue process.

And there you have it! Let's hope I did everything right!

Tomorrow, we put strings on it and find out of all of this hard work paid off!

Goodnight!

6:30pm

My Week in Pictures: Wednesday 10.27.10

2010-10-27T16:51:00.001-07:00

Wednesday: 9:30am

I had a rough time getting going this morning, but finally made it into the shop around 9:30. After taking the clamps off the neck and tail blocks that I glued yesterday, I started getting set up to glue the linings into the new archtop. Unfortunately, my chisels were a bit too dull. So I pulled out my stones and got to work re-honing the edges.

Looking a bit better now!

Back in business!

Here's the archtop ring after removing the neck and tail block clamps.

Because the sides are thin, there is not enough glue surface to hold the top and the back onto the guitar. The linings are added to make sure there is enough material the glue the top and back to. There are a few different styles of linings. I use a kerfed lining. The small cuts into the side of the lining makes it very flexible. In the past I've made my own, but it is very time consuming. Now I prefer to just buy them, they are cheap enough.

Gluing in the linings near the tail-block. I'm using hot hide glue, and you have to work very fast. Hide glue cures by cooling so, if you don't get the clamps on in time, it won't stick. This is the third guitar that I've used hide glue on and I'm starting to get a little bit more comfortable with it.

I work my way around the top edge one piece at a time.

The top edge is about done. Tomorrow, I'll start on the back edge.

11:45am

Back at Guru Guitars, I pulled out the Yamaha FG300 refret which I started yesterday. I finished truing up the fingerboard. The next step is installing the new frets.

I use a dremel tool with a very small bit to clean out the fret slots. It's really important to have all of the old glue and dust out of the slots before you install the new frets. If there is too much gunk in there, the frets will not seat. There will be small gaps between the fret and the fingerboard. All the hard work flattening the fingerboard will be for nothing.

The fret wire we use, comes in a roll. I cut each fret to size before I install it.

Here's a freshly cut end. The round part on the top, is the Fret. The part below is called the Tang. This is the part which gets hammered into the fret slot in the fingerboard. The small triangle shaped thingys on the tang dig into the wood and theoretically hold the fret in place. It doesn't always work!

Because this guitar has binding on the neck, (Binding is the white stuff around the outside of the fingerboard)I have to undercut the tang on each side of each fret. I use a small pair of nippers...

...And then file it smooth before I install the fret. It gets repetitive, but that's part of the job.

Getting ready to cut the next fret.

With the fret installed, I trim the ends flush. Snip, Snip...easy!

Fret's in. Only a few more to go!

2:00pm
Sometimes you have to shift gears abruptly here at Guru...This afternoon one of our regular customers came in with his PRS. He gigs almost every night of the week, and last night his PRS developed a phantom electrical issue. The bridge on this guitar has piezo elements under each string for an "acoustic" sound. Unfortunately, the B string on said bridge started to intermittently cut out. We had a few guesses about what the problem might be, but we couldn't get the guitar to mess up in the shop...Hmmmm...I hate when that happens! We have a two week back log of repairs right now, and we don't usually jump people to the front of the line. However, on occasion, we make exceptions for working musicians. So I put away the Yamaha refret and got to work fixing...something...I'm not sure...

I cleaned the connections between the bridge and the preamp, and after, what seemed like a mighty struggle, pulled the electronic guts out of the guitar. I looked everything over as closely as a could. I found a few suspect solder joints on one of the many tiny circutboards and fixed them. (I forgot to take a picture...sorry!)
I really hate it when I can't pinpoint the problem. I have no idea if I fixed the issue or if there even was an issue with the guitar at all! Time will tell!

Part of the deal was that he wanted the guitar cleaned up really well.
So I got to work polishing up all of the hardware.

I got it all back together. Problem solved!...I think. Gulp!

4:45pm
With the PRS safely in its case awaiting for the return of it's owner, I got back to the Yamaha.

