Interview with Rick Maguire of Maguire Guitars

Interview by Ron of Boutique Guitar Resource

Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us about your history and what got you interested in building guitars.

Rick Maguire: As a kid I was always taking things apart to see what made them tick and to see if I could make them better. When I started playing guitar in my early teens, the guitar itself became the new subject for my experiments. My brother saw me constantly tweaking and swapping parts out on my guitars. He said, “You’re always taking those things apart, why don’t you just make one the way you want?” I’ve been taking on the challenge ever since.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Did you have any formal education or are you a self-taught luthier?

Rick Maguire: I am primarily self taught, however I did work with Irish luthier Paul Doyle in the late 80′s/early 90′s. I already had a few guitars under my belt by the time I finished high school, but while visiting family in Ireland I was introduced to Paul. Paul makes everything, citterns, lutes, harps, hurdy-gurdies, and anything with strings that makes music. I always had an interest in celtic and baroque period instruments, so when Paul invited me to his shop, I had one foot in the door and realized I had found my new home for a while. I was able to talk Paul into letting me work with him. I took so much away with me from that experience, I really do owe a lot to Paul.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What is your favorite part of the building process?

Rick Maguire: My favorite parts are the very first and the very last steps of the entire process.

I love sorting and picking out the wood, mating woods for the top, body, neck and fretboard in in such a way that they compliment each other tonally and aesthetically in order to suit a particular player’s needs.

I also love when I finish a guitar and string it up and strum it for the first time, I then finally get to hear how well I did on that first step.

Boutique Guitar Resource: When building a guitar, what part of the process do you feel is most important and why?

Rick Maguire: A guitar or any other stringed instrument is a union of it’s design elements, execution of those elements and it’s individual parts. The finished product will be no better than it’s worst component or feature. Therefore, in my opinion, there is no single most important part of the build process. From the initial drawing board design to the final tuning and intonation, every step along the way must be approached with proper care and dedication in order to achieve overall excellence.

Boutique Guitar Resource: If you could pick one guitar builder to build a custom guitar for you who would it be?

Rick Maguire: Kim Walker. Any player would better his or her collection of instruments greatly with the addition of a Walker.

Conversely, if I could build a guitar for another luthier, it would be Paul Doyle. I stay in touch with Paul but he hasn’t had the opportunity to critique my work in nearly 20 years. I would really like for him to play one of my guitars now. I might have to put that on my list of things to do.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you follow the work of other luthiers and if so who are some other luthiers that you admire?

Rick Maguire: We are currently in the Golden Age of guitar building and there are a lot of top notch builders out there. It would be difficult to not follow the work of other builders.

Kim Walker is making some of the best steel string guitars on the planet, as is Mark Campellone in respect to archtops.

I like what Ian Anderson is doing with his contemporary vintage Tele-Paul design, along with Doug Kauer and his modernized, ergonomic Firebirdesque guitars.

Jack Briggs is also of note. I’ve seen some photos of an African blackwood guitar with the sapwood running the length of the back of the neck. That guitar is stunning to me, very admirable use of allowing the wood’s natural elements to dictate the overall aesthetic.

I also like David Myka’s designs. I feel that his designs might appeal to the traditionalist, the modernist and the futurist alike.

There are so many great builders out there at the moment that I couldn’t possibly name all those whose work I admire. Apologies to those that weren’t mentioned.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you give us some information about the neck tenon on your various models?

Rick Maguire: My Contemporary and Certified 7 series feature a traditional long tenon set neck.

The Meridian series gets a different treatment. These guitars feature a “thru-tenon” neck, which is sort of a set neck/neck-thru hybrid. The design came about due to my preference for the sound and performance of neck-thru body guitars, and a dislike for the striped, butcher block look they all seem to have.

In order to capture the sharp attack, increased sustain and easy access to the entirety of the fretboard, along with a traditional bookmatched or one-piece top, I have to do things a little differently. I take the full thickness top and inlay it into the full body-length neck blank. This design gives me the ability to carve the profile of the neck right up to the end of the fretboard, with the cutaways and heel carved to meet the neck profile. The merging of these shapes effectively “frees” the neck from the body allowing for maximum sustain and touch sensitivity. This detail makes for some extra time in hand carving, but it also makes the Meridian series my favorite guitars to make.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What type of neck carve options do you offer?

Rick Maguire: All of my standard neck carve options are c-shaped, of which I have 3 profiles, slim, medium and fat. 90% of my orders are for the medium profile which fits the hand well. I will, however, carve any custom neck profile requested.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us a little about the pickups you use in your guitars?

Rick Maguire: I pledge allegiance to Lindy Fralin.

Fralin Humbuckers are are as close to vintage PAF pickups as you can get. Lindy and his guys really put a load of expertise and a pile of mojo into these pickups. The Un-buckers are a good option for jazz and blues players wanting a warm, clean sound. Fralin P-90s are the cleanest P-90s on the market, in my opinion, with great individual string clarity. With the options of 5% over or 5% underwound, these are a very versatile standard line of pickups.

I also like Lindy’s flexibility. He is always willing to take extra time for a custom request or modification or take a risk in the quest for great tone.

A good electronics package isn’t solely reliant on the pickups, however. Quality potentiometers and capacitors are often overlooked, but should be treated as vehicles or a catalyst for the pickups. I use new CTS or new/old stock NOS potentiometers and new/old stock oil in paper capacitors. These components are susceptible to a variance of as much as + or – 10% of their intended values. I measure the value of every potentiometer and capacitor enabling me to “hand tune” each guitars electronics chassis in order to compliment a particular guitar’s tonal character or meet a particular player’s needs.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you look for when picking wood for a guitar?

Rick Maguire: Three things: tone, stability, and beauty. In that order.

When making any musical instrument, tone is paramount, so the first prerequisite for any wood destined to become a guitar is a good tap tone. Tap on any piece of wood and a trained ear can determine it’s value as a tonewood.

Stability is crucial for an instrument that is expected to stay straight and flat while under a couple hundred plus pounds of string tension. Neck wood must be quarter sawn and straight grained in order to behave properly. Body woods don’t hold very much sway on on the overall stability of electric guitars, but I still prefer quarter sawn, straight grained wood for this use as well.

Once a particular piece of wood meets the tone and stability criteria, it should also be pleasing to the eye. I like to work with all colors, types of figure and grain patterns, so long as the look of each piece is consistent with itself.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you have some favorite wood combinations that you like to use?

Rick Maguire: If you’re looking for that meat and potatoes, classic rock sound, then mahogany and maple is the choice. This pairing become poular over 60 years ago and still proves to be a popular sonic combo.

As a player my favorite combo is a Tasmanian myrtle top with mahogany back and a Tasmanian blackwood neck with Gabon ebony fretboard. This is a very versatile combo with syrupy lows, pronounced mids and snappy highs. I have made 3 of these guitars for myself and still don’t own one. I have been talked into selling each one by one persuasive buyer or another.

As a builder it is hard to have a favorite combo because every player is looking for something different. I have built a lot of guitars in a myriad of wood combinations and still get a thrill from the ability one has to choose from various species of wood in order to hone in on a particular tone.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What woods do you prefer to use for fretboards and necks?

Rick Maguire: For fretboards I like the ebonies and rosewoods of course. I have recently acquired a stash of 60+ year old Brazilian and East Indian rosewood boards that I am hugely excited about.

For necks I have used mahogany, korina, grenedillo, ziricote, walnut, cocobolo and the list goes on. My current favorite would have to be Tasmanian blackwood, this stuff is difficult to work with, but you can really feel the resonance of this wood in your hand when playing a blackwood neck.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you describe the finishing process that you use on your guitars?

Rick Maguire: I use polyurethanes, polyesters, nitrocellulose and oil finishes. Finish material is decided by the player. After having worked with almost every product available, I have concluded that it is not the product itself that can improve or hinder the tone of an instrument, it is the application of the product that makes the difference. The key is to keep the finish as thin as possible and have it mechanically bond to the surface of the wood without actually penetrating the wood. After years of trial and error I feel that I have finally gotten my finishes right where I want them.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us about the different models you offer?

Rick Maguire: The Meridian series is my flagship line. The defining feature of these guitars is the “thru-tenon” neck discussed earlier. They are available flat or carved top, double cut and offset double cut body shapes in either solid, chambered or semi-hollow body. With these guitars I have built on tradition in order to offer the discerning guitarist an instrument with a familiar design and feel possesing modern elements and improvements with flawless execution.

