One of the newest luthiers on the block is Mollenhauer Guitars based out of California’s high desert. With a focus on producing high-quality, low cost guitars, the guys at Mollenhauer are quickly making a name for themselves among players and collectors alike.
I was going to write the next series about a non-guitar related art piece but I changed my mind. About a year ago I was commissioned to build a guitar for a client. When I first accepted the order I wasn’t going to be starting it for awhile so we left the details hanging. As the start date got closer, the client asked about making it an art piece. For me this is the best of all worlds, mix my two great passions, guitars and visual art!
It seems like I’m always starting these columns off by apologizing for it being so long since my last installment, so I figure why change now! Sorry, it’s been so freakin’ long! Okay, now I feel better. I actually finished Number One back in January of this year. Since then I’ve been working my old-man-tail off building the rest of the first batch of P-1s, which I just finished shipping in July. Then I went full bore filling guitar stand orders and a couple of other art commissions that have been outstanding for the past year-ish. WHEW! It’s been a hell of a couple of years!
My apologies for so much time passing since my last installment, but I felt I really needed to concentrate on getting these first guitars done. I am way past my initial time estimates for all of my clients and I’m feeling extremely guilty about it. I’d really like to start out by thanking all of them for their kind support and patience this first year of my new guitar venture. Thanks guys!
A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. The biggest bummer was while I was carving the back shape into the neck for 001 an 1¼” long by 3/16” wide black/green stain on the visible side of 001’s neck appeared… ain’t that a bitch! After all the time, energy and dollars committed to the beautiful neck of 001 this stain shows up… neck lost!
This time I’ll show you some of the work involved with the building of Number One’s neck. A lot of folks think it’s pretty much as easy as sticking some frets into a piece of Maple… well it’s not quite that simple… at least on the P-1. I’ll be breaking the neck building into at least 2-3 different Functional Art articles, because there is just so much to cover. In fact, there are tons more steps than what I’m outlining here, but if I keep taking the time to document this build, instead of building it, I think I’m going to be upsetting my very patient client, Mr. Eddie James.
As I mentioned in this column last year, I decided to build some guitars again. After many years away from the guitar business, I got the “jones” again, and designed my newest guitar, The P-1. Over the next several months I thought that I would take you through the journey of building serial number 001, which was ordered by Mr. Eddie James (thanks Eddie!).
I thought this might be kind of an interesting thing to write about… how does one go about developing a logo for their work? I’ve done this quite a few times. Many of those times I’ve done it with Pamelina, sometimes with my son Adam, this time was with both. As I looked at my drawing table, with all of the logo’s evolution laid out on it, I’d thought I’d tell you about it, so here’s the story.
