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Bill’s koa and Adirondack spruce Nautilus.
www.wilbornguitars.com
#Luthier #acousticguitar #boutiqueguitars
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Oh my, Ben... every one of your guitars has such impeccable tone and sustain... I am constantly impressed every time the sound of one of your instruments reaches my ears! 🎵🎶 ... ... ... ... (those ellipses are my attempt at expressing speechlessness... 😄)
Your musical motifs and compositions are as beautiful as your instruments. I sometimes wonder if your fans realize the rare balance between your guitars, your music and your playing.
Wonderful as usual. I still believe in trying before you buy, as there are different characteristics in every guitar. Even factory clones.
Back to building…. Here’s the semi-built stage of an Arum. All my braces are oversized and ready to be trimmed down, and around, and over the reinforcement for the soundhole and the laminated maple bridge plate. Once that’s done, trimmed and smoothed, it will get glued in place on this cocobolo rim assembly. I haven’t built an Arum for awhile. This is good fun.
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How are you doing your beautiful bevels ? Are the one piece bindings?
Wild set of coco, I can't wait to see the back. Is the arum bigger than the nautilus?
What's a laminated bridge plate? (and why is it superior to a solid wood BP?)
I met my friend Tom Bowersox nearly ten years ago at the Woodstock show in NY. He’s been a great friend, client, and design patron to me, and I’m honored to have always been included in the lineup at his “Bowersox International Guitarapalooza” in New Braunfels TX for the last five years. I’ve done a lot of shows, and this one is very special. It’s a bit of an amazing piece of social diplomacy, in which Tom and his wife Kathy throw open the doors of their house to a large number of guests, people from all across the country, people of all manner of beliefs and political leanings, and create an environment where civility, decency and a love of the world of luthiery bring this diverse group into, for at least one weekend, a kind of miraculous harmony. There I hobnob and play music with many who may very well be diametrically opposed to my beliefs- but that is not an issue, because here, briefly, we are all in agreement about one lovely thing, and leave the rest at the door. This delicious interlude, a break from the ceaseless classification of enemies, reveling in misdeeds and outrageousness, is due to the work, generosity and equanimity of Tom and Kathy Bowersox. Where all of us may stand politically and religiously are irrelevant because, when all that frantic, ugly, tribal bullshit is stowed away, you can see the fundamental decency in almost anyone. Without common ground upon which to meet and perhaps cool the ferocity of our own biases, we humans haven’t the slightest chance of ever reconciling with one another. That’s why BIG is close to my heart, and why I wanted to write this in testament to my dear friend, who is currently being very unfairly depicted in another FB post.
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Hey Ben, do you mind if I share this? I was trying to calmly and succinctly put my thoughts into words, but you nailed it.
Well said, Ben. If anyone is bashing Tom, they don't know Tom. I've known Tom and Kathy for the last several years through the BIG event and a follow his posts on FB. He and I do not agree politically, but it's not a battle, it's a different viewpoint. Strangely enough, I've found a number of issues we do agree on! Anyone that would open up their house and expend the effort he a Kathy do for BIG shows a big, generous heart. I think he would be a loyal friend. Those are the things that are important, the other stuff is transitory.
I agree, Ben Wilborn Guitars, we can appreciate the commonality that brings us together. I continue to meet and enjoy the company of many people I never would have met otherwise, including you, my friend.
Koa and Adirondack Wilborn Nautilus, with ebony binding and delicious green purfling lines.
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Stunning!!! Does the offset sound hole create a different sound? Pardon my ignorance, I’m a listener not a player.
Great woodworking, what does it sound like acoustically? Also is that nitro or FP?
I imagine this will win an award. I always thought Florence had the edge over Venice when it came to cutaways 💜
I’ve begun work on this very special Arum for the B.I.G. Show in New Braunfels TX this September. I’ve been saving this incredible cocobolo set for, I don’t know…something SPECIAL! This is peak cocobolo in my opinion, and I’ll be matching it with an equally fine Adirondack top, as well as my crush-of-the-week green purfling.
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I bet this set of coco would also look really snazzy with brown rosewood/coco binding (like the guitar in your FB wallpaper photo) and golden/amber colored micro purfling lines, especially if it were paired with a warmer-colored sitka top.
Looking great! The green goes amazingly well with that Coco.
Ben, are the green purflings dyed pear?
Here’s how I shape the curve of the heel and tail blocks. I made a little subtable with a projecting lip which mounts on a disk sander. Then I made several jigs that securely hold the blocks, and a series of different shaped cauls to match the curvature of the inside of my various model’s sides. These cauls screw onto the bottom of the sanding jig, and ride against the projecting lip of the subtable, thereby imparting the curve onto the block. A funny thing is that I’ve made hundreds of these at this point and I’ve never had to change the 80 grit disc! I just go slowly, and it seems that mahogany will never wear it out.
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I'm at this stage in my build. Can I drop by with my heal and tail blocks? Looks a lot faster than double sticky taping sandpaper to the inside of the mold and doing it that way.
As a non-luthier guitar guy, I am blown away by what you know and I don't. As I scratch my head trying to understand this, I've decided it's one more thing in life I don't comprehend but appreciate its contribution to the final product. I've often thought it would be cool to watch you through a complete build process, but I would ask so many questions it would take you a year to complete that guitar! Impressive work, Ben, even though I have no idea what's going on.