The Certified 7 series pays homage to the revered guitars of the 50′s and 60′s. Over the last 20 years I have amassed a collection of “antique” lightweight tonewoods which allows me to produce a solid body guitar weighing in at under 8 pounds. They are available in flat or carved top, single or double cut body styles. Strict adherence to traditional designs, old school methods and the use of new/old stock materials and components allows these guitars to capture the allure of those iconic instruments. Old stock resources are hard to come by so these will be available in limited production runs only.

The Contemporary series is a line of guitars offered at an approachable starting price point. Available in flat or carved top, double and single cut body styles in solid, chambered, semi-hollow and hollow body options. These guitars see the same level of attention and dedication to detail that all Maguires receive, but the use of standardized building methods and readily available tonewoods allows me to keep the cost at a level that is attainable to most players.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you see in the future for Maguire Guitars?

Rick Maguire: I definitely plan on getting back to acoustic work. I have been sidetracked for a few years dialing in my electric guitars, but I really am an acoustic builder at heart. Players really like my electric guitar designs so I think that will likely remain my primary product line. I have had some steady nudging from my repeat customers for a line of archtops, so that may happen soon. I also see some F-style mandolins in the mix to keep things interesting.

I would like to thank Rick Maguire of Maguire Guitars for taking the time to answer the questions in this interview. You can learn more about Rick and his guitars at:
www.maguireguitars.com

Boutique Guitar Resource is an authorized dealer for Maguire Guitars. Please contact BGR if you are interested in having a guitar built by Maguire Guitars.

Interview With Craig Pfeister of Pfeister Guitars

Interview by Ron of Boutique Guitar Resource

Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us about yourself and what got you interested in guitars.

Craig Pfeister: Even before I really understood stringed instruments, I was fascinated by them. I never had an interest in collecting guitars or anything like that, but I started getting really interested in making them just after high school. Basically, when I learned there were guys out there making guitars, I immediately wanted to know more. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, was about to go to college in Oakland, California. On not much more than a whim, I moved there with her and planned on learning at a place in the Bay Area. It didn’t pan out, but I ended up in art school after a year or two. Before I graduated, I got the itch to start building guitars again and it just went from there. That’s the short version of the story at least.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Are you a self taught luthier or did you have some formal education?

Craig Pfeister: I’m definitely self taught. Like I said earlier, I started learning when I was still in art school. At first I just wanted to fix up old guitars, but I quickly decided to build my own. it took tons of research and trial to do it on my own, but I made it work. The notes I took all throughout grade school and college are probably a fraction of the notes I kept while researching lutherie. I think it would have been much easier to apprentice, but, at that point, I didn’t know any builders and I had no clue where to find one who would teach me, so I just went in head first.

Boutique Guitar Resource: How has your degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco shaped the way you approach building guitars?

Craig Pfeister: I really think it’s defined the way I build. The longer I do this, the more I realize how much I still work like an artist and not a craftsman. At first, I wanted to make instruments that looked classy and basically showboated craftsmanship, but my art background kept creeping into everything I did. I still worked like crazy to hone my skills as a luthier, but, as far as design is concerned, I always approached it like an artist, even if I tried other wise. I could never make replicas or anything like that. I’ve just never had an interest in that kind of thing.

Finishes are the best example of how it’s impacted my work. I really don’t have much in glossy or glasslike finishes. I’ve made them before and I appreciate the craftsmanship, but that’s where it usually ends. I see it the same way I see painting on canvas. A person can paint a portrait that’s technically perfect, even to the point that it’s awe-inspiring, but, when all is said and done, it’s just another portrait. On the other hand, a painter like Picasso could paint a portrait that is technically a mess and even seems broken, but make it so beautiful and full of humanity that it can bring a person to tears.

Obviously I don’t expect that reaction with my finishes, but that’s the kind of mindset I build with, for better or for worse. If I didn’t go to art school and wasn’t bombarded with with art all day for all those years, I think I’d build much differently.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Where does your inspiration come from when designing a guitar?

Craig Pfeister: That’s tough to say exactly. I’ve pulled visual inspiration from everything from music to novels. You’d have to get into the funhouse inside my head to get that one. I’m not even sure half the time.

I do get a lot of inspiration from different artists and art movements. I sympathize especially with the “futurism” movement. I think their philosophies on beauty are brilliant. They found beauty in art to be tired and used, so their reaction was to find beauty in the loud machines of their time and exploit the violence around them as beautiful things because it was truthful. It’s a tough concept to grasp completely, but it falls in line perfectly with my work. One of their greatest philosophies was the idea that everything gets old and it’s worthless to try to pretend otherwise, so they would display ugliness and violence and decay as beautiful because it was inevitable (hence the name futurism). I approach my guitars in much the same way. I try to exploit the fact that they will eventually age, so I build them to look that way and to age in a way that will make them look “better”.

One guitar in particular that’s on my website, the “Abused Blues” is the best example of this. I built that guitar to look shiny and pretty and all that, but I hated it when it was done. It looked perfect, but that bothered me. When it was being finished I noticed a small nick on the back of it and I decided right there that I have no interest in pretty pristine guitars. I dented it more intentionally and I loved the results. After that came whole series of scratching it, denting it, dropping it, and dragging it on the floor until it looked how i wanted. Recently I removed it from sale and lit it on fire, amongst other things. It’s the most tortured looking instrument i’ve ever seen. I absolutely love it.

As far as sound is concerned, I probably draw most influence from blues, even early blues like Robert Johnson. I don’t try to mimic the tone at all; it’s the honesty in the music that interests me. My goal is get a sound that’s as “human” and honest as that music.

Boutique Guitar Resource: You incorporate some very unique finishing ideas into your instruments. Tell us about some of the different things you have done to your guitars and where do these ideas come from.

Craig Pfeister: The ideas come from all over. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across a light pole or old wall that’s given me a great idea. One of my favorite ideas came to me upon seeing a lime caked soap pump.

Many of my ideas come from working with other artists. Until very recently, there were a few metal sculptors working with me in an old factory building. They all have a style that comes across as very natural and gritty. I took a lot of influence from them and that building. They also gave me a lot of tips of metal finishes and things like that which, by altering the methods, I was able to apply to wood finishing. We’ve since moved, but I still work with a few of them.

When I do clear finishes, I like to make them as thin as possible. It took me a long time, but I recently found a method of hand rubbing polyurethane that’s hard and super thin that I’m very pleased with. When I do natural finishes like that, I like to leave the pores showing and keep the wood looking like wood.

My other finishes get a little weird. I recently rusted a wooden guitar. It definitely got some interesting reactions. I’m working on one now that it’s going to be even more remarkable. That’s all I’m going to say about it for now, though.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What is your favorite part of the guitar building process?

Craig Pfeister: Definitely hearing the guitar for the first time. Even if the guitar isn’t done, stringing it up, plugging it in and hearing those first notes is an incredible feeling. Before that point, the guitar doesn’t seem alive. When you finally hear it, it’s like your Frankenstein monster waking up. You get this amazing feeling that you created something and it now has a voice. Just having those moments makes the whole job worth it.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What are some of your favorite woods and what properties attract you to them?

Craig Pfeister: Black walnut has become one of my favorites. The sound from the wood is almost ideal for guitars. It has a very “woody” and slightly bright sound that is absolute gorgeous. it’s also one of the easiest woods to work with. I’m amazed that more builders don’t use it. It’s recently becoming more popular with boutique builders, though, especially those of us who don’t really care for tradition.

Redwood is one of my favorite sounding woods. I would use it all the time, but it’s so soft that it’s almost impractical. If you dropped a redwood bodied guitar, it would look smashed where it hit the ground.

Th sound Cocobolo can make is stunning. Even people who can’t hear any difference in woods can hear how amazing it sounds. Its sound is broad and it rings for what seems like forever. It’s hard to come by large pieces and it can be dangerous to work with due it’s toxicity. If not for those things, I’d use it all the time. It doesn’t even require a finish. It polishes to a shine with its own wax. It’s amazing stuff.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you look for when picking wood for a guitar?

Craig Pfeister: It really depends on the function. If it’s for a neck, I look for grain first. Straight grain is very important in necks. You can never tell how the tension inside the wood will react later in time, but straight grain significantly increases the chances of it being stable. For body woods and fretboards, I go for looks first.

Any piece I use, even if it’s a thin top, has to sound great. No matter how good it looks, if it doesn’t sound right, I wont use it. I spend hours at a time at hardwood stores just picking up and tapping wood. My wife can vouch for that. It’s hard to put back wood that looks great if it doesn’t sound good, but it’s worth it. Once it in my shop, I still listen to each piece over and over to pick the ones that will go well with each other. It sounds obsessive, and it probably is, but the results are always worth it.

