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A number of clients have asked about the workshop where their instruments have been built. It is located in the basement my previous home in San Francisco. It is the place where all the original kitchen cabinets were built and put together when the house was built in 1977. In fact it is the first "room" that was drywalled so that it could be used for the cabinetwork and cutting and assembly of other finishing materials.

Over the years the shop has become quite cramped, but I've adapted it fairly well for guitarmaking.

In 2009 my daughter and son-in-law needed to walk away from their house in the East Bay, and moved all their household into the SF house, including my workshop, so guitar work stopped cold. As a result, over the last 3 years I have been working on a new workshop/garage at my house in the mountains in Weed, CA, near Mt. Shasta.

Click here for Photos of new workshop



Work table with rack for "QuickGrip" clamps, spring clamps, and the compressor used for spraying finish. Note: You can NEVER have too many clamps!




Bending machine built and somewhat modified from plans from LMI (Luthiers' Merchantile International), in Windsor, CA. Three 150W light bulbs inside heat wood for sides and binding sandwiched between flexible stainless steel slats that are bent to the shape of the mold with the screw presses.




Drum sander I built for thinning wood for sides, backs, binding, and other jobs for which a power planer is way to much. The bed of the sander is raised and lowered using the crank visible in the center just below the bed. This thing produces a whole lot of dust, so the plastic hood has a connector for a hose to my dust collector visible in the background.




One of the main "workhorses" of a luthier shop is the bandsaw. This "Ridgid" 14-incher has a 6 inch extension so that I can bookmatch billets of wood up to about 10 inches wide. Hanging to the right of the bandsaw are 3 different molds used for putting sides together. On the far left, mostly out of view is another necessary tool, the drill press.

More to be added...