Nice tooling, in my stint making solid body instruments for Phil Kubicki I ended up making a lot of the tooling which I found more rewarding than making the instruments.
Next up, a cocobolo and Adirondack Nautilus for my friends at Miki Gakki in Japan. This is some pretty rare, perfectly straight and quartered coco.
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Wow. what did you put on that Cocobolo? It's stunning.
Awesome! Can I ask where you get your colored purfling/binding from?
I don't think I have ever seen Cocobolo that straight. Love the dark strips in the center. That is going to be a very nice color palate. Looks like all the pieces are there, glue that up and be done with it, 2-3 days if you work at it.
One last photo before this baby goes into the spray booth.
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That’s a weird looking dovetail. 😜
Looks great! Hope you show the finished product.
Wow. Koa?
With the completion of each phase of the building, one gets a chance to sit back and admire what had been done. Little milestone rewards for a luthier. This koa and Adirondack Nautilus is complete except for the frets and finish, but I can see that it is going to be lovely. Honestly, the trees get a major share of the credit.
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You’re killing me with koa! I started my career at the Kamaka ukulele factory and went on to have my own shop, mostly repairing but some building. But my love for koa has never diminished. Your work is exquisite and beautiful!
That looks great! One thing I never get is why have all this beautiful wood on the sides and back, but the front is spruce. I get that it has better resonance, but I just want someone to go all out with only beautiful wood. There has to be a way to get great sound out of other woods.
Stunning.
Fake swag! My friend ordered a shirt and mug from one of those parasitic profiles that attaches itself to the real profile of a small business- and actually received a real shirt and mug.
I guess it’s worth somebody’s time to one-off such paltry merchandise. If you are wondering how to discern the false from the real thing, a good indication is the eagle wings; I will never employ anything eagle-related in my designs. Nor the tagline “The Best Ever”. Sheesh.
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it is embarrassingly ugly for sure
What do you have against eagle wings?
That’s WILD I assumed it was always just about stealing money/info, not actually shipping items?!
A tune from our soon to be released 4th album! www.frogandtoadmusic.com
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I'm a builder.( Luthier)on guitar #25. I strive to build instruments like yours. Stellar music makers!
Wilborn Guitars: What a great piece of music and played so well, with nice dynamics and beautiful interplay!! Wow!! Thanks for sharing!! (The guitars sounded spectacular, too!!).
Looking forward to the new tunes!
European maple, Carpathian spruce, ebony bound 3 ingredient Nautilus.
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Just amazing, of course... every build is simply a beautiful build... this one is no exception... that's one thing I've noticed, Ben, is the absolute consistency with which you create these little masterpieces... and the wonderful sound emanating from these instruments... such richness of tone, such clarity and sustain, such elegance in form... (except for these few words, we are, once again, left speechless...)
I listened to your playing again this afternoon on real speakers, as opposed to the speaker on my phone. Lord have mercy, but that guitar sings; wondrous. You have excelled yourself, yet again.
Beautiful guitar, I love it, do you ever put electronics in your guitars?
Here is a bridge ready to be glued to the top. I shoot my lacquer with a thin mask of frisket tape covering the bridge area. This tape is cut 1/32” smaller all around than the footprint of the bridge. To compensate for the thickness of the finish (~.005”), I cut a very delicate rabbet around the perimeter of the bridge. It is my goal that the fit between these two surfaces should be as exact as possible. The second photo shows the bridge lying dry-fit on the top. There are no gaps, and that means that there is no forcing of this fit with clamps, and no weird extraneous tensions are incorporated into the top. I want the only tension in the whole guitar to come from the strings.
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Gorgeous top. Adirondack I'm guessing. Is this for a multi scale set up?
I’m enjoying your educational tutorials on how you craft these beauties! Truly a master at work!
I'd still clamp it when I glue that bridge in
To coat, or not to coat? The outside of a guitar is finished, but traditionally the inside is not. On the one hand, finishing the interior adds weight, is time consuming, and makes future repairs like cleating more difficult. On the other hand interior finishing makes the wood less subject to uneven humidity-change reactions, looks lovely and keeps porous woods from wicking exterior finish through the pores to the inside. I let the latter be my guide, and only finish the inside if it is likely to become blotchy from bleed-through. Since my design allows you to see right in, I don’t want it to be unsightly. Very vain, I’m sure, but I want it to look nice in there. I use Rubio monocoat these days, which can be applied so thinly that the added weight is negligible, and as far as future repairs go, well, that can be addressed in the future.
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Rubio for the win. As always, spectacular work my friend.
That is THE most beautiful slab of koa I’ve seen!
Ben! There is nothing vain about making something as beautiful and perfect as it can be! It's the pleasure we receive in a job well done!
Green!
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Ooo reconstituted turquoise??
That green really complements the (is it mahogany?); it’s impressive to me when someone finds a color that compliments the build when it isn’t an undertone in the other components of the build.
Beautiful!! Curious, have you ever had a client request a guitar made from myrtle wood? How do you feel about it as a tone wood?
I’m making a couple guitars bound in green and ebony. These are the little pre-bent, pre-laminated parts I make to bind the fingerboard and headstock.
I also make the purfling and bindings for the body.
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Wait. Green ebony?
I've used green and black before and it looks sharp. Good work!
I can’t wait to see the finished results! That’s going to be beautiful!