In a perfect world all of the frets would be perfectly on the same plane after fretting, But no matter how careful I am, I've never been able to make that happen! In fact, very few people can make that happen! So, it's common practice to level the tops of the frets with some sandpaper and a really straight block. This process creates flat spots on the tops of each fret which then have to be re-rounded. I do it kind of old school, With a home-made file and brass fingerboard mask. I learn this technique from Ralph Novak and I love it! Thanks Ralph!.

Then I clean up the fret ends with a file.

With the frets leveled and crowned. I polish everything out with some fine sandpaper and a block.

I finish with a coat of danish oil to seal the fingerboard.

Looks purdy!

Yes Sir!

Tomorrow, that bridge has to go!

7:15pm
Dinner time, I've been hungry since 3! Adios!

My Week in Pictures: Tuesday 10.26.10

2010-10-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, 9:00am

I've always liked the idea of using hot hide glue, but never felt like I had a good feel for how to work it. So I thought I would mix up a fresh pot for the new Archtop, to get a bit more practice.

Just mix equal parts water and dry hide glue, and heat.

While the glue was heating, I trimmed the guitar sides to length and fit them into the mold.

Unfortunately, the sides needed some clean up from the bending process. So a bit of sanding was in order.

After sanding the sides, I cut and fit the neck and tail blocks.

Gluing the tail block.

And the neck block.

Tuesday 11:30am
While the glue dries...I head over to Guru to do some repairs. First up...an '88 Les Paul. The customer bought a wiring kit off the interweb and wanted us to put it in. No Prob!

The old wiring was mostly intact. However, the last person to solder in the cavity, managed to burn almost every wire. Bummer!

Here's the new assembly about to go in and the old one on it's way out.

I got the new assembly in and cleaned everything up as best I could.

With the wiring completed and tested I cleaned and setup the guitar. For once it was all pretty straight forward. On to the next one!

Next up?... A Washburn Somethin'-er-other.

The neck on this guitar was literally coming off. The screws that hold the neck on were totally stripped. I could almost put my pinky finger in the gap between the neck and body. Sounds bad, but the fix is pretty easy.

Just take off the neck...

Glue a dowel into the old screw holes...

...and drill new ones. The guitar also needed a shim to get the neck angle correct.

Putting it all back together.

The gap is gone. Everything is much more solid.

The next guitar...is a Les Paul copy. The customer brought it to us after he refinished it. He wanted a custom wiring job, and the guitar was missing the nut and needed a complete setup.

I must admit that this guitar grew on me. it's kind of cool.

Bag-o-parts.

Time to start wiring.

The old wiring harness was a bit suspect...I salvaged what I could.

Wiring all finished. Two volume controls, with a master tone, and a kill switch.

On to the new nut and setup.

The bone blank before shaping.

I've got the nut fitted and roughly shaped.

Here's the finish product.

Next...Ouch!... this Yamaha has seen better days! When this guitar came into the shop, the action was high. It was obvious that it needed a neck reset. We talked with the customer about it and he said that he wanted us to go ahead and do the neck set. For those of you who don't know, a neck reset is a common repair. Almost every acoustic guitar will need one at some point during it's lifetime. Unfortunately the process is fairly major surgery. The Cliff's Notes version goes something like this: You heat the neck joint until the glue releases and the neck come free from the body. You can then shave the heel of the neck to change the angle that it contacts the body. There is a little voodoo and some geometry involved, but basically you can take a guitar with high action and make it playable again. For a while, that was the plan with this Yamaha. Although I've successfully reset the neck on quite a few guitars, I was feeling a bit uneasy about this one. (Over the years I've learned to trust those feelings.) I talked the repair through with my partners in crime at Guru Guitars, Howard and Gene. None of us felt good about it. So we started to do some research. Turns out, there is a lot of confusing information out there about what kind of neck joint this guitar actually has, what glues Yamaha used, ETC. Eventually, we figured out that the neck joint in this guitar is a hybrid type which is not easily re-settable. Time for plan B...

