The Marlee Blog

Day of longboarding

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:44:37 -0700

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Lutherie Noobs

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:47:26 -0700

Well, I’ve been at this hobby/profession of lutherie for about 12 years now. What do I see when I look back? It’s an odd question because I have consistently and continue to look forward. However, I think it a fair question at this juncture. What could possibly go wrong?

What I can say is that this is a demanding, relentless and selfish craft. It is the endless pursuit of elusive perfection. I continue to learn even though I am now “qualified” to teach.

When I say “qualified” I mean that I can demonstrate “a” method of construction pieced together over the course of a decade based on my and my customers needs/wants/wishes and limitations. I can coax a beautiful, ornate box from raw material and it will sing. Some better than others. Most are better than what is commercially available at your local Guitar Mega-Mart.

Why then am I not “famous”? Why am I not wealthy? Why can I still not support my family on lutherie alone? A guitar making friend of mine (the very talented Mike Elwell of Desmet, ID) has a favorite joke that goes like this: What is the difference between lutherie and a cheese pizza? A cheese pizza can feed your family. Ba dump dump!

There ARE only a privileged few craftsmen out there who can make a comfortable living building guitars. Perhaps privileged is a poor choice in words. A better term would be “deserved” or “accomplished”. I note that the output and palette of these combined artists are as remarkably diverse as the colors of the spectrum. One thing I know they all share in common, however, is this: They have paid their dues.

I have paid particular attention to William Cumpiano over the course of my career. At one point I thought him a god as he wrote (along with Jon Natleson) the fabulous “Guitarmaking: Technology and Tradition” by which I still reference routinely and is the tome responsible for me building my first guitar. I had the privilege of studying with William in the autumn of 2005 and it was an experience I shall always treasure and what also became the template of the tutorial I offer today.

I suppose Master Cumpiano will always have a place in my heart and mind as “my” teacher but I have learned that he is but one of many, many competent -nay, expert- artists out there who all have something different to share regarding this demanding craft. I am currently pouring over the new Ervin Somogyi texts and can see that there is a wealth of information on his approach to lutherie and it is, in many ways, a vastly different approach than Cumpiano’s.

With that said, one article William wrote long ago has stuck with me to this day and it has guided me in my pursuit of the craft. It was an article entitled “Pedagogues Lament” in which he described his frustration and outright amazement at all the self-proclaimed “Luthiers” out there who had earned their “title” by virtue of reading a book or building an instrument or having taken a class. These people eschew the word amateur which Cumpiano lovingly defines in its proper context. They shamelessly market their wares as those of an expert and damn the possibility of consequence when that same instrument returns upon his or her doorstep months or years later in need of adjustment, repair or refinement because the guitar was built in a connect-the-dots fashion rather than being the product of years of experience.

Let me tell you what “experience” is to me thus far: Experience is re-building a neck 3 times because I lacked proper understanding of the necessary architecture or took the “easy way” instead of the proper way. Experience is building and disassembling a guitar 3 times in as a result of not being able to so easily produce for the customer what I promised I would. Experience is countless dollars and hours spent in an effort to produce sawdust. Experience isn’t only the accumulation of time. More accurately, I would say, it is the accumulation of mistakes.

I am -13 years later- still an amateur. The word, as Cumpiano points out, is rooted in French and is literally translated as “lover of”. I am no master and believe after all these years of talking to, debating with and listening to other luthiers that few would self-apply this title upon themselves. Because they understand that perfection is technically unachievable through mere mortal hands.

I am competent. I can deliver an above average instrument. Far above average if one takes into account all the instruments that have been are are being produced by factory robots and even others of my ilk.

What will the next 12 years bring? Certainly a flattened if not more efficient learning curve. I will, I think, make significant progress towards the goal of perfection but that prey can never be caught. I will reside at a new level of expertise and I WILL be an “expert” to more and more people who choose not to climb this hill with me. My view of the plain below will be more expansive and perhaps I will even reach the “top” of the profession. But the top isn’t perfection. It’s just a higher level of understanding. It is only a larger accumulation of mistakes and lessons learned from them.

To all those noobs, “experts” and “luthiers” out there who haven’t produced their own weight in sawdust yet much less paid their dues I say this: embrace your amateur status. Take your steps one at a time and make some progress rather than spending that time trying to convince an unsuspecting public that you are something you are not.

The bottom line and the definition of amateur is love. You have to love the chase. If you truly do then you will eventually accumulate the experience and the recognition, money or whatever you may wish for will follow. But it won’t happen if you do it the other way around.