Boutique Guitar Resource: If you had to pick one luthier to build a custom guitar for you, who would you pick and why?

Craig Pfeister: I’d probably pick someone like Tom Bills. I can’t see myself making a guitar like one his any time soon, but I’ve always loved his work. There’s a subtlety to his designs, but they’re recognizable and seem to demand attention. If I tried to make something like one of his guitars, I’d just be copying him.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Who are some other guitar builders that you admire?

Craig Pfeister: I’ve always appreciated David Myka’s work. He has a subtlety to his designs that you don’t see often and, although I haven’t played one, they sound great from the little I’ve heard.

I also love Phil Sylvester’s (Pheo) work. I love his attitude toward guitars. He alway seems to be saying “Whatever, I like it”.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Take us through the building process of one of your guitars.

Craig Pfeister: I usually begin thinking about a design a long time before I start making it. Picking out wood can take me a long time. Like I said before, I’m very picky about matching pieces tonally. They also have to work visually. Trying to find the right combination can be a long process.

I’ll normally start by gluing the body together, if it’s multiple parts, and gluing neck laminations. If it’s a chambered body or semi-hollow I’ll route it out first, obviously. I like to work on something else while one thing is drying. That’s why i usually work on a few guitars at one time. When the bodies are drying, I’ll start making fretboards and preparing the necks.

I carve the necks by hand, but, surprisingly, it takes me much less time to carve a neck than to carve a fretboard or body. For the bodies, I use a few different tools, depending on what I’m trying to do. I always fret the guitar after the neck has been glued to the body.

Once everything is together and fretted, I start finishing. This process can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on what I’m doing. After that I install the hardware, wire it up and start the surprisingly long process of fine tuning everything.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you feel is the most important part of the building process?

Craig Pfeister: Carving the neck, for sure. That includes the fretboard too. The neck contributes a ton of the overall tone. On something like a solid body, it’s responsible for most of the tone. It’s also the part that determines the playability and comfort of the guitar. When somebody falls in love with a guitar after playing it, they’re usually falling in love with the neck.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us a little about the pickups you use for your guitars?

Craig Pfeister: I really don’t go too crazy with the pickups. I think the sound of guitar pickups is one area they got right early on. I like to make my own, but I make them like standard PAFs or single coils. If I buy a set, I favor Bare Knuckle Pickups. They’re a little pricey, but they sound better than any other passive pickups I’ve tried.

Personally, I prefer high output pickups. They’re a little less forgiving than normal or low output ones, but I absolutely love that sound. I fell in love with that sound hearing Hendrix play the blues.

I’ve been toying around with ideas for low impedance pickups, but I haven’t made them yet. It’s looking good on paper, but I’ll need to really test it out first.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What is the typical wait time when ordering a custom guitar from Pfeister Guitars?

Craig Pfeister: I’m still trying to come up with a good answer for that. A build can take anywhere from a couple months to a few months. If a person orders wood I have in stock and a body shape I’ve already made, then it’ll be significantly shorter than it would be otherwise. I haven’t been in the business long enough to have a waiting list yet, so my time, from order to completion, is still pretty short.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Out of the guitars you have designed and built, do you have a favorite?

Craig Pfeister: Actually, I don’t think so. Every guitar has been my favorite in one aspect or another, but I haven’t made one yet that’s been all around my favorite. That’s just my preference, by the way. I’m not saying there’s been no “best”.

Ever since art school, I have a hard time liking my old work. Even if it’s absolutely perfect, I’ll see it as something from the past. In a way that’s good: it means I’m always improving and evolving. But, at the same time, I always only want to talk about what I’m doing or about to do. I can’t even stand to see my past artwork, even if it’s good and I used to love it.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you see in the future for Pfeister Guitars?

Craig Pfeister: I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a cheaper line of guitars. They’d all be up to my standards, but I might make them all somewhat similar to each other and make the process faster. Right now, it’s just an idea. I have a lot ideas for them, but that will have to come later. I’m getting some help with setting it up, but I’m trying to not rush it.

I hope to start making some metal bodied guitars soon. I can’t say too much more yet, but it’s probably nothing like what people are thinking. I think by using metal I can reach new tonal grounds and create visuals like nothing anyone’s seen before.

I should be offering nylon string guitars on a regular basis soon. I somehow didn’t realize it until recently, but that’s one of the most common requests I get. I’ve been liking them more and more and I plan to offer them frequently.

I’m also planning some pretty unique instruments in the near future. In my next “batch” one of them, which I’m very excited about, will be my own wicked version of a resonator. I also have plans for basses, baritone guitars, and few other things.

People are starting to recognize my work for it’s style, which is good, but I think a lot of people think it ends there. I want to take the instruments to new areas tonally and functionally and really show people what I can do.

I would like to thank Craig Pfeister of Pfeister Guitars for taking the time to answer the questions in this interview. You can learn more about Craig and his guitars at:
Pfeister Guitars

Boutique Guitar Resource is an authorized dealer for Pfeister Guitars. Please contact BGR if you are interested in having a guitar built by Pfeister Guitars.

An Interview With William Jeffrey Jones of William Jeffrey Jones Guitars

Interview by Ron of Boutique Guitar Resource

Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you give us some information on your background and what got you interested in art and sculpture?
William Jeffrey Jones: Since I was very young – before gradeschool – I loved to make things and draw. My parents are both craftspeople and I grew up around the philosophy of DIY (do-it-yourself). My mother is a perfectionist and my father is a resourceful kinda guy who thinks constantly about different things to build. We had a wood shop as far back as I can remember and I was using scrollsaws when I could barely see over the saw table. My family wasn’t “artsy” so much as it was “craftsy” in a Missouri Ozarks kinda way. People around me just did things themselves, whether it was clothing or funiture or you name it.

Throughout my school-age years, I continued learning how to be a craftsman and create. My favorite thing to do as a child was drawing hundreds of car, airplane, and boat designs in paper tablets. It’s rather ironic that 40 years later, I still operate the exact same way.

However, when I entered the Tulsa University art program, my whole life felt like it just began. I realized that all my visual ideas and philosophical eccentricity wasn’t so eccentric after all. People closest to me think I changed, but I really just let myself become myself and I’ve never even considered doing anything but art for the rest of my life.

Boutique Guitar Resource: You spent a lot of time working as a full-time commercial sculptor. What type of work were you doing and what are some of your favorite pieces that you developed during this time?
William Jeffrey Jones: I began my “art career” thinking I wanted to be a fine artist or one who exhibited in galleries, but commercial work was always the means by which I could have some income without having to flip burgers or push shopping carts. I also grew more as an artist out of necessity while a commercial artist.

Some of the first commercial sculpture I did was for the architectural ornament industry. Fountains, decorative panels, columns, planters… name it. I even did my share of ducks and bunnies for yard ornament production. That kinda swung me into exhibition sandsculpture and larger commercial displays for malls and a variety of businesses. I think I did a sandsculpture in almost every state East of Colorado in a period of only a couple years. All those gigs were large scale projects. Some – like a Santa Claus I sculpted for a store in Germany – were as much as 35-feet high.

I was also doing smaller-scale figure projects for the gift and figurine industry to fill in the gaps of my work schedule. When I was getting tired of travelling, I sent porfolios out to the toy companies and landed some toy work that led to a staff sculptor gig for McFarlane Toys. It’s all about the portfolio, kids.

I think I spent just under 5 years with McFarlane, then I decided to move back to Missouri and build a new house and studio where I worked freelance for the toy industry for a few more years. I still live there and work out of that studio.

While at McFarlane, I really got the opportunity to sculpt some cool action figures. I was one of their sculptors who had a lot of anatomy experience, so I also sculpted a lot of realistic pieces, like sports figures and movie characters. Between those, however, I got to sculpt some of my favorite pieces, sometimes designing them on the fly. My specialty in the toy industry was female figures, so I was thrilled every time I got a chick figure assignment. Some memorable pieces from those days were McFarlane’s Dorothy from their Twisted Land of Oz line, Mary Slaughter from a Clive Barker line, Camille Noir from a Clive Barker Tortured Souls line, and Elizabeth Bathory sitting in a tub of blood. The two Ravenspawn figures that I sculpted for McFarlane are also still my faves.