One way to lower the action on a acoustic guitar is to shave the bridge down. The stock bridge on this guitar is...well...kind of awful! So plan B, is to make a new bridge with a standard bone saddle. That way we can make it a bit thinner to bring the action height down. In addition to the new bridge, We decided to do a little creative refretting to try and bring th action down a hair more.

With our plan sorted out, I got to work pulling frets.

And planing the fingerboard.

Before I knew it, 7pm rolled around and it was time to head home.

Tomorrow I'll try to finish up this refret and get started on the bridge.

My Week in Pictures: Monday 10.25.10

2010-10-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

Monday 10.25.10
The days of my weeks are divided between building my own guitars and repairing instruments which come through the shop at Guru.

Monday, 9:00am:
After years of hand bending guitar sides, I finally found the time (last week)to put together a side bending jig. There are plenty of guitar builder supply websites which sell these jigs for $400+, but for the price of some scrap plywood and a few springs I put one together. Why it's taken me so long to do so? I have no idea. But I digress, this morning I put the new jig to work bending a new set of sides for the 415 Archtop prototype. First the sides needed a little bit of love to get them ready...

The roughed out sides next to the carved 415 archtop plates

The sides were a bit thick so I needed to take them down a little

Into the thickness sander they go

Much better!

I then decided to taper them. I've always like the look of a tapered guitar body. So I made a makeshift tapering jig for my tablesaw...ugly but it got the job done!

My side bending jig with the body form loaded in.

Like many other builders, I sandwich the sides between sheets of spring steel for support while bending. Here is one side on the steel.

There are many ways to bend guitar sides in a jig like this, But I decided to use a silicon heating blanket for a more controlled heat. Here is the blanket laid out on the spring steel ready for the sides.

The whole assembly is in the bender. (The guitar sides and heating blanket sandwiched between steel slats.) Ready to begin!

It's all heating up!

After bringing the heat up, the waist is screwed down and I'm getting ready to bend the upper and lower bouts.

All the bending is done. Now I cook it for a few minutes and turn it off to cool. Time to do some repairs!

Monday 11:05am

After a quick clean up of my bench I grab the first guitar on the list. A Strat copy. The customer brought it in for a setup, and he wants to put on slightly heavier strings. No worries!

LSL...Hmmmmm...Never heard of it. The number of Strat copies in the world never ceases to amaze me. Do we really need all of them? I don't know, but that is a rant for another time!

With the old strings off, it's time to clean up the guitar. Thankfully this one is relatively goo free.

With new strings installed, I adjust the neck and start to set the action height. Surprise! the old nut is cut too low! A quick call to the owner follows...and we get the thumbs up to replace the nut, so out with the old...

...In with the new. With the nut replaced, I restring and finish the setup. New nut, new strings, and de-gooed, the guitar is ready to go back home. Next!

Next up? An imported PRS. The customer brought it in, complaining of a Sitar-like vibration on the high E string. Buzzes and rattles can often be hard to diagnose. This one was easy to find, but hard to fix.

After a minute or two of poking and prodding it was fairly easy to see that the vibration originated around the bridge saddle. It's not uncommon to have a burr develop in this area, so my first move was to take the string loose and smooth out the area where the string wraps around the bridge. I was not that lucky! So much for the easy fix! After looking around the bridge a bit closer, I realized that the whole bridge and post assembly was tilting forward due to the string tension and design of the bridge itself. In fact the tilt was so severe that it caused the string to lay flat on the top of the bridge with no break angle behind the front contact point. 'Well there's yer problem!' I took all of the strings loose and discovered that the threaded posts which hold the bridge were loose in their bushings. Additionally the bridge itself fit too loosely on posts. All of this slop added up to a really annoying buzz. My solution was to cut thin brass shims to tighten up the fit between the bridge and it's posts. I then cut two small, thin brass shims which I stuck between the threads of the bushings in the body and the posts. This seemed to tighten everything up enough to move the bridge closer the the intended position. Here you can see the brass shims between the posts and the bridge. I later trimmed them down to fit under the post tops out of sight.

