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Ooooooooh!!!! Phenomenal!!!!
Nice, I was just online looking for finger planes that didn't cost 800 bucks!
That’s more of the near perfect brazo, with the chocolates & blacks so bold. My my.
Can't wait to hear it. Arum?
Fantastic work, Ben. Still love all the guitars you made for me.
Oh aye!
Dan’s Nautilus, all done and ready to go. He chose this particular set of Brazilian because it looks so much like the set on his ‘20’s Martin. So now they can be like reunited family members: the venerable old Patriarch, and his weird grandson. I suspect they will get along just fine.
I suspect Grandad will just think that the Yungun’ is showing off to let him know that he’s not intimidated one bit by his “worldly experiences”
Another winner, Ben! Congrats to both you and Dan!
Beautiful guitar! The turquoise is a really nice touch, too. I’m a fan!!!
Beautiful! I doubt the old Martin will get out of the case as much as before. Congrats Dan!
Wow
Frog and Toad performing a demonstration of Bruce Sexauer's
guitars at La Conner. Even though I am a builder myself, I love to do demos of other builder's guitars- especially the really good ones! Bruce's guitars are wonderful, responsive , beautifully set up, and a joy to play. That Brazilian and Adirondack job I have in my lap is a truly fine instrument. Of course, most of the attention in the room was focused on Brad's shoes.
I know a pair of Altra Timps when I see them!
Did you record it? I'd love to hear that. Bruce Sexauer makes fantastic guitars!
Do the type of laces affect the tone???
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Malaysian blackwood and Carpathian spruce Nautilus.
Advertising motto: Blood spruce, guaranteed to last an eternity...Warranty void if exposed to garlic, a cross, or silver bullet.
Beautiful, Ben! Same woods as my Stehr. A great combo.
Very nice! Have you settled into any particular scale lengths for your fan fret guitars?
Hey Ben! What are your thoughts on the spacing of the grain in spruce or other species of sound boards? What's the difference in sound between tight grain, slow growth and wide grain, fast growth wood? Is there a general or hard fast rule you've seen?
Love it! And - I know so much more about Spruces than I did before. Outstanding as always!
Blood Spruce, I love it!!
Spent a winter in Transylvania. I want one. Unfortunately my playing ability would never come close to this beauty.
One of a Kind - fresh Sound. And nice even for Gypsy Jazz...- could be a nice experiance to play one - sometime...( Carlos Juan ).
Thanks for the show and tell! That's a beautiful guitar!
Bellissima e con suono favoloso !
Wow! Amazing!
hopefully it will get the right pickup 🤷♂️😅
Dendrochronology
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Tuning machines! Have you ever had a guitar where you are playing along, and you know your b string, say, is a touch sharp, but you just leave it because dealing with your miserable, crunchy, stiff, unpredictable tuning machine is just not worth it? Well, it is my mission for that to never happen on one of my guitars. I go to great lengths to prepare and locate my tuner holes so that they impart no tension on the tuning post, and they can be removed without ripping up the headstock veneer. A screw location jig, along with a self aligning vix bit to drill the screw holes is pretty essential. Then all the holes must be chamfered cleanly. I do all this before finish goes on, so I’m not gouging things up after polishing. Finally, after trying pretty much every tuner on the market at least once, I have settled on Schertler machines. They are simply the most reliable, easy to use and consistent machine I know of- including the handmade ones that cost 7 times as much. I actually ENJOY tuning with these. And careful prep under the plates means there are no horrible skeletons in your closet waiting to attack the first unfortunate tech who has to remove one.
Trevor Hanson I have to offset due to my narrow headstock....
Yep the tuners are so smooth and on your guitars, incredibly stable! I tune far less frequently than I used to unless changing tunings. Heck I dropped into C standard and it still hasn’t budged. 🤯
Who made those tuners? I love your layout, btw.
I have SO “B”een there “B”efore!!! Such superlative care in your builds! You are truly a player’s builder. And the turquoise inlay… absolutely fantastic!!!
I like your small offset between bass and treble.
I just ordered a set to try. I have been looking to find replacements for the Waverly tuners. I also like the Gotoh minis especially in cosmic black.
What I love about open back tuners is that they don’t have a washer with the press in bushing that muck up the look up the headstock.
It’s crazy….I don’t play guitar but I want one of yours!!! Total works of art!!!
Are these better than Gotah?