Marlee Guitars in the News

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:49:37 -0800

Here us a very flattering article Scott Yates, of the Capital Press, did on me a few years ago.

The Capital Press is a weekly West Coast agricultural newspaper. I am a grain trader by day, so that’s how I ended up in this fine newspaper

Guitar Buying 101

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:04:55 -0800

Such a huge topic....

Let’s get one thing straight first: I would love you to commission a guitar. While it is an expensive proposition, it is an investment in your playing that you will never regret. However, there are a few things I’d like the budding player or new buyer to know about buying guitars in general. I’ll concentrate on factory guitars because I want you to be happy regardless where you make your purchase.

Factory guitars are just that. They are built en masse. They are reliant on CNC (Computerized Numerical Control (i.e. Robots)) and assembly line workers. When you buy a typical factory guitar, it is unlikely that it was ever touched, examined, worked on or evaluated by an actual Luthier (stringed instrument maker). Just as in building a car, each worker performs a set and dedicated task and at the end of the line you have a guitar.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a poor instrument. Factories have been making fine guitars for decades. There are some real classics out there too. The classics tend to be the electric, solid body variety however. Why? Because building an electric guitar is a study in architecture.

The top (front) of the guitar is where it all happens. A plate of soft wood, typically spruce, only 1/16th of an inch thick must, all at once, withstand 180 pounds of constant torsion (from the strings constant pull) without collapsing yet be resilient enough to produce the sweetest, most delicate sound.

For a number of reasons, the typical “off the shelf” guitar is constructed with laminated wood (plywood). This is cheaper and ensures that the instrument will hold up. Unfortunately, it also robs the guitar of the tone you are looking for. Plywood is simply not as resonant as solid tone wood.

Today’s factory guitars, more often than not, have back and side wood that is made up of laminates. While not as desirable as solid wood, this is not as detrimental to sound as laminated top woods. A decent guitar for a reasonable price would typically be constructed with laminated back and side woods and a solid top. A laminated top is not going to be a good sounding instrument.

So, first and foremost, when selecting an instrument, look for “Solid Tone Wood”. It is usually prominently displayed because it is a sign of quality. If it’s not displayed, ask the salesperson and ask him/her to show you the documentation as it can be very difficult to determine if a top is constructed of ply or not by simply looking. Get a guarantee!

You can expect to pay in the negihborhood of $1000 for a solid top guitar by a reputable factory.

Even the finest factory guitars, like Martins, with solid tonewood all around must receive extra attention upon purchase however. Why? Because once an instrument is built, strung up and adjusted for action, it must be played to allow the instrument to settle.

It takes a guitar about a month to settle in and it should be played regularly during this time as well. At that time, the instrument should be re-adjusted for action and then it should be good to go. Factories don’t have the time nor the inclination to perform this service for you like a quality builder would. If you buy a guitar “off the shelf”, be prepared to bring it back to the music store after a month of playing and ask them to adjust the action. In a decent music store, this will be included with the purchase price.

Finally, what is action, anyway? Action is a generic term referring to the ease of fretting and is usually measured in the distance between the bottom of the string and the top of the fret. The narrower the distance (without rattling on the frets) typically, the easier the instrument is to play.

At the first fret, a optimally set up instrument will have a clearance of no more than 16/1000ths of an inch at the first string and no more than 25/1000ths at the sixth string. If your guitar is off by much more than that, you are going to have to exert some muscle to elicit a good tone out of your instrument.

Calluses are a fact of life for guitar players, but it shouldn’t hurt to play the guitar unless you’ve been practicing for hours!

So, when buying a good guitar, keep this checklist in mind:
1. Shop for established brands with a good reputation (Martin, Gibson, Taylor, etc)
2. Make sure, at the very least, that the top (front) of the instrument is constructed from good quality, solid tonewood.
3. Ask if a setup re-adjustment is included in the purchase. If not, be wary. Ask how much the service will cost and include it in your total purchase price
4. Check the action by playing it. A well set up guitar should play nearly as easily as an electric guitar. If the scale (span of distance between the nut and saddle, therefore the distance between the frets) is too long or short, keep looking and ask for a model with a longer or shorter scale length.
5. Expect to pay $1000 up for a decent guitar with these specs and a decent, hardshell case. Once you get into solid tonewood all around, a case and post-purchase service that number can skyrocket....
6....and once you get into two or three thousand, why bother with a factory guitar when I can build you one to your individual specifications?