It's not a particularly elegant solution, but sometimes you have to work with what you got. I could go on a rant about imported guitars and cheap hardware, but I get it...I understand the need for inexpensive instruments, and cheap hardware is just part of the territory. The sad fact is, If I didn't build guitars, I would probably have a cheap imported guitar. Anyway, at this point I called it good and sent the guitar on its way.

I spent a lot more time than I wanted to on the PRS. I was so wrapped up in the hulabaloo that I nearly forgot about an appointment to take my truck in for repair. So i dashed out the door.

Monday 4:30pm

Even though I was late, I couldn't resist checking on the sides I bent this morning. Success! They fit the mold nicely!

I Clamped everything up for the night I can't wait to get started tomorrow!

Well it was a bad day for the old paycheck, But I made a little progress. No leaving early tomorrow! See you then!

Madness

2010-05-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm not even going to say it...Yes it's been six months since my last post. I've been busy. Here's the short version of what I've been up to:

Repairs, Building, Shop re-organization, Hob-nobbing with rockstars. For those of you who don't really like to read, you can skip to the pictures now. For the rest of you, here are the details.

Guru Guitars continues to be crazy. We've had so much cool stuff come through the shop it's hard to remember it all. As always you should check out their website at www.guruguitarshop.com. I, for the most part, am uninvolved with the buying and selling of cool gear. Although, occasionally I am pulled from beneath the mountain of repair work to gaze longingly at a tube amp from the sixties or a guitar from the 50's. My current lust is for a '63 Blonde Tremolux, which winks at me from the show room floor. I'm a sucker for an old Fender.

Anyway, I've recently had a few cool guitars on the repair bench, amidst the never ending stream of Squire Stratocasters and cheap import acoustics. I did some major work to a 60's Gretsch Nashville. I re glued almost all of the braces on a 1950Gibson j-45. Refretted a couple of 70's Les Pauls. Tweaked a Cool Mosrite double neck. I've made it through countless,setups, refrets, wiring mods, crack triage, and yesterday I arrived at a place that was both satisfying and terrifying...the bottom of the list...EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK! We're caught up!

The Mosrite double neck! Pretty awesome!

The Gretsch, as it came into the shop. All of the parts were in a bag.

I had to refret the guitar and replace all of the crumbling binding around the neck. I was able to save the original side dots and reinstall them in the new binding!

The resurrected Gretsch. Original side dots in new binding!

Ready to rock again!

In the midst of all the repair mayhem I have managed to squeeze in a bit of building. I am always rethinking my "product line". I wrestle constantly with the feeling that I should nail down some specs which will be consistent... so when somebody orders guitar "A", guitar "A" always comes with particular features. Unfortunately curiosity often gets the best of me, and my attempts to standardize are once again put on hold. At this point, I enjoy the organic nature of my business and I feel like all of the experiments are valuable. I learn a lot from each new guitar. I really draw on this knowledge when I am asked to design a guitar for a new client. I've started to think of each of my models as a platform or basic starting point. From there I can mix and match building techniques and design ideas to personalize the sound and look for each client. There are still a lot of concepts I want to check out. Most recently, I re-designed the 504 and it's pretty cool if I do say so myself.

The new 504 body in progress.

Ready to spray!

The new 504.

The Tailpiece

I've also gotten back to the acoustic prototype which I started months/years ago. It's finally taking shape. the top is braced and after much tapping and carving I've glued it to the ring. It has a pleasing "Boing" when you tap on it; I'm excited to hear what it sounds like with strings on it. Of course there are already things I want to change on the next version, but I think this one will sound good. I hope to finish it in the next few months.

The new acoustic top. In the midst of carving braces.

The back.

Getting ready to glue the top to the ring.

