Inspiration for the build

I have read tons of blogs, watched lots of videos, read a lot of catalogs, and luiter sites. I even contacted a few luthiers directly. I will include email responses below from a couple of the luthiers I contacted.

The two people that are the most inspirational to me for this build are Steve Dickie from Canada, who has a bunch of great videos on youtube and also a site for his guitar building business http://home.golden.net/~steved/. If you ever read this Steve, thank you so much!

The other person that was inspirational to me, and I actually contacted and wrote a nice response back was Steve Summerford www.acousticguitarbuild.blogspot.com/ He was very encouraging and his first guitar looks amazing. Same goes for this Steve, Thank You!

Both of these people based what they were doing on this book.

Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology: A Complete Reference for the Design & Construction of the Steel-String Folk Guitar & the Classical Guitar

I checked this book out at the library and by now I'm guessing they are considering it stolen. I'm gonna purchase this book someday soon, but until then, I'm holding this book hostage – I may even see if I can re-check it out.

I've had a few people tell me that this build was not a good idea, and I know they were trying to give me sound advice, but that's not what I wanted to hear. It just makes me want to try harder, so thanks to all of them as well.


Emails:


Response from summerford:
Hi Michael-

Thanks for checking out my blog and for the kind words! I enjoy hearing from other people who are getting ready to give lutherie a try--it's pretty rewarding. I wouldn't worry too much about the inlay--it's actually pretty straight forward--inlays sit a little high, bindings stick out a little, then everything gets scraped flush and smooth. Finishing is a little tricky, but once you get it its also easy, just don't rush!

Good luck! I'd love so see some pics someday when you get it going!
Steve
_______________________________________________

Not as good a response from this email to another luthier but he still gave me solid advice:

xxxx,

I was talking to xxxxxx (friend of mine) telling him I was planning on
undertaking a new woodworking project building a acoustic guitar. He said
I should talk to you. I looked on your website and your work is beautiful.

I'm not asking that you teach me or anything, just would like to have a
contact to talk to during my build (I don't know of one luthier) maybe get
to see your work up close too.

Please let me know if you are open to talking with me.

Thanks!

Michael


Michael,
My wife & I were gone for the holidays, just getting back to the day to day
stuff. I have to be honest, I get just as many inquiries like yours as I do
from people interested in buying guitars, so I usually don't even respond.
I have three guitars on consignment with xxxxx at xxxxx in
xxxxx. You could go there and see and play them and if you have
any specific questions we could talk. There are many resources (many free)
open to someone starting this endeavor. I would start by reqesting catalogs
from Luthiers Mercantile (LMI) in California, and Stewart MacDonald in Ohio.
There are also tons of websites and postings on the internet from people who
seem eager to communicate.
Good luck,
xxxxx