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Here is the guitar I have built for the 2025 LaConner guitar festival next weekend. I literally strung this up about an hour before I recorded, and it already sounds huge. I’ll be proud to have this on my table!
117 CommentsComment on Facebook
Very nice ! sounds awesome !
I can't imagine how proud you must be. Hell dude I don't even know you and I'm proud of you :-)
Love the sound! Very rich, without being overpowering.
This Nautilus is headed to my friends and Miki Gakki, one of Japan’s premier guitar dealers. It’s an honor to be represented by them, and exciting to be making inroads into the vibrant Japanese guitar scene. I hope this Adirondack and quartersawn Cocobolo powerhouse represents my work well. I’m very proud of it, anyway!
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I would so like to spend a day with you!
Wowwwwwwwwwwww! Just what I like. What a beautiful tone! And what a beautiful instrument!! So classy and elegant. The bass are so deep and every note is vibrant all through the spectrum with great dynamics. What a success Willborne Guitars! I can tell the passion in your voice & work. Would love to play & own one of your creations. In fact that exact same model. Dream dream🥰🤩
Very impressive... wait till it matures!?
A rare thing here: a used Arum in Lutz spruce and Madagascar rosewood, in absolutely immaculate condition. This instrument is available right now, or at the LaConner guitar festival 5/16-18/2025.
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Looking forward to coming to visit and give it a try in LaConnor.
Thank you, Ben. Was hoping I could swing it -- I'd love to hear the bigger guitar in person. I don't expect you to come up with another used guitar soon, but I'll ask again next time. Val
Hi Ben, Like all of your guitars, this is just lovely. If this is still available will you please message the asking price for me?
Hot off the presses is this Nautilus for Miki Gakki in Japan. The woods are Adirondack over quartersawn Cocobolo, bound in ebony and red pressure dyed poplar purflings. This instrument is so powerful and easy to play. I’m a happy man.
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How did he discover your craftsmanship?
What multi scale length do you use?
Love Cocobolo!
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Unless you make 60” long purflings, you have to have a tail joint somewhere.
Then someone on Facebook be like. I saw one on marketplace for $50 bucks. Your skills are undeniable. Beautiful.
Measured and cut perfectly.
Diogo Novaes playing his beautiful composition To Have You in My Care and Behold You My Wake. I'm honored to hear one of my guitars being so well played.
He has many more videos on his YouTube channel. I recommend you check it out. www.youtube.com/@diogoandguitar
32 CommentsComment on Facebook
There's something special about a dude in a hoodie and a snap back cap worn backwards making such a beautiful sound on a stunning guitar!
Good lord that sounds good
Very tasteful and beautiful playing. Thank you for this treat.
A beautifully quartersawn cocobolo and Adirondack Nautilus for my friends at Miki Gakki in Japan. It’s shown here in a couple of coats of epoxy pore filler- I expect it will really shine under lacquer.
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The red purfling works so well here, Ben! Looks terrific.
Love Cocobolo!
Amazing. How have you done for the soundhole.it's really great work.
Bill’s koa and Adirondack spruce Nautilus.
www.wilbornguitars.com
#Luthier #acousticguitar #boutiqueguitars
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What I believe is the neck wood affects the decay the most, the body wood affects the projection the most, and the top wood affects the tone the most, yet they all affect all of it. It's a system.
Beautiful guitar, but bridge looks crooked?
Oh my, Ben... every one of your guitars has such impeccable tone and sustain... I am constantly impressed every time the sound of one of your instruments reaches my ears! 🎵🎶 ... ... ... ... (those ellipses are my attempt at expressing speechlessness... 😄)
Back to building…. Here’s the semi-built stage of an Arum. All my braces are oversized and ready to be trimmed down, and around, and over the reinforcement for the soundhole and the laminated maple bridge plate. Once that’s done, trimmed and smoothed, it will get glued in place on this cocobolo rim assembly. I haven’t built an Arum for awhile. This is good fun.
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How are you doing your beautiful bevels ? Are the one piece bindings?
Wild set of coco, I can't wait to see the back. Is the arum bigger than the nautilus?
What's a laminated bridge plate? (and why is it superior to a solid wood BP?)