Some of my other favorites since that time were Sin City’s Shellie and Goldie, Resident Evil’s Ada Wong – all for NECA, and a couple of collectible figurines for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer line. Those are the standouts off the top of my head, but I sculpted a huge number of figures, some of which I can barely remember, but at least I have my portfolio to remind me. It’s all about the portfolio, kids!

Note: To see more of William Jeffrey Jones’ sculpture work, visit:
William Jeffrey Jones Sculptor

Boutique Guitar Resource: How did you make the leap from being a full-time commercial sculptor to designing and building hand carved guitars?
William Jeffrey Jones: Throughout my life I’d always worked in wood, everything from fine furniture to construction work. I’ve also played musical instruments, sang, and composed music for as long as I can remember. I’ve played guitar steadily for over 30 years, though my trumpet chops are really rusty these days. Building my first guitar was really just a matter of deciding to do so. I already had a great background in woodworking and 3-Dimensional design. I decided that if I could sculpt a portrait head 3/4″ high from scratch, I could certainly sculpt a guitar.

One of my other hallmarks in the toy industry was my clean, crisp style. The precision and attention to detail that I incorporate into my guitars is really nothing more than an extension of the way I’ve always worked.

My first guitars were a bit more “normal” than they could have been, but I was getting familiar with the territory before cutting loose. After I built about 5-6 instruments, one day I was speaking with a good friend who’s been a director of my work for years. He said point-blank – as I always expected him to do – “the guitars you’ve been building don’t look anything like guitars Jeffrey Jones would build.” I knew exactly what he meant and I’ve stepped up my game to more closely resemble the sculpture and design work I’ve been known for for years. I’ve really just scratched the surface, though.

Boutique Guitar Resource: How does designing and building guitars differ from working as a commercial sculptor and in what ways is it similar?
William Jeffrey Jones: One of the biggest ways they differ is that I don’t have to answer to a whole heirarchy of directors, product managers, and intellectual property owners for each project I do. When creating a commissioned guitar, there’s only one person that I have to please (besides myself, of course) and that’s the client. Otherwise, when I’m building especially unique guitars for the sake of my own expression, the main person I have to please is me, but I set the bar pretty high for myself. Higher than most other people would set it for me.

As far as how the two are similar, I still work the same way in that I design like crazy until the idea really moves me, then I work almost obsessively until I turn that idea into a reality.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Did you have any formal education or are you a self-taught luthier?
William Jeffrey Jones: I don’t have any formal education as a luthier, so I suppose you have to say that I’m self-taught. But, in a way, you can say that I was taught by a professional craftsman, given my experience. I knew enough to know what I didn’t know and therefore seek out those answers – either by trial-and-error or by simply knowing whom I needed to ask. Does that make sense? The precision with which I’ve had to work as a commercial sculptor was more than enough experience to enable a smooth lateral shift to the precision required by luthiery. It also helped that my standards of craftsmanship were so high. They still are. And getting higher.

For each “successful” guitar I’ve completed, there are probably 4-6 that were learning experiences and will never see the light of day outside my shop, so I’ve built a lot more guitars than those that appear in my portfolio. While I don’t have the instrument repair experience or the years of working for other makers, I do have a large amount of guitar building and design experience. When you look at my intruments or pick them up and play them, that amount of experience should shine through.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Where does the inspiration come from when you are designing your guitars?
William Jeffrey Jones: A lot of it comes from my affinity for historical styles of art and architecture juxtaposed with the contemporary object. I describe my visual philosophy sometimes as that of a steampunk. Instead of a “cyber” punk who lives in a world of computer software and hardware, I think in terms of the more classic ornamentation. If I had the time, I’d engrave scrolls and any number of classic adornments on even my drywall hammer.

I’ve said on many occasions that contemporary guitar hardware looks so generically mechanical, like it was manufactured to be a part of an industrial heating sytem. The same is true of a number of guitars out there.
I want my work to be more organic and personal than that. While I incorporate commercially manufactured parts in some of my guitars, I also design and build as much of the instrument as I can in order to compliment my original scheme or motif. The bridges on my Satyrn and Proteus models are a good example. If I were more of a machinist, I’d design my own tuners in a heartbeat.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Your “Syrena” guitar is just breathtaking. Can you walk us through the design and building process of this guitar?
William Jeffrey Jones: That’s a very good example of my process. After having created the Dragonwing, I wanted to incorporate a female figure into an instrument to bring my guitars that much closer to my sculptural work. The mermaid motif was the perfect bridge, so I drew a large number of mermaid designs, working them out within my iO shape. The iO is really my favorite shape to work with and play.

Once I’d arrived at a concept drawing I liked, I sculpted the piece in clay so that I could think my way around the design and easily make any adjustments that needed to be made, from the standpoints of both the image and the ergonomics. I wanted to make sure such a serious ornament was comfortable to hold and play, before I ever touched the wood I’d chosen for the body. For that reason, people who consider owning and playing my guitars can know that I’ve thought hard about these types of issues and addressed them.

With the clay completed, I began carving the body using the clay as my reference. Since I’d already sculpted the image once, I was familiar enough with it to be comfortable to just start removing wood and watch the Syrena guitar take shape a little at a time. I made a few changes on the fly to the bridge area based upon the way I wanted to incorporate the tune-o-matic bridge and make it look more like an integral part of the guitar, rather than just an added piece of hardware. For my other guitars that use a tune-o-matic, I prefer to inset them into the body for just that reason.

When the guitar was all carved and the cavites routed, it was time to sand the snot out of every nook and cranny to 1000 grit. After all, I don’t use a film finish on my carved guitars, because a glossy film would make the carvings look like cheap, cast plastic. Every millimeter of the wood has to be as perfectly smooth and devoid of scratches or tool marks as possible, because it’s not going to get filled with vinyl or covered over with lacquer or polyurethane.

Boutique Guitar Resource: When building a guitar, what is your favorite part of the building process?
William Jeffrey Jones: I enjoy so many of the aspects of producing my guitars, but I suppose I really, really love designing. It’s a very engaging part of the process for me. I arrive at a direction or goal to pursue – even if it’s a vague sort of through-a-glass-darkly sort of goal – then I work toward it like I’m solving a puzzle.

I have to also say that one of my favorite parts of the building process is shaping and contouring the guitar. I work directly in the wood with everything from angle grinders, knives, and chisels to rasps and files or sandpaper. To me, that’s when the real magic happens of bringing a 2-dimensional drawing to life as a 3-dimensional object that’s not just intended as something to look at, but something the human body interacts with and uses to create more art beyond the instrument itself. The actual complexity of that task gives me goosebumps to think about, which is why I do it.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What are some of your favorite wood combinations to use for your guitar bodies?
William Jeffrey Jones: Personally, I prefer domestic hardwoods. I’ve got lifelong experiences with woods such as walnut, cherry, ash, maple, and of course, oak, but I don’t use oak in my guitars. It’s great for furniture, but I find its toughness is also its drawback when it comes to tonal qualities. Walnut and cherry are some of my absolute favorites to work with. I get any quantity of those I want or need just minutes from my studio at a local sawmill owned by a good friend of mine.

I use maple quite a bit for tops and especially necks, but I do use a soft maple for bodies. Our local soft maple is one of my favorite tonewoods for electric guitars.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you have some particular woods you prefer to use for fretboards and necks?
William Jeffrey Jones: I use some combinations of domestic and exotic woods in my necks, preferring to laminate the blanks for stability and stiffness. Using a combination of different woods, I can highlight some specific qualities. Rosewood is one of my favorite necks, especially with a cherry or walnut body.

Hard maple is one of my basic favorites. It’s got a nice brightness to it without being too “brittle” or trebly, tonewise. Walnut is a good neck, not unlike mahogany, but it’s kind of dark at times. I mean “not bright” when I say “dark.” Then again, it can be just right like on a couple of my DonnaKay models. I do like to brighten the walnut up and stiffen it a bit with some maple stringers, but I also do that with cherry, too. Lately, I love cherry necks. They seem to have the right strength to weight to tonality ratios that I love. Cherry is a nice closed-grain wood, too. It can chip sometimes, but otherwise, it’s a pleasure to work. And play. And it smells amazing when I’m working with it. It just smells like what you might imagine cherry wood smells like.

