Hey foiks!
Mark & Carol, I have really enjoyed lurking in the community that you have created here. I am so glad I found your live streams! They have been a wonderful way to pass the pandemic. Logging into youtube with a hot mug of coffee two mornings per week to watch y'all build guitars for an hour has been my happy place for many months. I just signed up for a Premium membership and am starting to dig through the mountain of material found there.
About me:
My name is Brad and I live in (and grew up in) Raleigh, NC. I caught the woodworking bug a decade ago when my in-laws bought me a KMG "Success Kit" OM acoustic to build for my son, Hank, who had yet to be born. Now he is ten and I am finally building a second guitar. One for myself this time: a clone of a 72 thinline Tele with Curtis Novak Wide Range Humbuckers and a one-piece neck that I milled from a maple board. The guitar is ready for finish and I am really getting desperate for a warm and dry weekend to spray lacquer outside! Once this one's done I hope to move onto a scratch acoustic build following Mark's acoustic course.
I picked up a vacuum press system recently for veneering and am interested in applying it to guitar builds. I used it to glue the back onto the thinline and it worked great. I'll probably be hitting Darren up for a few tips!
Just wanted to say hi. Here's a few pics of the Tele build:
Hi Brad,
welcome to the most amazing guitar making community on Earth! It’s great that you have found the livestreams a relief from the stresses of the past year, as have many of us, and you will have nothing other than a fantastic time here. You are amongst friends!
You Tele (coolest guitar ever IMHO!) build looks amazing and if you have any questions on vacuum laminating or veneer it I will be more than happy to offer any advice that I can.
Hope to see you in class on Wednesday.
Cheers
Darren
@brad_nc Welcome to the forum Brad, you are very welcome. Your Tele build is looking great, can’t wait to see it fully built. I also like the look of your bench, it looks solid (something I am lacking is a rock solid woodworking bench). The fun starts here. 👍
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Hi Brad
I'll add my (slightly belated) welcome too - always good to have another member on here posting pics of their builds.
I'm always envious of the timbers that seem to be available in the US though ... so many different timbers and seem to be easily available!!
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
So nice to meet some of the folks i see in the livestream chats!
@darrenking Thanks, I will definitely be asking you lots of questions.
@boo I love that bench. It's a split top roubo with a 4" top that I build a few years ago. That thing is a clamping machine. The lack of an apron makes it easy to clamp workpieces to the top and the holdfasts are great for locking down the body to route out pickup and control cavities. Highly recommended.
See you guys on the forum!
Brad