Ben as I have delved further into my wood working I remain in total awe of your incredible precision in your laminations, inlays, design and construction! You are truly remarkable at your craft!! I really appreciate your process posts because they inspire me to improve on my craftsmanship.
You are amazing… beautiful tuners!
Yes! I have had this problem with the B string on quite a few guitars own.
Beautiful work.
Juste parfait
Being the honored owner of one of your magnificent creations, I can testify that I have never used smoother, more accurate tuners. Of course, I don't have a B string.
The Schertler tuners on my Ibex were a revelation to me -- effortless and reliable! Thank you, Ben!
Beautiful
Sexy
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Frog and Toad made it to the Big House this year at La Conner. We got to share the bill as opening act for Matt Thomas and Dustin Furlow, who are both dauntingly awesome guitarists.
This venue is a beautiful old wooden church, perched in a knoll above the town, and is one of the nicest small venues I’ve ever performed in. The audience was so great and made us feel like a million bucks. Definitely the show’s highlight for me.
That's awesome! Congratulations! I remember that old church. Great venue. 👍
Hey, these guys are booked for the B.I.G. guitar show in San Antonio Sept. 1st thru 3rd if interested in attending, just sayin, up close and personal with some amphibians!
You guys are AWESOME!
SO glad you had fun -- it's because Frog and Toad delighted their audience!
I'm the 100th Like!
You guys are awesome! Cheers!
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Showing my guitars at the La Conner guitar festival in NW Washington this weekend. When I first started going to these shows over a decade ago, I was horribly intimidated and felt like a total imposter. Now I’m surrounded by friends and colleagues whom I love and respect, and I find the shows inspiring and confirming. It’s really quite a feeling for a person who is essentially an introverted curmudgeon.
I would like to thank Brent and the whole amazing team that puts this event on for the extraordinary hospitality. Thank you for having me, and for giving Frog and Toad so many opportunities to perform.
Killer show, last night. You add so, so much to this community, man. The music is vibrant and inspiring.
Wow! I wish I could’ve been there!
Thx for sharing your talents and adding to the artistic tapestry of weekend.
Your guitars looked great!
Have a great show!!
Introverted? Uh…no. Belonging there? Absolutely.
best guitars out there 🧐
I absolutely loved and I am still impressed by the quality of your work. Not only that, but we had an amazing conversation and have to admit I would not have thought of you as an introvert 🙂. Very good progress 😀. Looking forward to getting a Wilborn guitar 🎸 for sure. Thanks for the demo and hope to meet you again.
So glad to see you found your space, your way. Your guitars are so beautiful and so gorgeous sounding. I do plan to purchase one someday. But, for now, I can only appreciate the wonderful work you do. Thank you for being brave enough to step out and share your talent and creativity with all of us guitar freaks out here.
Great Location and glad you enjoyed yourself.
Hmmmill take the one on left no wait ! The one on the right ! No,no, no the one on the left ! Ugh I can’t decide why is so hard to choose ! Lol 😂
So close and yet so far! Sorry we couldn’t make it over from Orcas Ben. Next year we’ll try to plan better… La Conner is a fun place especially for Introverted Curmudgeons!🧐🤗🤗🎼
Have a good time my friend! Miss you all!
Have a great show!!
Curmudgeon luthiers need love too!
Yahoo!!!!
Awesome 😎
Excellent!
I’m a bit late on this, but here we go. I’ll be exhibiting at the LaConner Guitar Festival this weekend in LaConner Washington. I’ll have two Nautilus guitars for sale- a Brazilian and Tunnel 14 redwood, and a Malaysian Blackwood and Carpathian spruce model. If you have been discouraged by my ridiculously long queue, this is a rare opportunity to acquire a Nautilus without waiting 3 years. Ever the professional, I totally failed to take nice pictures of the completed guitars, but here are a couple pictures of them before finish, and you can see the very high quality of the wood. They are both really nice instruments. PM if interested.
laconnerguitarfestival.com/
I wish I could buy both, variety and choices are a good thing!
Love the looks of these--especially that Carpathian top!
Hmm, maybe. Message me the cost.
Looking forward to seeing you there (and the Nauts, of course!).
“How much for the girls, the women, I buy the women” John Belushi
Have a fabulous time!!
Wish I could have got there.
Have a good show! Say hey to Toad for me.
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Next up is this truly lovely set of Brazilian and a super resonant top of Adirondack spruce. In about 10 weeks, this will be a Nautilus.