For fretboards, I usually stick with the favorites of East Indian rosewood and ebony, though I’ve also been working more with cocobolo, too. If I’m building a fretless, I try to have something durable, like ebony, but cocobolo isn’t a bad fretless wood. I like bloodwood, too, but I have to say that the ultimate fretless board that I’ve found is Honduran rosewood. It rings like glass.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you look for when picking wood for a guitar?
William Jeffrey Jones: You know, when I think about it, oftentimes I don’t necessarily pick the wood for the guitar so much as pick the guitar for the wood. I spend a lot of time with a chunk of wood in my hands when I’m designing or deciding on a guitar and just the heft and taptone can tell me a lot about what guitar that wonderful piece of material should be. I have a lot of the wood in my stash earmarked for specific designs or types of guitars. When I get a commission for a specific type of instrument, I’ve already got a selection of woods narrowed down that I can suggest for that particular gig.

One thing that I do look for in the woods I prefer to work with is a more unique figure pattern or a piece of wood that will look like someone took a good handful of figure and threw it at the body. I know a lot of people prefer a 5A figure or a consitency that, to me, looks almost fake or at least contrived. I like to celebrate wood for what it is – a unique and natural material. I look for woods that won’t look exactly like a thousand other pieces of wood.

I think that’s why I lean toward electric instruments, because I don’t have to depend on perfectly straight grained wood with little variation for stability.

I do consider tonality, quite a lot, though. As I mentioned earlier, I work a lot with cherry and walnut, but not just because they’re available and plentiful for me. They’re very exciting and complex woods tonally. What I mean is, when I tap on a billet of rosewood, it has a certain ring. When I tap a billet or top of walnut or cherry, it just seems to have a more complex tonal character. It’s hard to explain. It’s just something I hear. If you’ve ever handled a great piece of spruce before it gets carved into an archtop, you’ll understand its ability to amplify just the movements of your hands as you touch it. It’s the same with walnut and cherry for me. Those woods just seem to be more lively than other hardwoods I’ve worked with. Mahogany is okay, but I just don’t respond to it like I do cherry and walnut. That’s not to say that I don’t work with other woods.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you prefer nickel or stainless steel frets and why?
William Jeffrey Jones: I work almost entirely with nickel fretwire, but I’ve just started working some with stainless. I tried the EVO gold fretwire that LMI sells and I loved it, because it’s harder than nickel. I hammer my frets in and the harder wires go in soooo nicely. Stainless is the same way, though it’s harder to work with, because it dulls the tools so much.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us a little about the pickups you use in your guitars?
William Jeffrey Jones: My favorite pickups are made for me by Clint Searcy of
Searcy String Works in the Nashville area. Clint and I have talked pickup concepts until we’re worn out and he somehow gleans the exact specs I want out of those conversations and builds me the perfect pickups for what I want in my guitars.

Since I build some unique instruments, I want pickups that are made by a special craftsman who’s sensitive to my work and that’s Clint for me.

I love the P90 sound, but I abhore the noise of a single-coil pickup. Clint started making me a humbucking P90 that’s not simply a couple of stacked single-coils. I used the first one in my Dragonwing and it was one of the best sounding guitars I’ve ever played. Seriously.

The music I play involves a lot of chords with close harmonies, so I build my guitars to voice the notes that comprise those harmonies with distinct definition. I want each note to be defined. So many pickups on the market make those chords sound like mud, so Clint builds my pickups to suit the kind of definition I’m all about. They’ll play cleanly, but will warm up and drive when you want ‘em to.

I’m also using some superb humbuckers that Clint makes and has dubbed “Saturn.” I feature these in my Proteus guitar and am using them in a number of new guitars coming up. They’re amazing for jazz, but will turn around and rock when you tell them to.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you describe the finishing process that you use?
William Jeffrey Jones: I use a couple processes, but I’ve evolved to using one in particular. I used a product called Tru-oil on a lot of guitars. It’s not really an oil…more a high-grade wiping varnish and I really learned how to apply it in a way that works for me. My Arcadia DC Jazz model is one of the best examples of that finish. Believe it or not, that’s a wiped-on Tru-oil finish that I gave a little hand polishing at the end.

My Tru-oil technique involves wiping on the finish with a small folded square of cotton cloth one micro-thin layer at a time. The finish is built up with sometimes at least 2-dozen applications, rubbing it out almost after each coat. It’s fairly labor intensive, but it eliminates harmful overspray and vapors in my shop. It’s not as durable a finish as lacquer, but it brings out the grain and figure in ways that lacquer and poly don’t. Tru-oil is an absolute favorite of gunstock makers. It seems to have been formulated specifically to enhance walnut.

The technique I use most now, however, involves a penetrating Danish oil. It penetrates the wood and hardens there, which also enhances the grain and figure. As I explained earlier on, this finish isn’t a film or a coating, so my forms have to be sanded and smoothed with all imperfections eliminated, because once this finish is applied, those imperfections stick out like a sore thumb.

After shaping and developing the form, I refine it with fine riffler files and sandpaper, sanding every square millimeter up through 800 grit. Then, I apply the Danish oil by brush and keep laying it on as it soaks deep into the wood. Once it’s no longer drinking it up, I let it sit for a half hour, then wipe it off and apply another coat, which I also wipe off after another half hour. I let that dry for a week or three, then I wet sand it with 1000 grit using the Danish oil as a wetting agent. The surface I end up with is soooo smooth and soft, yet when you’re holding one of my oiled guitars, you’re touching the actual wood, not a plastic coating.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What is the current wait time when ordering one of your guitars?
William Jeffrey Jones: It varies, of course, depending on the projects I’m working on or the instrument ordered. The intensely carved guitars take a lot more man-hours to produce than a straight-ahead player, but by the time you figure in my contouring and finishing processes, even those straight-ahead guitars are much more labor-intensive than a lot of guitars out there.

Currently, with my present work load, the average wait time is about 6-8 months, which isn’t too bad. For a complex fully-carved and embellished piece like the Syrena, the wait time may be longer. I’m not completely backed up for a year, but it’s always best to contact me as soon as possible in order to get onto my schedule. I do build a number of spec guitars, because I have so many ideas all my own that I want to produce, so if people are willing to wait and watch my site, I’m constantly coming out with new instruments that can be had with little or no wait times.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you you tell us about the ordering process and what a customer should expect when working with you on a custom guitar?
William Jeffrey Jones: First of all, let me say that I’ve worked with custom clientelle for my whole professional career, so I’m used to involving the client in the design and production process. I’ve been a hired gun for as long as I can remember and while I’m also building the instruments now that I think need to be built, I’m no stranger to being the hands and eyes of the client to produce that special piece.

I’m quite used to getting notes and comments on my work as it progresses. There are times during that progress when the piece doesn’t look like what the client feels it should look like, but that’s just a case of impatience or a misunderstanding of the process. I can’t go straight from a drawing to finished guitar in a day, so it takes awhile to coax the instrument or its embellishments out of the wood.

When a client contacts me and gives me the basic request, I ask that client to give me some more detailed explanations or impressions of what he or she wants the guitar or embellishment to convey. I’m looking for those abstract sort of phrases that give me the impressions of which directions to take the design and construction. The intended purpose for the instrument also plays a part in these decisions. Once we’ve dialed all that in, we’ll work on the specs. The point is to dream. And when we’ve got that dream by a tenuous grasp, we’ll decide how best to execute it, with what materials, hardware, and dimensions. It’s a fun part of the process that I’ve always enjoyed, whether sculpting toy prototypes, architectural ornamentation, or guitars. This aspect always produces an addictive amount of brain candy for me. The other part of the process that produces that many feel-good chemicals in my brain is the actual construction.

Once we’re under way, I’ll send update photos about 2/3 of the way through or so, depending on the preferences of the client. I’ll send progress shots earlier on by request, but the project – in its fetal state – sometimes triggers more questions than it answers. It doesn’t happen overnight, so I’d rather show the client something later in their instrument’s evolution. That said, I do take photos frequently of the various stages of construction, though I usually show the client many of those at the end.

It’s also exciting to see the difference between the unfinished wood and that same wood with finish applied. It really comes to life. I do a set of photographs just before I assemble the instrument with the hardware, electronics and strings, then another after it’s all fully completed. Once we take care of the final financial arrangements as per our agreement, I pack it as carefully as possible and ship it to its new home.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Out of the guitars you have built, which is your favorite and why?
William Jeffrey Jones: I like a number of them equally, but for different reasons depending on what the intent of the instrument is. For instance, I love the Kronos fretless models I’ve designed and built. They have a definite organic quality to them that I think suits the organic qualities of fretless playing.

I like all the embellished guitars I’ve built, because they incorporate more of what I really am, which is a sculptor. I’ve taken some criticism from players out there who just can’t see themselves playing anything so ostentatious, but hey, I’m a trained sculptor. It’s what I do. It’s what I think about. For me to copy a factory guitar would be an absurd waste of everyone’s time and money.

