Quote:
Originally Posted by rounder
Beautiful post Sadie-f. I do not want to buy a new custom guitar. I would not know what to get. I have two Martins that I like...an HD-28 that I have had for about 25 years and a D-18 sinker mahogany that I got a few months ago. I do not know what I would change if I wanted to buy a custom.
I have two Serottas and two Kelly Bedford bikes. I bought all of them when I thought that I knew bikes and could get what I want. Going custom was worth it for me in bikes.
I love this thread and appreciate everyone's comments. I do not want or need a custom guitar right now. But, if I ever decided that I wanted one or needed one, I would definitely take everyone here's opinions into account.
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So kind of you to say��
For me the custom bike was this epitome of excellent design and execution of build. My Santa Cruz is just like that - I don't need (and remain astounded with the utter perfection they achieved in fit and finish (*). I appreciate the one small wobble I cannot see, but feel in the side where the lower bout taper towards the waist. Most of all, I love the clarity of tone. I've said in other posts recently, the only guitar I've played that I'd like to own more was a 1934 OOO-28 that sold for considerably more than I paid for the SCGC OM.
I expect when she's 90 yo, my Santa Cruz OM will sound better than that Martin (by then, the tone woods will be over 180 years old). And I hope to come somewhere close to that in my own builds. The bug to own "better than Martin" to me is a less severe addiction than the desire to build your own ;-).
For a decade+ I worked in glass art,.learning everything I could, pursuing advanced techniques. Glass is an art that goes back millennia, it took the Romans and availability of manufactured pipes to get blown glass to a factory scale which then concentrated in Venice around the 7th century. Venice worked hard to keep its methods secret, and while the wall of secrecy eventually fell, the highest quality glass still came from Murano.
Around the 1970s a few upcoming masters of Venetian glass began sharing technique (notably, they are still a bit closed on their color recipes). I think it's the same in luthiery. Many of today's strongest builders are glad to share their knowledge, and have trained plenty of luthiers who've started their own solo shops.
I'm sure I couldn't do this today without luthiers like Richard Hoover, Michael Millard, Dana Bourgeois and many others having paved the way (around the same time I was beginning a career that started in a machine shop and proceeded into tech / science). I'm beyond grateful.
* I committed about 5% of the cost of the custom in decoration e.g. paua in the rosette and a custom inlay in the headstock (a feature I put in my own builds). This guitar mostly lives in an A/R case on the wall, and I do enjoy this customization. When I'm playing the visual I'm often mesmerized by is the figured walnut binding; that was a good choice :-).