Now on to the Hobb-nobbing with rockstars bit. As I mentioned in an earlier Blog post, the Spearhead guys have a couple of my guitars. Well, in May, they came through Raleigh and stopped by the shop to say hi. At that point I had just started the new 504 and they got to see it in the early stages. They played a great show that night and we got to hang for a bit afterwards. It was very cool. Fast-forward a few months...after finishing their summer tour, Spearhead was back in our neck of the woods. We made plans to meet up with them for their show down in Charlotte. After much prodding from Michelle I agreed to take the completed 504 down so the guys could see the final product. We met up with the guitar player Dave Shul and showed him the guitar. To my surprise, he asked if he could try it out at sound check and possibly play it in the show. I, of course said No! because I didn't want it scratched...just kidding! I said yes! I was blown away when he plugged it in and started putting the guitar through it's paces at full concert volume! I don't often get to hear my guitars played so loudly. I wasn't quite sure how the guitar would work, but it was really awesome! Well, to make a long story longer... He loved the guitar. He loved it so much, he played it for at least 10 or 12 songs during the concert. The guitar sounded great! We got some video footage, but unfortunately the concert was so loud that the tiny microphone on our video camera couldn't keep up. So the audio sucks. For now, we only have pictures. Boo! I'll try to piece together some clips that don't sound too bad. Anyway Dave loved the guitar and we talked a lot about making him one custom. I'm really excited about the project. Nothing is settled at this point, but I hope we can make it happen. Stay tuned!

Dave Shul and the new 504 in full shred mode!

That is all of the excitement for now. We are in the process of completely re-working the website, and might have t-shirts for sale in the near future. if you want one, shoot me an email. Talk to you in a few months!

Spring time in the Woodshop

2010-03-28T14:17:00.001-07:00

It is really alarming how quickly time passes! I have every intention of writing a new blog post every month but here I am, and it's been four months since the last one!

As always, things are moving forward. Guru Guitars continues to be really busy. The repair load has grown to the point that we were forced to do a bit of remodeling to accommodate the insane amount of guitars, cases and odd bits that go with them. We rearranged the back room and built three new racks for customer guitars. We are running at a two week back log at this point. We've also been getting a lot of cool gear in the shop for sale, probably the coolest of which is an original 1960 Fender Tweed Bassman! For those of you who don't know this is one of the "Holy Grail" guitar amps, one of the amps which "started it all" so to speak. You can check it out on the guru website:

http://www.guruguitarshop.com/Fender/Original%20Fender%20Bassman%201960.htm

Things in the Conner Guitars world have been pretty interesting as well. The move has unearthed some trash...er...treasure, which might be worth revisiting. The first is an old parlor guitar which was given to me years ago. The name inside is Henry L Mason, beyond that, I have been unable to figure out exactly what it is...my best guess is that it was made or possibly distributed by Henry Mason of the Mason and Hamlin Piano Co. and it was probably built around the end of the 1800'S. Unfortunately the top is almost destroyed. So...I think I've decided that it would be a fun restoration project. I'll post some pictures and the project gets underway.

The second is an old Gibson from the 30's which is almost totally destroyed and possibly unrepairable. If I get really crazy I might try to resurrect it...after all it is easter weekend!

Meanwhile...in the year 2010...we have some exciting news!...Michael Franti and his band Spearhead now have a couple of my guitars! Some of you guys might know them from their tune which is getting a lot of air-time these days, "Say Hey( I love you)" If not, check out their website at www.michaelfranti.com better yet, go see them while they are on tour! They are a great band and I'm excited to be involved with them! Michael and the Spearhead guys have been recording some tracks for their new album with a 504 and a 510 semi-hollow. I'm looking forward to seeing them when they come through Raleigh, in May.

Back at home, I am working on an archtop prototype to replace the small 415 model. It will be a bit bigger, and more acoustically active. My hope is to capture more of that classic archtop vibe and sound. I have a lot of new ideas floating around in my head, I hope that I will get a chance to explore a bit in the coming months until then...thanks for reading. I'll post some pictures soon!

