Spring time in the Woodshop

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!

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

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

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!!

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

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

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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???

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