Guitars for Sale - Perhaps!

Either through ignorance, foolishness or a surplus of enthusiasm, I was only too keen to offer my early guitars for sale - thankfully, none of them have come back to haunt me! I've often wondered what became of the instruments I sold so many years ago, so it was with pleasant surprise that I received an email from a past "customer" who discovered this blog and decided to get in touch - thanks Laurence!  It was great to hear from him, but I was a little startled to hear of his continuing affection for the guitar I built him - now more than ten years ago - given the degree to which the quality of my guitars has improved over the intervening years and how those first few instruments must suffer - quite naturally - by comparison to more recent efforts.

Frequent "reality checks" in the years since I built Laurence's guitar have served to keep my feet on the ground and have convinced me of the wisdom of building instruments for my own use, or for friends and acquaintances free of charge.  It's a cautious approach that's allowed me to gather a much better array of jigs and tools and gradually improve my skills to a level comparable to other emerging builders.  If you've followed this blog over the past couple of years you'll know that improving the standard of my finishes has also been a major factor in my decision to prolong my self-imposed apprenticeship.

Perhaps the two guitars I've recently commenced herald a new era and will give me the renewed confidence - hopefully deserved this time - to offer my guitars for sale.  Both are modelled after Martin's iconic "Orchestra Model" (OM) series of instruments and feature combinations of East Indian Rosewood/Sitka Spruce and Claro Walnut/Redwood respectively.

If there's even a shred of truth in what's written about the tonal characteristics of the various wood species, the finished instruments will be worlds apart when they're eventually equipped to sing. Assuming I work on the instruments concurrently and complete them at the same time, I'll be well placed to make useful comparisons and judgements.

Cheers
Pete