2009-11-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

Well it's been crazy since my last post, but we've made the move to Raleigh. This is the end of our first week in town and it's already beginning to feel like home. I'll be sharing a workshop with Howard and Gene of Guru Guitars and we've been working very hard to get the new shop set up. There's still plenty to do, but we're getting close to being functional in there. It's been really great to get to know the two guys a bit. We all have very different takes on guitar building and it's great to see their styles. It seems like the shop will be a really creative place for us all to work. After working alone for so long I'm looking forward to having people to share ideas with. I'll post some pictures of the progress in the next few days. As always if you are in town please stop by and see us!

Workshop - Fresh off the Truck

Taking down a wall in the workshop.

Big Changes

2009-09-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since my last post, but lots of things have been happening. We are currently in the process of making some big changes. So...without further adieu... I am pleased to announce that Conner Guitars will be moving to Raleigh, NC. My friends at Guru Guitars (in Raleigh) have asked me to join their crew and I have accepted. I will be helping them out with their ever increasing load of repair work. Guru is a great little shop. It's a come in and hang out sort of place. The owners Howard and Gene are both guitar builders and we seem to have a lot in common. I'm looking forward to being part of their operation! Check out their website at www.guruguitarshop.com or better yet, if you are anywhere near Raleigh, please stop by and say Hi! I will, of course, still be building my own guitars. Any instruments which are currently on order will be delivered on time. We hope to be out in Raleigh by the end of October, so now the packing begins...

In other news, for those of you who haven't already seem it, I got a very nice write up on www.jazzguitarlife.com

http://www.jazzguitarlife.com/blog/meeting-clay-conner-of-conner-guitars/

Jazzguitarlife is a great site. It has lots of interesting reading, as well as lessons and gig/cd reviews. I'm really pleased to be involved with them. If you are interested check it out. They are planning to do an interview with me in the coming months so stay tuned for that.

That's about all for now. I'm up to my eyeballs in packing peanuts and tape. we'll be setting up the new shop over the next month or so and I'll post some photo of the progress.

until then see you in Raleigh!

Montreal and beyond

2009-07-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,

Well the Montreal guitar show was awesome! We met some great people and saw some beautiful instruments. The show was organized so well. There were sound proof rooms where prospective buyers could check out instruments and get to know them a bit. There were also mini concerts running almost all day featuring musicians playing luthiers instruments. The show was a lot more hands on than I thought it would be. I was very impressed. I am psyched that we were able to make it up there. I am looking forward to exhibiting there next year.

One of the highlights for me was meeting John Monteleone. He's one of the great archtop builders and a hero of mine. His work is especially amazing in person. I also got a chance to meet Jason Verlinde, publisher of my favorite guitar magazine The Fretboard Journal. He was great, and I can't say enough good things about the magazine. If you're a fan of guitars and musicians check it out.

I also had a very nice meeting with Lyle Robinson, the editor for www.jazzguitarlife.com. It was great to get to know him a bit and he seemed to really enjoy my guitar. I hope to do some advertising on his site at some point in the near future.

All in all it was a great trip. My guitars seem to stack up pretty well, of course there is always room for improvement but I am looking forward to taking part in the festivities next year.

Back at home, I've been re-grouping a bit, cleaning up the shop, and organizing. I bought a couple of new tools. finally a decent jointer and a good table-saw. It's starting to look like a real shop. the next projects are up in the air right now, I'm planning to use the down time to experiment with winding my own pickups. I also want to finish the acoustic prototype which has taken a back seat to more pressing work. That's about it for now, check out the photos of the finished 510 which I took to Montreal.

The Montreal 510

The Montreal 510 front

The Montreal 510 back.

The newish jointer,

And my newish tablesaw

Holy Cow - a Blog Update!!

