What inspires you to do anything?
Maybe you see something really cool in a magazine or on-line and you want to try to do something similar. Maybe you have a strong desire to achieve some level of success and you'll do whatever it takes to get there. Maybe you have a want or need for something and you would rather build it than buy it. That's the category my current project falls in to.
I have decided to build an acoustic guitar. I don't need one. I don't know how to play one. I do know a few chords but I'm a long, long way from proficient. Carpal tunnel syndrome and subsequent surgery put an end to guitar lessons a few years ago but I'm healed now and I would like to try again. My guitar is a plain, old, no name acoustic that I gave to my son when he turned 13. He's 25 now. He went on to become an excellent guitar player and now has a very nice guitar. I hadn't seen my guitar for awhile so I asked my daughter if she knew where it was. I was pretty sure that one of her friends had borrowed it. Turned out it was in her room, in a soft case, but somehow the neck had been broken. At first I thought it was beyond repair. I enjoy woodworking but the break was jagged and I wasn't sure that the old guitar was worth the effort to fix it. After a few days of thinking it over I decided to use the old guitar for a pattern to build a new guitar. I went ahead and did my best to repair the old one with clamps and glue, mainly so I'd have an intact neck to measure. To my surprise, it seems to be holding up ok, but the idea to build a new one had incubated long enough so I'm going through with it.
There is quite a bit of information on-line related to building an acoustic guitar. It seems that lots of people have built one and blogged about their experience. I made a few decisions before I did any research and I now know that I've already made some mistakes. Regardless, I am determined to make this guitar one of a kind. It may not sound great, I may not be able to play it well, but I'm going to do my best to make it look good! Something tells me that this first guitar I'm building won't be the last guitar I build. I don't have a workshop. I have a pick-up truck. I'm building this guitar on the tailgate, hence the name "Tailgate Guitar". I have a few basic tools and a love for creativity. We'll see how it goes.
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| A trip to a local sawmill yielded 7 pieces. these will become the back and sides. This is enough wood for 2 guitars! |
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| I found this piece of Black Walnut at an exotic woods dealer in Atlanta. |
