I started building guitars a few years ago after the birth of my older son, who is now 6, and shortly afterwards, people began asking me to build them a guitar. So I did. Last year, in October, as many of you here may remember, Hurricane Sandy decimated much of the north east. I grew up on Staten Island, and spent a great deal of time at the Jersey shore where my mom had a summer house. Many people I know lost some or all of their possessions and homes in the storm. I spent countless hours helping friends, family, and strangers clean up after the storm. It is a humbling experience to see someone's entire life sitting on the curb for the garbage men to pick up. Family photos, sentimental items that may have little monetary value, but are priceless to the owner...everything. Imagine going into your house, starting at the front door, and throwing away every single item in your house. Not a good feeling when you are in control of it, even worse when you are not. I never felt like I could do enough to help. At some point, after seeing many guitars on the curb, ruined by mud, sewage, and water damage, or just smashed to bits by the violent water surge, it occurred to me that I could make a small bright spot come out of this terrible event. I decided to have a giveaway for one of my guitars. The wood would be picked by the winner, as would the appointments, inlay, etc. All for free for one lucky person. After receiving many entries, I settled on one man whose wife entered for him. His guitar had been to with him in the Army on two deployments, and survived in tact, only to be destroyed in his living room by the storm. After a lot of conversations with the winner, Andrew Carro, of Staten Island, we settled on what you see below. A ziricote back and side set that I had planned to use for my own guitar, a Lutz spruce top, ebony binding, fret board and bridge, with his name inlayed on the fret board, mahogany neck.
I had to rush to get this guitar done so the owner could play it at his sister's wedding, so I did not get to document the whole thing, but here are the finished pics:
I would be delivering it any day now, but the owner told me he made a mistake and the wedding he wants to play it at, his sister's, is not until July 6th, not June 6th as he told me half way into the build. gaah gaah
Anyway, it gives me time to fix a sand through in the finish on the binding, and to buff out the tiny scratches I can only see when I look at the pics blown up on my screen!
Thanks to everyone who donated parts for this guitar. A member here was very generous with supplying 7, thats right, SEVEN different types of binding so I could choose what worked best. I'm not sure he wants his name mentioned because he never posted publicly so I wont mention it, but I am very grateful for his generosity, as well as several other people who helped out. The CNC cut inlay for the fretboard was a last minute addition and was done for the cost of shell by Andy Birko, who donated his programming time and the CNC cut faux bound fret board and the CNC cut bridge. The tuners and neck were also donated, and I am extremely thankful for the help and time savings the donations provided me. My wife is thankful for the time it saved as well since I was not living in the shop!
Thanks for looking,
Tony