Usually, my favorite pieces are my most recent, because they’re the best example of what I’ve got going on in my head at that current time. I really like the iO Blackthorn and the Proteus models, but I’ve got some instruments waiting in the wings that I think will be my next new favorites.

Boutique Guitar Resource: If you were having a custom guitar built, what builder would you choose?
William Jeffrey Jones: Good question. Hmmm… there are several that I really like, but I’m not sure they’d want ME for a client. I’m a fan of David Myka’s guitars and I’d love to have one of his Dragonflies. He and I have been threatening to do some collaborations for a couple of years and I’d love to do some tasteful embellishments on a Dragonfly for myself.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you keep up with the work of other builders and if so, who are some guitar builders that you admire?
William Jeffrey Jones: Like I said, I’m a fan of David Myka, but I also like what Scott Walker is doing. Our styles are different, but I admire their open-mindedness. Sakashta and Beauregard build some amazing archtops that I just love for their modernity while they also give a nod to the traditional archtop.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you see in the future for William Jeffrey Jones Guitars?
William Jeffrey Jones: I see a continuation in the trajectory I’ve been taking. What I mean is, I plan to keep pushing some boundaries, both visually and technically. Sculpturally speaking, I’ve only scratched the surface of what I have in mind. I build fairly non-traditionally and I’m also not afraid of producing some unique formats, like, for instance, a current project which is basically a fretless 4-string guitar with the scale length of a cello, tuned to that same instrument’s standard tuning… an “electric cello,” if you will. I’m also working on some 5-string concepts and piccolo bass ideas in addition to the straight-ahead 6-string guitars.

I draw every day and have a number of designs for fully carved guitars all lined up and ready to produce in the next few years. Of course, I’ll constantly develop new concepts and designs. There are so many possibilities that there truly is no end to the journey I’m on. Consider yourselves invited to join me along the way.

I want to thank William Jeffrey Jones of William Jeffrey Jones Guitars for taking the time to answer these questions. You can visit William Jeffrey Jones Guitars at:
William Jeffrey Jones Guitars

To learn more about the pickups used in William Jeffrey Jones Guitars, please visit:
Searcy String Works

An Interview with Josh Gayou of Smokehouse Guitars

Interview by Ron of Boutique Guitar Resource

Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us a little about your history and how you got into building cigar box guitars?
Josh Gayou: Music has always been a big part of my life from a young age. My parents are lovers of music from every genre (excluding rap and hip hop, etc) and they raised me on all of the greats. I got some heavy exposure to all sorts of styles through them including blues, country, rock, classical, zydeco, and a lot of folk Italian music (my mother is Italian). I’ve always had musical talent myself (as far as my ear is concerned and my ability to pick things up quickly), however I’ve never had any formal training in any instrument outside of the piano when I was very young and now, at 30, the only thing I can remember there is Chariots of Fire and Chopsticks.

A few years ago I happened upon a quick demo video on Youtube of a guy named Brother Yusef playing a one string cigar box guitar (what we call a Diddley Bow). This is a cool little instrument based on the traditional bow instruments that a lot of the children play in African tribes. It’s an extremely simple design and yet, in the hands of someone who knows their stuff, can produce some incredible sounds. I was very impressed with Yusef’s ability to produce music that I actually wanted to listen to (not something that I would only view once as a curiosity but something I would come back to listen to over and over again) using an instrument made from a cigar box and a broom handle. It challenged everything I thought I understood about how music is made.

I decided that I wanted my son to have something like that and so set out to build him a cigar box guitar. My intent was to just build one that he could have to play with and hopefully use to grow an appreciation of music. I went to the store and bought a set of files, a coping saw, some chisels, wood glue, and a poplar stick. The box was a craft box that I ordered from the Internet. What I found out after building the first guitar was that there was no way I was going to be able to stop. Later on people would ask me to build a guitar for them and pay me money to do it. I tried selling a few on eBay and they sold just fine. I think my wife and I both knew I was on to something.

Ever since then I’ve been doing everything I can to improve my skill and abilities. At the time I just wanted to build cigar box guitars that could out play the other ones that were available at the time. These days I tend to look at Fender guitars and think to myself, “Hell, I can do better than that.”

Boutique Guitar Resource: Are you a self taught builder or did you have some formal education?
Josh Gayou: I’ve always been good with my hands but no, everything I know about guitar making has been learned through experiment and a lot of hours in my shop.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you give us some historical background on cigar box guitars?
Josh Gayou: Cigar Box Guitars emerged back in the mid 1800′s around the time of the American Civil War. Back then, when there was no radio or TV and even books were a luxury, people entertained themselves with music. Because it was so difficult to get professionally made instruments back then (especially guitars), a lot of folks used to build their own guitars using a bunch of stuff they had laying around. It was around this time also that cigar companies started packaging their cigars in smaller boxes of 20 or 50 rather than 100 or so. These smaller boxes, which were often discarded all over the place (cigars were very popular) made great resonators for these home made guitars with little effort required of the builder.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Are there any misconceptions about cigar box guitars and if so, what are the most common misconceptions that you would like to clear up?
Josh Gayou: The biggest misconception I’ve seen is that a cigar box guitar is not a real instrument or that it is somehow a child’s toy. I personally like to build more conventional 6 string electric guitars because they are more accessible to the public at large, but the traditional cigar box guitar only has 3 or 4 strings. Most people see 3 strings and immediately discount the guitar, like it’s something that need not be taken seriously. I’ve seen those same people with a poleaxed look on their faces when that 3 string guitar blew the roof of a joint when masterfully played in the hands of Shane Speal. It’s like people have this idea that the more expensive a guitar is, the better music you’re going to get out of it. Well, that’s true but only to a point. In the end, the real music comes from the player and his/her educated hands, not the incredibly intricate inlay work on the guitar neck. That stuff is there to make pretty not music. There are only a small handful of constraints that govern how good a guitar sounds and how well it plays. After that, anything that you’re doing is just there for looks.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What is your favorite part of the building process?
Josh Gayou: Every part of building a guitar is my favorite part. I would have to say that the most rewarding part is when I carve a new neck, especially if I’m using a new wood that I’m unfamiliar with. Seeing the grain pattern jump out at me as I sand the wood down to finer and finer grits is quite a rush, and I’m the kind of guy who can easily loose a half hour just staring a grain patterns.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Would you take us through the building process of one of your guitars?
Josh Gayou: When I build a guitar the process is more or less the same as building a conventional solid body. The only difference is that it’s usually harder for me to find a suitable body. When building a solid body, you just need a good slab of suitable wood or to construct a body out of blocks and a top plate. In my case, I have to do some searching for attractive boxes of adequate size. Also, instead of routing out all of my pockets like on a solid body, I’m usually cutting out holes with a jig saw or by hand and coming up with ways to reinforce the box such that it will support the load of the strings. There is a lot of structural engineering that goes on inside that box.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Is there anything specific that you look for when sourcing cigar boxes for the guitar bodies?
Josh Gayou: Outside of making sure that the box is attractive and in good shape, it must also be large enough to support the scale length that I’m building to as well as all of the controls that I want to use to drive the pickups. The most I’ve ever managed to get onto a guitar was four pots and a 3-way switch, and I had to spread those all over the place. Real estate is limited!

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you have customers that want to source their own cigar box or use a cigar box they already have for their build?
Josh Gayou: One of my most popular guitars (the Custom Montecristo) was built using a cigar box that the customer gave me. I’m very flexible when it comes to making sure my customers get the guitar that they want. Literally anything is up for discussion.

