Madness

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!