2009-05-31T16:49:00.001-07:00

Well I've been sadly neglecting my blogging duties...as all three of you following this blog know. But lots of things have been going on at Clay Conner Guitars. So here goes:

Probably the most exciting news is that we've purchased plane tickets to Montreal - to attend the Montreal Guitar Show over the 4th of July weekend. (Lucky for us it coincides with the Montreal Jazz Fest). This year is mostly a reconnaisance mission, as I've never been to the show before. I just want to see what the show is like in hopes of having a booth there next year. I have to say a wave of panic hit me when we bought the tickets - I'm finally going to be in a room with some of the best luthiers in the world. We will see how I stack up.

I've been burning the midnight oil trying to finish a new carved top 510 to take to Montreal (and to Nashville, see below). It's going well and I've attached a few pics of the guitar in progress below.

We're also planning on attending the NAMM show since it's so close - in Nashville. If you'd like to meet me or see one of my guitars at either of these shows shoot me an email at: clay@clayconnerguitars.com. Also, we've set up a fan page on Facebook - feel free to check that out and become a fan, or you can follow me on Twitter.

That's about it for this time. I'm sure as the shows approach you'll be hearing some philosophical ramblings from this direction - a by product of the inevitable soul searching that will happen.

New carved top 510.

510 carved back.

510 Carved Top.

New Guitar Photos

2009-03-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from my trip to St. Louis. It was great to go home for a bit. I was able to catch up with a few of my friends who are still around, and just soak up the city for a bit. St. Louis has changed a lot since I last lived there. It seems to be more interesting now...or maybe I'm just older and can appreciated it more. I don't know. Anyway I had a friend of mine, who is a portrait photographer, snap a few photos of the new guitars while I was in town. If you are interested, you can checkout her website at www.hollisterthomas.com. She has a great eye and we got some really interesting photos. I thought I would post a few for everyone to see, first is a 504 solid body for Mojo's Rock Shoppe. And the other is a 510 Semi-hollow which is for sale. We are going to start building a For Sale page for the website in the near future, but for now just shoot me a email if you are interested in the guitar. That's about it. Talk soon.

The 504 for Mojo's

The 504

_________________________________________________
The 510 For Sale:

Features include:
Spruce top.
Padauk back and sides with a Mahogany centerblock.
Maple Neck with graphite re-inforcement.
Honduras Rosewood Fingerboard, using the fanned fret system.
Honduras Rosewood Bridge and Finger-rest.
Bartolini humbucking neck pickup.
Volume and Tone controls.

What's up with those frets???

2009-03-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

This question has been coming up a lot lately, So I thought it might be an interesting subject for a blog post.

It's impossible to have a discussion about Fanned Frets with out mentioning Ralph Novak of Novax guitars. He is singlehandedly responsible for developing and implementing the Fanned Fret system.

Ralph introduced me to the idea when I went to work for him in the fall of 2001. I must admit I was a skeptic at first, but the more I worked on his instruments, the more I could see real benefits. By the end of my time at Novax I was hooked. So here's the theory behind the Fanned Fret system. I've done my best to explain it in simple terms which everyone can understand, but for those who must have charts and graph here's a link to Ralph Novak's site. http://www.novaxguitars.com/info/concept.html

None of us liked physics anyway...Am I right? So here we go...

If you look at a piano or a harp, the bass strings are larger and much longer than the treble strings. The reason for this is that the lower a pitch or note, the larger a string needs to be to sustain it. However, as the mass of a string increases so does the length needed to develop its full harmonic range. This is why the strings on a bass are bigger and longer than those of a regular guitar. So how does this relate? well, on a conventional guitar all of the strings are the same length, but by fanning out the frets, we are able to get a longer string on the bass side of the guitar,(Yay!) and a shorter string on the treble side, (also Yay!). The result is more of the bright sparkly harmonics which our ears translate as “clarity”or “sustain”. These are things which most guitar players like. The fanned fret system helps to bring more of that focused piano like tone to guitar. The result is that the guitar feels lively and exciting. I hope this helps explain the idea a bit.

