my first guitar build

[VentusCustoms]

Quilted maple over Alder, Maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, eggshell/resin inlays on the body and neck

[dave1215]

that is so beautiful
how does it sound?

[VentusCustoms]

from what everyone tells me its awesome to play, feels like a well broken in guitar. Action is pretty low so its easy to play as well. Sound it has Kent Armstrong pickups in a hot vintage wind. I am not a guitar player so have to rely on others for that feedback.

[conorb]

Wow, stunning work.

Nice job!

Conor

[Honus]

Wow- that is beautiful!

[Bob Ross]

Good looking axe. Is that a one-piece neck, or a laminated construction?

[Nierman]

Whoa, that's nice. If you put this much passion and detail into an instrument you don't even play, I can't wait to see what you create after you learn a few chords.

[Hawk-I]

That looks really nice. Great work. How is it that you came to be interested in building a guitar without playing one?
Thanks for posting.

[Frankwurst]

from what everyone tells me its awesome to play, feels like a well broken in guitar. Action is pretty low so its easy to play as well. Sound it has Kent Armstrong pickups in a hot vintage wind. I am not a guitar player so have to rely on others for that feedback.

You may not be a player but you are one helluva craftsman/builder. Beautiful!

[Wordbiker]

Great worksmanship. I hope you were paid adequately.

[VentusCustoms]

I still have the guitar, its sitting in the closet, hasn't been out in over a year.

As far as getting interested in building a guitar, I had seen a lot of standard guitars and felt they really lacked in both craftsmanship and design. I have bachelors degrees in Architecture and in Fine Arts (focused on jewelry and woodworking) and felt it would give me a chance to challenge myself and the opportunity to use some of my creativity. I do want to build a acoustic and have a curly redwood and a sinker redwood waiting for whenever I get around to it. The problem I have is that I tend to build rather high end items, which ties up quite a bit of $$ when it sits in the closet. I think I had over $1000 invested in that guitar, from the planet wave tuners (built in string trimmers), to the pickups, the bridge/tailpiece all were pretty high end items. I even installed a locking nut in case the bridge/tailpiece was switched out with a tremolo.

The neck is a 1 piece neck. If I ever build another I have several large roughsawn 4x4 and 6x6 walnut logs my grandfather cut close to 90 years ago on his sawmill. That and about 400 bf of roughsawn cherry he cut as well, some up to 2" thick and 12" wide.

My next project I am hoping to build a ti-lugged carbon tubed randonneur bike with a few extra special details, should be a challenge but a great bike when finished. Hoping to move more in to the framebuilding side of things.

-Mark
Ventus Custom Cycles

[54ny77]

Jeez, you do things simply when you set out to do them, eh?

Beautiful guitar cratfsmanship. How many coats of clear is that (is it laquer)? And how do you get the wood to be green like that, colored stain?

[VentusCustoms]

It only has 4 coats of nitrocellulose lacquer, I got anxious and built it up, should have put another 3-4 coats on so that will be sometime soon. The wood is dyed using an aniline wood dye that I custom mixed from yellow and blue dyes since there were no greens that I really liked.

[graymanandy]

Mark,

The rear cutaway appears unique in shape, as does the relief shaping on the back of the guitar. Usually a LP style guitar is flat on the back, is the rear relief for "sound shaping" purposes, or comfort while playing, or maybe just for the fun of it?

Andy

[VentusCustoms]

I shaped the back of the cutaway to make it a bit more comfortable when trying to reach the lower frets since this is a 24 fret neck and the fingerboard extends on to the body further than normal. Not sure it really works for that purpose, probably should have cut the cutaway deeper in to the body.

[longlegged]

Good job that looks great!

[Bigfoot]

Beautiful!

[WadePatton]

Nice. this is an urge i've been fighting for a long time. fine job.