Molter Guitars

I have got alot done on the DCS Acoustic for Paul G. I have glued the nose a tail blocks, I have glued the arm bevel brace and have also inlaid the fingerboard. Looking really nice

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I am making alot of progress on Paul G’s guitar. I have joined the top and have prepared the bracing material along with sanding the bindings to thickness. I have also glued the 5 piece neck blank. In the pictures on this post you can see that the rosette has been installed, the X braces shaped and notched for the integration of the quilted maple bridge plate, side braces and glued to the top. I will shape or “fine tune” the braces a little more after the glue is set. I have shaped the back braces and glued the back joint reinforcement. I am waiting to glue the back braces because I am trying something new for my label.

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I have been working on my latest guitar. It is a DCS Acoustic. It will have Quilted Maple back and sides, Bearclaw Sitka spruce top, Macassar Ebony fingerboard, Bridge, bindings, and Arm Bevel as well. It will feature a 5 piece neck with curly Maple,Quilted Maple and Purpleheart stringers. I decided I would make a new mold for this guitar because the old one was showing it’s age. I have milled the quilted maple lumber for the sides and have sanded them down along with the back to thickness. I have glued the neck pieces together and will be joining the back soon. I think this will be a beautiful guitar. Here are some pictures of the progress.

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After almost 2 years dealing with multiple hacks to my website, a gentleman that really wanted to have a guitar commissioned got in contact with me by commenting on one of my blog posts. My original contact form had been removed from my site because it was not notifying me of anyone’s questions or inquiries. It was almost impossible for anyone to get in touch with me. However, thanks to his persistence I did in fact get in touch with him and he was actually someone interested in having a guitar built. Thanks to him I have added a new contact form and have switched web-hosting companies in hopes that I do not have anymore issues. With all of that being said I want to thank that new customer for allowing me to create a guitar for him and for giving me the motivation to get my website back in order.

I have been gone for quite a long time. Just over a year ago I started a new job. You might say it was a dream job. No its not working as a full time Luthier, it is a job with the PGA Tour. I got to pursue my other passion, golf, or at least working in the golf industry. It has been very awesome even with all of the challenges with COVID. I have really not had time to do any guitar work whatsoever. Hopefully that is about to change. I plan on starting to pick up the tools again and get after it. I have been watching alot of You Tube videos of Chris Alvarado of Driftwood Guitars. He makes some amazing instruments and he has really got me motivated again to get back in the shop and create some beautiful things. More to come .

This is my favorite part of a build, the first coats of lacquer. This is a first look at what the finished product will look like. Even when you think the wood you have selected will be what you expect, you really can’t tell until there is lacquer on it. I think the walnut that I selected for my first tele which I’ve had in my private stock for about 6 or 7 years,  is everything I imagined. Hope you like it.

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It has been a long time since I’ve posted anything but alot has gone on in my life this year. I was transitioned out of my full time job, after 33 and a half years of dedicated service, at the end of January. I took a 3 month semi-retirement after my termination date. During that time I stayed busy by remodeling my daughters kitchen. I removed all of her old builder grade cabinets and built 12 new cabinets for her. It was really a blessing that I had this project to do during this time. I really enjoyed spending the day in my shop doing woodwork. It was awesome. Her cabinets came out so well that I was commissioned to build more cabinets for a neighbors guest house. I was busy again which helped pass the time. During the time I was working on the last set of cabinets I was hired by my current employer. In that period of 3 months, I went from being a 33 year tenured employee to being unemployed, a kitchen remodeler and builder to starting a new job. I really haven’t had alot of time to build guitars which I truly love to do. I finally have got back into luthiery and here is the progress of my teles.

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Well here are the pictures I promised

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I have never been one to build guitars like anyone else, however some styles are classic and legendary. The Telecaster is one of those classic guitar shapes and one of the most recognizable guitars in history. Although everyone can tell a telecaster in a group of electric guitars there are many different variations of telecasters . There is the Standard, the Deluxe, the Thinline and more. That is what interested me in this shape. Another reason is the simplicity of the design. I have acquired some reclaimed wood which I have milled and have made 4 body blanks. Of course I can’t just make one kind of guitar so I have decided to make 1 of each. I also have decided to use some wood that I have had lying around for several years. These will not be like regular telecasters but will have my own twist. More to come.. 

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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