I have a couple new guitars. I'll post some photos soon.

See Ya

Happy New Year

2009-01-25T12:58:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody, Well it's been a long time since my last post, but with the holidays behind us I am now ready to resume my news relaying duties. A lot has been happening. I have been working on marketing the company a bit, which is always challenging for me. The process has led to a bit of soul searching. At times the guitar world seems so vast and I often wonder if the world needs another guitarmaker. A recent conversation I had with a fellow guitar-o-phile put some of these fears to rest. He asked me if I would make a Les Paul Jr. double cut-away style guitar. At first I said sure, but as I drove away from the shop I got thinking about his request. I realized that I had no desire to undertake the project. Why would I want to make another version of a guitar which has been, and continues to be, produced by the thousands. Guitar aficionados are a notoriously backward looking bunch. In someways I include myself in this group. I have a deep appreciation for history, and I love old guitars. There is something special about them. It has taken me a while to figure out what that magic is, but at the risk of sounding to new-agey, I think the magic is this: As a guitar is played and loved it begins to take on some of the spirit of it's owners. It grows a soul, a soul which cannot be replicated. I guess this is a very long-winded way of saying that what I find exciting about guitarmaking is not reproducing classic guitars, but exploring my own sense of what a guitar should be. After all, when ever you buy a custom guitar. you are getting that builder's ideas, a little piece of who that builder is. So I guess I realized that there will always be room for another guitarmaker, because guitarmaking (or any creative pursuit) at it's core is about ideas. Ok...enough...I must stop this rant...So from the sublime to the ridiculous (or possibly the other way around depending on your perspective). I finished a 504 solidbody which will be headed out to my friends at Guru Guitars In Raleigh, NC. Look for it there if you are in town. Additionally I am working on a prototype for a steel string acoustic. I hope to push it forward over the next few months. There is a new shop here in Knoxville called Mojo's Rock Shoppe. They have expressed interest in having some of my stuff in their shop. So I plan to focus on a couple guitars for them. Also look for our ad in the May issue of Just Jazz Guitar magazine. That's about all for now. Talk soon.

Clay

The 504

The 504 back

Steel String Prototype Top

Steel String Prototype Body

2008-10-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

Things continue to move forward here at the shop. After delivering the custom semi-hollow archtop, I was able to finish up a 510 semi-hollow for Guru Guitars. It is currently for sale at their shop in Raleigh NC, check it out if you are in town! I am very pleased with the way both guitars turned out. They sound and play great! The customer who ordered the archtop couldn't have been happier! I'm currently gearing up for my next project: two fully acoustic guitars, a flattop and an archtop. I'll post photos as they progress. In the mean time here are some pictures of guitars I just delivered.

The Semi-hollow Archtop.

Archtop detail.

The 510 Semi-hollow.

510 detail.

A New Beginning

2008-09-13T06:02:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody: Lots has been happening here at Clay Conner Guitars. After nearly two years of construction (mostly by me and friends I could bribe with pizza and beer). I am finally functional in my new shop. It's small, but for the first time I don't have to share a space with other people. I still have to build a couple of benches and I need to get a bit more organized, but so far it's a great space! I am nearly done with my first commission in the new shop (a semi-hollow archtop). I'm very happy with the way it turned out, and I'm looking forward to shipping it out next week.

In the next month I will be trying to get two more guitars done. They are tentatively slated to go to Guru Guitars in Raleigh NC. (www.guruguitarshop.com). I will update as I get closer to completing them. Well, I guess that's all for now. Check out pictures of the shop and new guitars in progress. Until the next post...

Take Care,

Clay

Putting up the first wall.

Nailing off the main beam.

Putting up the ridge board.

The roof.

Sheathing the outside

Siding.

The almost finished product.

Beginning the semi-hollow archtop

Guitars bound for Guru Guitars