Thanks and good luck!

Welcome to Marlee Guitars

Sat, 3 Feb 2007 11:25:51 -0800

I’ve been building guitars since 1999. People get involved with hobbies and careers in varied and interesting ways. Here’s how I got involved in guitars...

As a kid, I loved music and it’s a love affair that has stuck with me ever since. In fact, my earliest memory on this planet is sitting inside a car in the early 1960’s, listening to the radio and the first song I remember is the Beatles singing “Do You Want To Know A Secret?” (oooh wah oooh....)

As a child, I played the piano for a couple of years and played various band instruments including the clarinet and the drums. I remember t.v. shows of the time and enjoyed watching “Soul Train” and “American Bandstand”. You’re too young to remember those shows, but they were all we had before the days of MTV and then, the internet....

Music was a BIG deal to most kids back then. I was the product of a broken home and my mother worked to support my brother and I. We lived in various apartment complexes and our situation dictated that my brother and I take care of ourselves for much of my childhood. In fact, it’s fair to say that I was raised by my brother and the kids on the block (and their parents!).

Summers were a true joy. Lazy, crazy and innocent years. I can remember the AM radio. KGW and KISN (Kissn’) vied for the attention of every kid in the Portland Metro area. Back then, we didn’t have much money so we didn’t buy many records. BUT, we had the radio.

You listened all day long and you waited and waited for your favorite song. It would take some time, but you would ALWAYs hear your song four or five times a day. It was always a cause for celebration. You would endure all of the other songs, including the ones you hated and then the DJ would roll off the time and temperature while the intro came up louder and louder in the background and then your song was on. We would crank the volume and sing along or bounce around on the furniture. Joyful mayhem.

My mother eventually married a farmer who lived in Eastern Oregon. My brother, 17 at the time, stayed behind in Portland and lived with my grandmother so he could finish highschool with his pals. I got packed off and became the city kid in a very, very small town called Ione.

It was kind of a culture shock but the pot was sweetened for me with horses, dogs, guns, motorcycles, snow machines and the wide open spaces. I adjusted quickly and to this day prefer the country to the city.

Anyway, I “inherited” a Sears electric guitar from my brother who was soon off to join the Army to help clean up the mess in the final chapters of the Vietnam War.

I wasn’t overly enamored with the guitar. Because it was a cheap model, it was hard to play. Plus, I lived smack dab in the middle of nowhere (20 miles from the nearest town and the population of that town was only 400 souls) so I had no guidance other than a worn copy of a Mel Bay How-To book.

Like every budding guitar player, I knew the opening chords of “Smoke on the Water” and not much else. I noodled on the guitar for a few years and managed to learn the basic chords.

As I entered high school, a new music teacher appeared on the scene who managed to get a good deal on some acoustic guitars for those who were interested in taking a class on playing. I signed up for that class and I still own that old Epiphone. It was a big step up from the Sears guitar and while it is beefy and stiff, it’s still a decent instrument that has held up well for nearly 30 years.

I moved on to community college in Pendleton, Oregon where I stumbled on a music store. There was a brand new shiny Apple Red Peavy T-60. I went to the bank and took out a loan (one of my first) and took that axe home along with a monster amp.

I still own the amp but stupidly traded the guitar, years later, for a Fender Telecaster. The Tele is a great guitar, don’t get me wrong, but subsequently, those T60’s have become a bit of a collectors item and I wish I would have kept it!

Over the years, I played in various bands and had a lot of good fun. I still was a poor player though. I took a couple of classes and that helped over time but I never got serious about the instrument until about the time I graduated from the University of Oregon in 1986.

I entered the workforce as a grain trader with a grain exporter in Portland. Later, I moved to the country, in Eastern, Washington (plus a brief 2 year stint in Hawaii) and took my guitars along with me. I continued to play for pleasure and over time, I have gotten to be a fairly decent player.

I was visiting a friend of mine, Bill, back in Ione about 10 years ago. Bill is a bachelor farmer and has been one of my best friends for decades. Bill has an....interesting lifestyle. Part of that lifestyle is his penchant for collecting unusual instruments.

I began reading books about collecting guitars. Bill, who is a genius in the workshop, had fooled around with a bit of guitar restoration but kind of got bored with it. He gave me a set of fret files and a book about guitar repair and a Les Paul gold top with a fractured neck and an old Kay arch top in need of a new fret board. He thought maybe I’d get interested in repair and fix them for him.

I’ve still got those two guitars. I guess I should get to work.

That was the beginning......