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Guitaring and other hobbies


flatbaroque

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My other hobby is building stuff: furniture, houses, boats, you name it. My neighbors in Newport used to call me "Noah", as it took me 10 years (working part time) to built the boat that my (second) wife and I eventually sailed around the world. It sat in the backyard the whole time, first under a cover, later inside a temporary building I built over it.

 

Started it as a little project to help me get over a divorce. Project got a little out of control.

 

It helped to do this in a town full of sailors, so nobody ever complained. I also never ran heavy (noisy) machinery at night.

 

I was thinking of taking on building a guitar, maybe from a Stewmac kit to learn the process. Anyone here ever built one of those?

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I was thinking of taking on building a guitar, maybe from a Stewmac kit to learn the process. Anyone here ever built one of those?

 

Thought about it several times, got close, not pulled the trigger as the workroom area is used as a storage area for the time being. I believe Martin also do kits, there's some guy sells them online, some via ebay now & then.

 

Could be a great project.

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I was thinking of taking on building a guitar, maybe from a Stewmac kit to learn the process. Anyone here ever built one of those?

 

Nick, I built one from a StewMac kit about 15 years ago. It started out with me GASing for an all-solid guitar in a 000/grand concert size, and thinking that the kit would be my cheapest way to get what I wanted. I think I spent about $250 for the kit. In addition to my dad's tools around the house, I bought a $120 band saw and a $50 router, and thought that might be all I needed. [laugh] I probably dropped another $500 on tools (chisels, clamps scrapers, plane, side-bending iron, calipers, precision rulers, etc.) I was away at college and law school at the time, and got a job moving furniture when I was home (gotta pay for the tools!) so it took me 3 summers to build it. It was a ton of fun to build, in spite of my dozens of smack-my-head moments, like miscalculating the saddle location by 1/4", or having a brain-fart and putting the inlay at fret 14 instead of fret 12. :blink: I ended up getting a pro luthier to help me get it set up (for another $200 -- took a good bit of work for him to fix my mistakes). [cursing] So, in other words, I spent about $1200 for a guitar that's not as nice as what I could have bought for $600. [biggrin]

 

Having said all that, it was one of the most satisfying projects I've ever undertaken, and I would love to do it again sometime, maybe a father-son project when my son is a few years older. The guitar sounds awesome after all this time, I still have it and play it a good bit. (Much less since I bought the J-45 last year!)

 

Let me know if you spring for a kit -- happy to send you some of these nice tools that I'm not using. (There are surprisingly few other uses for a $200 side-bending iron -- maybe for a boat?)

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My hobbies are pretty disparate from one another...

 

By profession I'm a musician, but my spare time is spent as a racing driver (mainly Sr. TKM karts at present, have driven allsorts but TKM karting in the UK is cheap, simple and an ocean of fun) and a collector, restorer and smoker of vintage tobacco pipes.

 

I'm also a gym rat and fitness fanatic...I never used to be, but in the last two years I've transformed my body (lost 9st/122lbs) and am now really into fitness and health. As a result, my pipe smoking pastime has been relegated from a daily pursuit to a once-a-week thing at most. Not a bad thing, but I miss my meditative time spent with my pipes sometimes.

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My hobbies are pretty disparate from one another...

 

By profession I'm a musician, but my spare time is spent as a racing driver (mainly Sr. TKM karts at present, have driven allsorts but TKM karting in the UK is cheap, simple and an ocean of fun) and a collector, restorer and smoker of vintage tobacco pipes.

 

I'm also a gym rat and fitness fanatic...I never used to be, but in the last two years I've transformed my body (lost 9st/122lbs) and am now really into fitness and health. As a result, my pipe smoking pastime has been relegated from a daily pursuit to a once-a-week thing at most. Not a bad thing, but I miss my meditative time spent with my pipes sometimes.

 

that was one of those posts that i had to read a couple times

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My hobbies are pretty disparate from one another...

 

By profession I'm a musician, but my spare time is spent as a racing driver (mainly Sr. TKM karts at present, have driven allsorts but TKM karting in the UK is cheap, simple and an ocean of fun) and a collector, restorer and smoker of vintage tobacco pipes.

 

I'm also a gym rat and fitness fanatic...I never used to be, but in the last two years I've transformed my body (lost 9st/122lbs) and am now really into fitness and health. As a result, my pipe smoking pastime has been relegated from a daily pursuit to a once-a-week thing at most. Not a bad thing, but I miss my meditative time spent with my pipes sometimes.

 

 

that was one of those posts that i had to read a couple times

 

There's quite a bit of pipe smoking goes on about an hours car journey away from me... That's how long it takes them to get to the Dutch coffee shops msp_laugh.gif

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My hobbies are pretty disparate from one another...

 

By profession I'm a musician, but my spare time is spent as a racing driver (mainly Sr. TKM karts at present, have driven allsorts but TKM karting in the UK is cheap, simple and an ocean of fun) and a collector, restorer and smoker of vintage tobacco pipes.

 

 

Jindar,

Now I understand why you lost so much weight. It's hard to imagine you folding yourself into a TKM kart. Sounds like a lot of fun, however.

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euh...I do a lot of things but my latest thing I got into is making cigar box guitar :). I've build 1 now...but I have more ideas. A contra bass from a wine crate for example. Possibilities are unlimited.

 

 

Have you looked at the South African oil can guitars? That would be an interesting project.

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Have you looked at the South African oil can guitars? That would be an interesting project.

Nope I did not before you posted it...but now, they look cool.

I gonna make me loads of guitars...my wife is gonna be happy...I have 10 guitars, and now a CBG and plans to make me a bass with a wine crate and now this oil cans...aye caramba.

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Other than guitar & singing...restoring the two old houses we've lived in has been our hobby for most of the last 18 years.

Both in bad condition..Last one was built by an owner of a chocolate Factory (1904) ...and this one was owned by various President/Treasurers of Standard Oil of NJ which became Esso for much of the last century.

A real mess though.

And before that till now..furniture,art,decorative art, period Colonial American & most English design

 

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o536/merseybeat1963/?action=view&current=2d6d191d.jpg

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o536/merseybeat1963/?action=view&current=12020618.jpg

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o536/merseybeat1963/?action=view&current=c0257dd3.jpg

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o536/merseybeat1963/?action=view&current=fd4171d9.jpg

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o536/merseybeat1963/?action=view&current=e74d374a.jpg

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o536/merseybeat1963/?action=view&current=9e76949a.jpg

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