Boutique Guitar Resource: If a customer is sourcing his or her own cigar box, what should they be looking for? Are their specific size requirements that must be met in order to use it for one of your Deluxe Electric Guitar builds?
Josh Gayou: You want to find a box that’s large enough to support your scale length, plus any controls you want to mount. If the box is too short you won’t be able to place the bridge appropriately. It is possible to mount the neck externally (outside of the box on a support strut) but this is ugly as hell and to be avoided. Generally, you want a box with a length of 10″ at the absolute minimum. 11.5″ to 12″ is optimum but also difficult to find.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you have some particular woods you prefer to use for fretboards and necks?
Josh Gayou: When a customer doesn’t specify I prefer to use a Mahogany/Rosewood neck. I’m a big fan of rosewood and the mahogany is a great all around wood that I can get to match most box woods with just a little effort.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What is the scale length on your guitars and is this an option that you customize for customers?
Josh Gayou: I’m happy to build to any scale length the customer wants. When it’s not specified, I stick with 25.5.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you offer different neck carve options?
Josh Gayou: Within reason. I’m not going to go out of my way to copy another custom builder’s headstock. Outside of that, I’ll cut a neck however the customer requests.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What is the radius of your fretboards?
Josh Gayou: I do mine to 16″. Again, if the customer has a preference I will follow it.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you tell us a little bit about the neck joint on your Deluxe Electric Guitars?
Josh Gayou: I prefer to build a set neck on all of my guitars. It’s an extremely solid joint and you really can’t beat it for sustain unless you do a neck through.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What type of pickups come standard in your guitars?
Josh Gayou: I’m a fan of GFS pickups. I’ve used them on a number of guitars and I’ve never had a problem with them. They sound beautiful and can handle whatever you throw at them. Also, they are not ludicrously priced, so it helps me to keep the price from climbing on my customers. I get a bunch who request the hotter name pickups at times but this usually always drives the price up on them. In their case, they don’t seem to care.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you offer stainless steel frets as an option?
Josh Gayou: Yes!

Boutique Guitar Resource: What type of finish is used on your guitars?
Josh Gayou: I’m a lover of natural wood, so I seek to preserve the look of the wood no matter what finish I use. I prefer to do hand rubbed finishes, mostly shellac using a French polish technique or oils (Tung, linseed, etc). I’m not the guy to come to for a bunch of loud colors in a wild paint job.

Boutique Guitar Resource: After a customer orders a guitar, how long does it typically take for you to build it?
Josh Gayou: This all depends on what’s ordered. For customers who are on a strict or restrictive budget, a lot of times what I’ll do is order a pre-made neck and make the guitar using that as that is a big help in keeping the price down for them. Such a guitar goes together quickly, usually within a couple of weeks.

Customers who want to get really serious about the neck (custom carved from a blank, using special exotic woods for example) should expect a longer lead time on the guitar, between a month and a half to two months (assuming I’m only working on one guitar).

Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you see in the future for Smokehouse Guitars?
Josh Gayou: In the immediate future I want to continue to hone my craft and challenge myself with unfamiliar territory. In the long term I intend to be known as much for solid body guitars as I’m am for cigar box guitars.

I would like to thank Josh Gayou of Smokehouse Guitars for taking the time to answer these questions. Check out the Smokehouse Guitars website at: Smokehouse Guitars.

Boutique Guitar Resource is an authorized dealer for Smokehouse Guitars. Please contact BGR if you are interested in having a guitar built by Smokehouse Guitars.

Interview With Scott Walker of Scott Walker Guitars

Interview by Ron of Boutique Guitar Resource

Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us about your history and what got you interested in building guitars.
Scott Walker: I seemed to always have this incredible urge to create, this overwhelming desire, manifesting in all sorts of ways. From building human gliders, random electronic projects, to painting on huge canvasses, pencil portraits and petroglyph rock art. I seem to wander all over the place. This passion for creation seems to come from somewhere else sometimes, as if something else is in control of me.
I was constantly exploring every kind of music at the time, especially guitar oriented, and everywhere I went there were broken guitars and a need for fixing them, thus the inspiration and desire to build my own was born.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Are you a self taught luthier or did you have some formal education?
Scott Walker: I attended Roberto Venn school of luthiery in 2000 and then went on to work for Santa Cruz Guitar Company in California. This is a great company, known for their dedication to hand building in the traditional way, and offering an environment where the art of tone and manipulating tone become part of the experience of building guitars. I also shared with others there an intimacy with the woods, becoming one with every aspect of steel string guitar construction. This was the biggest influence on me in developing my approach to building. I worked there for six years, three as the foreman and still stop by when they need an extra hand. The guitar building community in Santa Cruz is great. There are so many talented builders and we all offer to help one another and bounce ideas off each other. During my time at SCGC I also worked with Rick Turner, mostly on his large Baker resaw. Rick has helped me tremendously with my electronics and guidance in general.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Where did the inspiration come from when designing your guitar models?
Scott Walker: I try to build guitars that look the way music sounds to me.
This is one of those things that I have worked really hard at, and at the same time feel it comes through in a very natural way. The designs and artistic styling is really just an extension of what I have always done, whether it’s engraving into a piece of sandstone or doodling on the napkin at the café.
There are elements to my carvings that are pretty classic, nothing super original, kind of old style elements. These have been around for centuries, touched upon by artist all over the world throughout time. I feel that I am one person channeling these elements and blending them with “guitar construction 2000″ technologies.
Some of the things that inspire me are the simple occurrences in nature, such as, lichen, old sunken boats, fire, water, clouds, etc. I draw inspiration form all parts of life, especially from the people who have helped me along the way.
After the aesthetic designs, tonally, there is nothing better than the clean, melodic, thick, sparkly sound of Knopfler, Kimock, and Garcia (among others). This is the real influence on my designs. The music is what moves me.

Boutique Guitar Resource: You obviously enjoy carving wood since your guitars feature a lot of hand carving. What got you interested in this and what made you decide to incorporate this into your guitar designs?
Scott Walker: Well, it really didn’t start that way. This is something that has evolved over time and I am not sure where it is going, but I have standardized a few things. It all started while I was sculpting the bodies and I simply began to doodle on them with a pencil, then carving over it and observing what came out. The evolution of this was pretty quick, taking me about ten guitars before having the elements worked out. This is another one of those things that seems to have a natural flow all on its own.

Boutique Guitar Resource: If you could pick one guitar builder to build a custom guitar for you, who would it be?
Scott Walker: Wow! That’s a tuff one. I really don’t play enough of a spectrum of guitars to make the best opinion, but if I had to choose one this moment, I’d most likely go with Detemple.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Who are some other luthiers that you admire?
Scott Walker: Well, because there are so many facets to luthiery I admire different luthiers for different reasons. I admire Trougott for setting the bar so high, Bauregard for cleanliness and taste, and Turner for non stop innovations. Then there’s Hoover for steel string voicing and dedication, and Artinger for brilliance, youth full designs, and customer relations. I also deeply admire and appreciate Detemple for perseverance and building the holy grail as well as Jesselli for taste and mixed mediums. These are just a handful of the many talented luthiers who are an important influence for me in my own experience as a luthier.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What part of the guitar building process do you feel is most important and why?
Scott Walker: Neck angle and intonation are probably the most important. You have to have the bridge in the right spot, and if the neck’s not set right you can’t play it! After that it’s pretty much all up in the air.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Would you take us through the building process of one of your guitars?
Scott Walker: First there’s the blueprint or drawing where everything starts on a center line. After the guitar is drawn out I make the template, first out of masonite, then plexiglass. Here’s where it gets really fun, when I get to look through the plexiglass window at the different and often spectacular woods, profiling the top and lining it all up just how my customer desires. Then I begin laying out fingerboards, pulling out different neck woods and getting a sense of what works best together. All the while lots of things are running through my head, like what sound are we going after? What style of music will be produced? What pickups? What bridge? What scale length? What electronics? It is like a cyclical spiral of evolution as things come together.
I try to batch things up a little bit to help keep some flow going, like slotting and binding fingerboards or roughing out neck blanks. I usually have a 2 year supply of neck blanks roughed out and “de-stressing.” I find this helps maintain a good flow throughout construction.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What is your favorite part of the guitar building process?
Scott Walker: Starting with the design of the guitar and working it out on paper would be the first thing. The freedom of working with a pencil and erasure really unlocks the design. The next best part is seeing it take shape in the wood. After hours of carving and sweating, seeing the guitar at this moment makes my heart race.
Also I really enjoy wiring up the guitar. By this time I’m ready to put on some classical music and sit quietly and piece the puzzle together. I really enjoy the challenge of a crazy wiring scheme.
The other really great part is when you put the strings on for the first time, wind up the low E string and hear and feel the instrument come alive. Feeling the vibrations as you wind it up to pitch is as if the woods start speaking after being silent for 100+years. This is something that is really special, and amazes me every time. Giving life to an instrument and the mystery that lies ahead is very fascinating to me.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you have some favorite wood combinations that you like to use?
Scott Walker: When it comes to carving I’d have to go with Mahogany. It really likes to do what you want it to all the way through the process, from carving and sanding to staining and lacquer. It sounds good and looks great. I really like the antique cherry mahogany stuff. Combine this with a nice Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. Heaven!

