Molter Guitars

I was going through my wood storage the other day and noticed an old Silvertone hollowbody that my Father had sitting in his garage for years waiting for restoration. After my Father passed away I inherited it and it has been sitting on my wood pile for about 16 years. I looked at this cheaply made guitar and started doing research on this model. It turns out this was made in 1963 Model 1429 and was sold in the Sears catalog. It had none of the electronics, all the binding was cracked and or missing and all of the finish and sunburst was previously removed. It looked liked bu–. I thought to myself if I only knew someone who could fix this beast up and make it sing again. Thus starting my newest project. I removed all of the old bindings all of the old frets and sanded the fingerboard down and leveled it. I then decided I would laminate it with some beautiful sapele veneer that I had. I have decided to convert this guitar from a 3 pickup to a 2 pickup version. The original guitar came with 3 foil pickups and they are extremely hard to find, so I will attempt to make my own pickups and match the old style foil look. I don’t want to put a lot into this and it might be a total failure but I thought I could give it a try. Who knows it might turn out great.

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It has been a long time since I have made a post here on my website but here goes. 2011 was a very strange and slow year for me and my guitar making. I completed 1 guitar for a customer and started 2 others. I am almost finished with my quilted mahogany DCS that I have been working on forever. It will be a spec guitar that doesn’t have an owner…Yet. The other guitar I started is an indian rosewood 8 string baritone model.

 I haven’t got very far with these guitars because’ I guess I am going through a midlife crisis. I bought 2 vintage motorcycles and I have been trying my hand at restoring  them. I have actually sold one of the bikes and have been concentrating on restoring the remaining bike , a 1964 Yamaha . I have also been restoring a 1990 Jeep Wrangler. I guess I have been watching to much “Orange County Choppers” and telling myself I can do just as good a job as they do .  I guess I figure that if I can build an acoustic guitar from a log I can tackle restoring a little motorcycle and a Jeep. We will see how they come out.

With all that said, I want to let everyone know that I still am in the guitar making business. It is my true passion. If you have always wanted a custom guitar please don’t hesitate to contact me and we can talk about how you want your dream guitar to be.

I finally have completed my new amp build. I copied the cabinet design from a Vintone Amp that I previously owned. I used mahogany for the cabinet and joined it with through dovetails. I stained the mahogany with a rich dark brown to match my bedroom furniture. I have a Jensen 10″ alnico speaker in the cabinet and have used oxblood speaker cloth to finish it. I have not been able to test the amp yet after about 1000 solder joints but I will soon see how it sounds. 

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Well I have put the first coats of lacquer on the benign cutaway. The lacquer on the Macassar Ebony  really reveals the black and brown stripes beautifully. The curly Koa bindings really match the ebony nicely. The Mahogany, Curly Maple, and Bubinga 5 piece neck looks really nice. I have put a  Walnut burl headstock , to match the Walnut burl armrest, and bound it with curly Koa and inlayed a brass peace dove with an abalone olive branch. I also am very happy with the figure in the bearclaw Sitka top. If everything works out this guitar will be playing all over the world.

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I have bound the benign cutaway with curly Koa. It has awesome figure that is a really nice contrast against the striped Macassar Ebony. I have also installed a WBW underside purfling with the binding and under the Walnut burl armrest.

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I have decide to build myself an new amp. I used to own a Vintone boutique amp that I sold. It was a “Champ” model, constructed with black walnut and oxblood cloth. I was very impressed with the quality craftsmanship of this amp, and decided that I would try my hand at creating something similar to the Vintone.  I am going to use curly maple to construct the cabinet and use half blind  “cherry inlaid” dovetails to join it. I will also trim the cabinet with cherry adding to the “boutique” style of  the amp. I have purchased the wood and have begun putting together the chassis. I have a long way to go and many hours of soldering ahead of me but I can’t wait for the finished product.  I might even offer these amps / cabinets for sale depending on how it turns out. I will also offer speaker cabinets to match if someone is interested. Who knows, it’s a dream, but I still have 3 guitars going right now so it might take longer than I want. It’s only time!!!!!!!

Well it’s been a long time since I made a post. I have been trying my hand at furniture making. I have made a small secretary desk for my daughter. It came out pretty nice but I think I will stick to guitar making. I have begun construction on 2 spec guitars to display in a local art gallery/guitar shop. One guitar is a DCS bent sides model that will have quilted mahogany back and sides and a quilted maple top. I will most likely put a sunburst on this guitar but I will wait and see when I get to that point. The other spec. guitar will have rosewood back and sides and either a western red cedar top or 30+ year old redwood. This guitar will be 000 cutaway 8 string.  I am incorporating a beveled armrest in the benign cutaway model and depending on how it turns out I will most likely install armrests on the two spec. guitars.

Here are some amazing pictures of John’s guitar taken by my friend who is also a “Molter Guitar” owner. If you think his pictures are fantastic you should hear him play guitar. He is a very talented man.

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Well John finally here are some pics of the guitar with strings . You should be playing the guitar by sometime next week.

Well John’s guitar has been buffed and had the bridge glued. I worked on the action today and from what I have played, the guitar sounds great.  John, I am pretty sure I have accomplished the sound you were looking for when you showed me the “other” guitar video. I will work on the electronics this weekend, work on the knobs and then clean it up and get it ready to ship.  I am also going to have a professional photographer take some pictures for the website.