GREAT BRW! Very unique and stunning.
Truly and amazing set. Is that really BRW?
That’s a gorgeous set of Brazilian. How old is it Ben?
I seldom find BRW attractive, this one is spectacular
Ooooh! Oooooh! Oooooh!
Already sold?
That's probably the most stunning Brazilian I've seen. You must have some good connections to acquire such top shelf materials.
That’s brazo!
Wow! That's awesome! Can't wait to see the finished piece.
Gorgeous!
Amen
😍
OMG BRW
Bevels are a beautiful, sculptural, ergonomic luxury if they are done tastefully. I think they should not be huge- just enough to do the job and strategically soften the guitar’s edge- and the lines should flow, as if the binding just grew softer and fatter in key places. No giant , gruesome chamfers with hard or abrupt terminations. A good bevel will actually make a guitar feel smaller and more slender, and prevent the dreaded crease in the forearm that anyone who has played for more than 20 minutes consecutively knows all about. A fancy feature that actually, truly enhances the player’s experience.
I think your bevels are perfectly done and do make for a very comfortable experience.
Bevels have made all the difference in the world to those of us who are on the small side in being able to play larger body guitars. Love my Taylor 324 Builders Edition. It makes their Grand Auditorium body size so much more comfortable… and they just look classy. Yours especially so, Ben! You do such beautiful work.
I agree with your philosophy on this. Your bevel transitions and integration with the sound port are next level. Some of the best in the business!!!
Absolutely.
Extraordinary work! ❤️
Love it!
You are so thoughtful. Experience counts!
Dang it Ben , robbing banks these days ain’t as easy as it used to be ! Lmao 🤣 That’s some pretty stuff ! 😊❤️
“Gruesome chamfers” 😂
Cryptocurrency is the future, I happened to invest a little amount with the best forex and crypto expert Mrs. Rebecca Wayne , and I received a huge boost in my trade and I made my first withdrawal today I invested $450 I received $5,200 within the space of 7 days. Please do not forget to mention I recommended You, There will be a referral bonus top-up in my account. For More info contact her Quickly to have the best trading experience: WhatsApp +18304848051 Email: rebeccawayne150@gmail.com
I haven’t done a tapered heel graft for a long time, but this was fun to do and it looks different than what I’m used to, so I’m all excited. Brazilian rosewood with ebony bindings.
Crisp! I was literally sitting here with my guitar admiring (as usual) that absolutely impeccable craftsmanship on the 3d soundport. Just perfect taper after perfect curve.
That looks absolutely perfect!
nice clean mitres
That looks fantastic! I love it!
Awesome job!!! The craftsmanship is first rate... a work of art
Holy mackerel Ben. Looks like a computer did it. Master of your craft my man.
Súper,,,felicidades Maestro
Love it, when you build mine (someday soon) that’ll be part of the build
That's stunning. Here's my first attempt at a heel graft.
Just beautiful, Ben!
Beautiful That is some serious rosewood. And the layered mitred binding looks great!
Love it
Do that more!
Wonderful
Mervyn Davis
Fabulous work
Nice
Yesterday I spent the morning re-sawing this giant 130lb gaboon ebony billet into planks. Buying a billet is always a bit of a crap shoot, because you never know what is lurking inside. This one had a lot of cracks and heart- checks, but still yielded a mighty stack of useable ebony- especially since my need is for the smaller dimensions required for guitar bindings and bevels. Also, I am happy with the quality of the wood, and it’s slight variations from jet black. I find that more attractive than a pure black, which looks under finish like it could be just black plastic. I’ll let these boards sit curing in my shop for at least a year before I start using them.
I love the very slight variations in my fingerboard. Only visible at the right angle, but so nice.
Very interesting looking wood! Here is my stash of true Mun Ebony from vietnam. AFAIK true black Mun ebony is entirely unknown in the US market. True Mun ebony should be uniformly black like Gaboon ebony. I would be very interested in comparing how my Mun ebony looks compared to Gabon ebony.
I wouldn't have the nerve to cut into it. I'd prop it up in a corner and just look at it.
How many blades did you ruin??? That’s tough wood, like teak and black walnut
Quite the wood prospector haul
Are you buying from Mastercraft?
You sellin ?
Cutting badsaw?
How much was the billet if I may ask? And where did you buy it? ;)
I agree with the visual appeal of grain-in Ebony. Always adds an appropriate amount of character.
Great score!