Boutique Guitar Resource: What woods do you prefer to use for fretboards and necks?
Scott Walker: Well, the Brazilian is my favorite visually, but ebony sounds the best. It’s very dense and really whistles. The Brazilian is probably better for more overdriven music.
Mahogany necks are definitely my favorite. It’s stable, dependable, carves like butter, and is very accessible. I do work with other great woods though like maple, rosewood, and sycamore. I believe they each have their place.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you look for when picking wood for a guitar?
Scott Walker: Good question. Mostly out of pure curiosity I choose woods based, on aesthetics. When I choose woods it’s generally based on something that excites me and not really based on what I think other people would like. For instance, at one point I was really into Cocobolo but after the fifteenth Cocobolo guitar I was ready for a new flavor. Although I have a killer stash of Cocobolo I use for customers, and am still amazed at how each piece is so unique and dazzling, my personal preference switched to spruce and redwood. I find my taste for the wood changes as I change and explore different styles of wood.
I also look for tone and balance as I select wood. Not only do I want the guitar to show off mother natures’ brilliancy and randomness, but it has to have something going on sonically. This is one of the main reasons I have gravitated towards the spruce and redwood tops. These guitars sound amazing! They are also very unique in the electric world.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you prefer nickel or stainless steel frets and why?
Scott Walker: Tonally, I am not certain about. This is one of those things that people go on for days about and really I think is relative to the instrument, player and rig. I have heard many talk about tone and how “rosewood is dark” or “rosewood is bright.” I really try to stay out of this, but to answer the question honestly, I like stainless because it lasts longer but dulls the tools, so I pretty much just use nickel.

Boutique Guitar Resource: What type of neck carve options do you offer?
Scott Walker: I don’t really have a catalogue of neck shapes and dimensions worked out to correspond with the rest of the world. I do a basic, what I call a contemporary, medium, thin, round carve. It starts at about .830 at the first fret and goes up to .930 at the 14th. It stays thin all the way up (that’s the contemporary part). It has a nice symmetrical round profile with no flat spots. Ninety percent of the necks I carve are like this although I do offer custom profiles and dimensions. This is a specialty of mine, having carved over a thousand necks at SCGC, many of them custom. One of my favorites I did recently for a customer was a “V” at the first five frets that then morphed into a round. I have also done the super thin rounds, and super fat rounds. I also take specs from customer’s guitars and mimic what is going on. This is another area that has so many variables to it. Nut width and width at the last fret play into the way the neck feels when the profile is carved to a certain thickness and shape. I take all of this into consideration before I carve the neck.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you give us some information about the neck tenon on your various models?
Scott Walker: I really like to have as much stability at the neck joint as possible. On my set neck guitars I run the tenon up into the bridge pickup, so in a way the pickups are “inlaid” into the neck. I like the idea of getting the neck and body to work together as a system mostly for strength and energy transfer. It’s kind of inbetween a standard set neck and a neck through.
For the guitar I call the Phoenix, I am doing a standard bolt on style neck but there is an extra tennon on the bottom of the heel that extends into the body. This helps with alignment and energy transfer. The Jazzmaster style pickups are actually mounted to the tennon, theoretically giving them opportunity to get all the string energy available.
The guitars are built to have maximum sustain.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us a little about the pickups you use?
Scott Walker: Right now I am using mostly Lollars’. They are a great pickup and great company to work with. I have yet to come across anything that didn’t sound good or fit the description of the pickup. I know there are a lot of talented builders out there but I seem to gravitate towards Lollars’. I haven’t had to replace even one from any of the custom builds that requested Lollars’. So far everyone is very satisfied with them. And again, they are a fabulous company and very reliable and dependable.
Right now I am favoring their “humbucker sized single coils.” They really work great with the preamp I use and have a good chime and piano like definition and clarity.
I use a variety of their humbuckers as well. The low winds are a favorite of my customers. When I get to choose pickups I go for the high winds because they sound powerful and heroic.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you describe the finishing process that you use on your guitars?
Scott Walker: I do a pretty standard nitro set up. Stain, seal, poor fill, clean up and spray. I spray four coats a day for three days. Twelve coats overall, scuffing and leveling in between days. Then I let the whole thing gas off for a couple weeks. Then wet sand up to 2000 grit and buff.
Right now Addam Stark is helping me with my finish. He sprays out of Rick Turners spray booth. Addam is a true master at finish. He does finish full time and is an encyclopedia of guitar knowledge.
Sometimes I spray my guitars over at SCGC. At the moment I am working on an oiled guitar. They have a great feel and I am very intrigued by the simplicity of it. This will be on my new single cutaway model.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you list the different guitar models you offer and briefly describe them?
Scott Walker: The “Special” is my first model, it’s a 24 3/4 scale guitar, kind of small and lively. It is my first model and one that I have made the most of. I have done it in all sorts of scale lengths and pickup configurations and have come to the 24 ¾ two humbucker deal. The spruce top and ebony fingerboard weighs in at 6 lbs and is very responsive. It comes either chambered or solid. It’s loosely based on a Les Paul Jr.
The “Santa Cruz” is a solid body guitar, 25” scale, 24 fret. It is a larger guitar than the Special and a little different ergonomically. It’s loosely based on a PRS with a set neck.
The “Attrezzo” is the 25 ½ scale neck thru model. It has three single coils and is a based off the Strat type guitar.
The first three models all come with my standard electronics package. A built in effects loop, master volume, tone and master gain knob. There is an active/passive switch, effects loop bypass switch, and a 3 way pickup selector. The effects loop allows the guitar signal to go down to your effects, then back up to the guitars volume and then out to your amp. So your effects always read 100% output from your pickups no matter where your volume is at. You have a master volume over your effects. Then you can toggle between going right to your amp, or kick in the effects.
The built in preamp changes the signal form high impedance to low impedance, so you really hear the instrument and don’t get any loaded signal from cables and effects. With the active/passive switch you get the best of both worlds.
The Phoenix is the Stereo/mono guitar and is 25 ½” scale. It’s loosely based on the Jazzmaster.
I am just getting ready to release a new single cutaway model as well as a semi hollow body guitar with bent sides. So stay tuned in!

Boutique Guitar Resource: What is the wait time when ordering a custom guitar and can you describe the ordering process?
Scott Walker: Having to wait for a custom guitar can be one of the hardest parts of the process as the wait time tends to be anywhere from 6 months to a couple of years. It can be a challenge to make the call on exactly how long but I try to feel it out the best I can and let the customer know anything goes when building a custom guitar. There is always a chance of fluctuation in the time for the completion of the guitar. So usually the average time is about one year.
The ordering process usually begins through email or on the phone. Here the customer and I discuss options and pricing for their choice of guitar. Once we come up with a rough idea, they give me a deposit so I can begin collecting the necessary parts and the customer receives a spec sheet to create their custom order. That way one can spend as much time as they like going through specs and honing in on the instrument. At that point is when the guitar goes on the production schedule.

Boutique Guitar Resource: Even though I like all of the models you offer, I would have to say The Phoenix is my favorite (at least it is right now). Out of the guitar models you build, which is your favorite and why?
Scott Walker: Right now, I’d have to agree! The Phoenix is a great guitar. The stereo quality is truly amazing. The ability to switch pickup-to-amp on the fly and/or switch to mono in either amp is an ultimate feature for a guitar. The ability to have one amp clean and a little delay and the other overdriven, is just heaven. This guitar REALLY wants some time to play. It will pull you right out of your skin and take you somewhere you haven’t yet imagined! I am really excited about this guitar. Also, it is a very versatile guitar. Those who have their own amps, effects and different styles of playing, this guitar will really enhance and benefit each. The preamp Cutler built for it has such clarity and chime, and the ability to play it active or passive really makes this an artists guitar. It sounds like a chorus of angels playing in the devils band!

Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you see in the future for Scott Walker Guitars and do you have any new guitar models in the works that you would like to share with us?
Scott Walker: Another good question. It feels like I am just getting going and starting out having built around 75 guitars and well, doesn’t really seem like all that many, although a very full and rewarding experience.
This year I have a new single cutaway model and a semi hollow coming out. Next year I plan on creating an acoustic guitar and see where it goes. I also have some new carving elements I hope to integrate. Also you’ll most likely see more of the metal pickgurads and engravings, which keep giving me a good time. I will be doing some sand casting and lost wax hardware pretty soon as well.
I am very tuned in the quality of the stereo sound right now and am planning on making a video about it and also some more reviews with this guitar, so stay posted!

I want to thank Scott Walker of Scott Walker Guitars for taking the time to answer these questions. You can visit Scott Walker Guitars at:
Scott Walker Guitars

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