Having played various guitars over the past 30 years, it had always been a secret wish of mine to build one. However, the transition from dream to reality was, for me at least, very long.
On several occasions he had brought me to the brink of the momentous event and then I studied the smooth and perfect forms of each of the guitars I owned, heaved a deep sigh of regret and once again withdrew from the task.
I kept asking myself, ‘What’s the problem? You built a 42 foot yacht, learned to fly a plane, learned a few languages, became a marine surveyor, but this one beat you!
It baffled and irritated me and I thought it was beyond my abilities, but great things were going to happen. Some time ago I went to see one of my guitar heroes, Jeff Lang, play. Little did I know, but this event changed my entire life. Stunned, amazed, and totally dumbfounded, I watched this guy take a weird fig-shaped guitar, drape it across his lap, and produce some of the best bluesy dog-howling, guitar-slithering sounds to ever slither out of the Delta. My amazement continued as Mr. Lang tuned in and out for more whining, Eastern-leaning Celtic and Asian megarythyms until I fell asleep. You CANNOT get that sound out of a guitar…it’s not possible…guess what, you can, and he did! I was really looking forward to one of these Weissenbourns!
I was hooked, I snuck home now completely depressed. My guitars hid in shame, we ignored each other for days. The die was cast. Whatever happens, I was going to buy myself a Weissenbourn slip ‘slidin’ steel guitar! Three to five thousand dollars was out of the question… dare I try to make one?
Here good fortune struck. Thanks to the great kindness and encouragement of my good friend and incredible Tamborine Mountain Luthier Kim Hancock and her two sons Sean and Dane, I decided to take the plunge. With Kim’s extra help and reassurance and the supply of some really beautiful woods in a long box and a great book on how to build guitars, I started the impossible dream. I decided, once and for all, to build that damn guitar and what’s more, write a book about it at the same time!
HOW TO BUILD IN WEISSENBOURN
After visiting many websites and reading some interesting books on guitar building, I realized that there were a few different methods of building a guitar from scratch. However, I decided that the safest method for me was to build a mold, an actual replica of the guitar, and a working base on which the mold could be built.
The basic job of the mold is to give you a real, live 3D model of the guitar you intend to build, literally around the mold itself. The other function of the mold is to have a very practical and immediate reference to calculate the dimensions of the front, back and sides of the precious wood that you are about to cut. The working base is exactly what it says. It’s a flat base constructed of MDF board, two ¾” thick pieces each glued together for strength and to form a mini ‘strong back’ on which to build your guitar.
The work base has handy slots cut around the perimeter and are used to slide in small clamps when gluing on the back adjusting the sides or even holding the cast or guitar still.
So the working foundation is your bench, your mold is the basic pattern on which your Weissenbourn guitar will be built on and around. Once the basic body of the guitar has been built, naturally the mold is removed and construction continues… So far are you following me? Well, we’ll continue (pun intended) on how this was accomplished… In fact, it was all going to be very awkward for me, since I live on a forty-two foot yacht in a marina. ..And that? It was going to happen against all odds, literally.