Looks like a lot of really nice pieces were achieved!
Brotha man. What a chunk of treasure you got there
This is crazy!
Amazing. You must have a monster saw!
Ben: Which one do you typically use for fretboards? I should know this, but I have not paid close enough attention!
👁👁
🫢🫢🫢🫢🫢
send me few :D
woow
Adirondack and mahogany Sidewinder.
www.wilbornguitars.com
I think describing the sound qualities of a guitar is very much like that of a loudspeaker -- words just aren't good at this. There are scientific measurements that could be made of each instrument's sound, but those too don't accurately describe sound quality. I completely agree with you, Ben, that design, build, woods and playing all contribute to an instrument's sound quality. Add in microphones/pickups and all the electronics used to get these videos available to the world and you have a symphonic sound ... so hard to describe all the nuances in a way everyone understands. And yet, I love these videos ... I learn something from and am impressed by each one. Well done, Ben.
Another truly wonderful guitar, Ben! I love the clarity and responsiveness of it.
Far out, this sound’s phenomenal. You are not making it any easier for me, I am still undecided between the nautilus or the sidewinder for my build next year. It’s a good problem to have 😂. Cheers Andy from Perth, Australia
Magnifique!!!! J'adore cette guitare
Most excellent! Excited to sit beside the campfire with you again in just 7 weeks.
Fantastic as always! Love the figured mahogany and the sound is sublime
...”the sound chamber of my lungs...”...indeed...
Sounds great
Ben Wilborn Morning playing next you'll say no purple shirt. Be setting around playing the no purple shirt blues.
Another great Wilborn. I think the sustain that you referenced is built into the magical design of these guitars and maybe accentuated by a glassy back, but still very prevalent in this Mahogany Beast! Your Comma series all seem to excel in that department, RW or Mahogany, Spruce or Redwood!
Genius.
Wow
If you don’t know about The Luthiers Showcase, you should check out the link. They have amassed quite a fine roster of builders, and you can check out photos, specs and bio information for many different guitar makers, all in one place. Pretty cool!@wilbornguitars
Love high-end, custom instruments? Visit our website www.luthiersshowcase.com. Link in bio. We are the premier site for buying or selling custom instruments.
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Wow! That's awesome! What a beauty.
Wow, thanks!
Ordered some bone a couple of weeks ago and your article came up in an email!
There. That was the hard part. Now, just assemble into a rough guitar shaped configuration, and the elves will see to the rest. By the way, look at the silking on that Carpathian spruce!
Beautiful!
Yes, but if you say Carpathian spruce like Ricardo Montalbán then everyone will be really impressed! 😉
Looks like silk ! Lol sweet ! 😊
Another stunning example of the guitar making art. Well done
So Beautiful!
Just wooow
You must have splurged on the 99-blade razors from Harry’s to get that level of silkiness 🥸🥸
Gosh that top is something
Wow -- exquisite! Is this one with Macassar ebony for the soundhole and bevel? What is the wood for back and sides?
Here’s a little photo essay on making my soundhole Comma. Trick one is to cut and glue the long curved miter off the body, making sure it is just so, then gluing the whole thing on at once. Then I make a template of the now purfling-lined soundhole out of 1/8” birch ply. Each guitar is slightly different, so this is s one-off, and I have to make a fresh one each time. I use this template to cut a teardrop shape of- in this case- Macassar ebony, and then rabbet the edge where it will sit on a shelf of the top that protrudes beyond the purfling. This gives much more strength than a simple butt joint would give. I then cut out the Comma shape and refine it as much as I can before gluing it in place. There is always some fussing and tweaking, but the goal is to use zero filler anywhere - so I take my time and make small moves until it is just so. Notice how there is even a very subtle tapered pocket for the tapered end of the curved miter. This is where I explore the limits of my skill , every time.
It is great to see and hear the technical and creative aspects of this design. I must say that when I just look at my Arum, it is a work of art. It is one of the most beautiful guitars I have seen, and that does not even address the fantastic sound. Thanks Ben for all your work
Nice work!
Very impressive, the dedication and attention to detail is incredible!
Thank you, love the details.
Beautiful work. Inspiring!
You explained this to me at BIG last year but the photos really bring the process to life. So impressive, Ben, thanks for sharing it!
Extraordinary patience and skill 🌶
I like how you've organized the process so you can back up and redo parts of it if needed
Sheer artistry, Ben!
❤️❤️❤️❤️