I met my friend Tom Bowersox nearly ten years ago at the Woodstock show in NY. He’s been a great friend, client, and design patron to me, and I’m honored to have always been included in the lineup at his “Bowersox International Guitarapalooza” in New Braunfels TX for the last five years. I’ve done a lot of shows, and this one is very special. It’s a bit of an amazing piece of social diplomacy, in which Tom and his wife Kathy throw open the doors of their house to a large number of guests, people from all across the country, people of all manner of beliefs and political leanings, and create an environment where civility, decency and a love of the world of luthiery bring this diverse group into, for at least one weekend, a kind of miraculous harmony. There I hobnob and play music with many who may very well be diametrically opposed to my beliefs- but that is not an issue, because here, briefly, we are all in agreement about one lovely thing, and leave the rest at the door. This delicious interlude, a break from the ceaseless classification of enemies, reveling in misdeeds and outrageousness, is due to the work, generosity and equanimity of Tom and Kathy Bowersox. Where all of us may stand politically and religiously are irrelevant because, when all that frantic, ugly, tribal bullshit is stowed away, you can see the fundamental decency in almost anyone. Without common ground upon which to meet and perhaps cool the ferocity of our own biases, we humans haven’t the slightest chance of ever reconciling with one another. That’s why BIG is close to my heart, and why I wanted to write this in testament to my dear friend, who is currently being very unfairly depicted in another FB post.
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Hey Ben, do you mind if I share this? I was trying to calmly and succinctly put my thoughts into words, but you nailed it.
Well said, Ben. If anyone is bashing Tom, they don't know Tom. I've known Tom and Kathy for the last several years through the BIG event and a follow his posts on FB. He and I do not agree politically, but it's not a battle, it's a different viewpoint. Strangely enough, I've found a number of issues we do agree on! Anyone that would open up their house and expend the effort he a Kathy do for BIG shows a big, generous heart. I think he would be a loyal friend. Those are the things that are important, the other stuff is transitory.
I agree, Ben Wilborn Guitars, we can appreciate the commonality that brings us together. I continue to meet and enjoy the company of many people I never would have met otherwise, including you, my friend.
Koa and Adirondack Wilborn Nautilus, with ebony binding and delicious green purfling lines.
42 CommentsComment on Facebook
Stunning!!! Does the offset sound hole create a different sound? Pardon my ignorance, I’m a listener not a player.
Great woodworking, what does it sound like acoustically? Also is that nitro or FP?
I imagine this will win an award. I always thought Florence had the edge over Venice when it came to cutaways 💜
I’ve begun work on this very special Arum for the B.I.G. Show in New Braunfels TX this September. I’ve been saving this incredible cocobolo set for, I don’t know…something SPECIAL! This is peak cocobolo in my opinion, and I’ll be matching it with an equally fine Adirondack top, as well as my crush-of-the-week green purfling.
17 CommentsComment on Facebook
I bet this set of coco would also look really snazzy with brown rosewood/coco binding (like the guitar in your FB wallpaper photo) and golden/amber colored micro purfling lines, especially if it were paired with a warmer-colored sitka top.
Looking great! The green goes amazingly well with that Coco.
Ben, are the green purflings dyed pear?
Here’s how I shape the curve of the heel and tail blocks. I made a little subtable with a projecting lip which mounts on a disk sander. Then I made several jigs that securely hold the blocks, and a series of different shaped cauls to match the curvature of the inside of my various model’s sides. These cauls screw onto the bottom of the sanding jig, and ride against the projecting lip of the subtable, thereby imparting the curve onto the block. A funny thing is that I’ve made hundreds of these at this point and I’ve never had to change the 80 grit disc! I just go slowly, and it seems that mahogany will never wear it out.
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I'm at this stage in my build. Can I drop by with my heal and tail blocks? Looks a lot faster than double sticky taping sandpaper to the inside of the mold and doing it that way.
As a non-luthier guitar guy, I am blown away by what you know and I don't. As I scratch my head trying to understand this, I've decided it's one more thing in life I don't comprehend but appreciate its contribution to the final product. I've often thought it would be cool to watch you through a complete build process, but I would ask so many questions it would take you a year to complete that guitar! Impressive work, Ben, even though I have no idea what's going on.
Nice tooling, in my stint making solid body instruments for Phil Kubicki I ended up making a lot of the tooling which I found more rewarding than making the instruments.
Next up, a cocobolo and Adirondack Nautilus for my friends at Miki Gakki in Japan. This is some pretty rare, perfectly straight and quartered coco.
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Wow. what did you put on that Cocobolo? It's stunning.
Awesome! Can I ask where you get your colored purfling/binding from?
I don't think I have ever seen Cocobolo that straight. Love the dark strips in the center. That is going to be a very nice color palate. Looks like all the pieces are there, glue that up and be done with it, 2-3 days if you work at it.
One last photo before this baby goes into the spray booth.
33 CommentsComment on Facebook
That’s a weird looking dovetail. 😜
Looks great! Hope you show the finished product.
Wow. Koa?