How about a proper introduction?

[j.six]

I'm Sully. I live near Dallas. I'm originally from the Chicago area. I build guitars of the pointier variety and used to film the process way more than I do now. I like Floyds, hate Bigsbys with a passion, and I'm one of those horrible "poly guys."

I got my first good electric guitar (a 1983 BC Rich NJ Warlock) at 14, and did my first pickup swap on it out of necessity. I’ve been working on guitars in one form or another since then. I learned a lot from my guitar teacher, mentor, and guy who kinda kept me out of trouble as a teenage Sully, Steve Harnack. He owns Park Avenue Guitarz (formerly Park Avenue Music) in Lombard, IL, and he built me my first custom guitar when I was 16.

Truth be told, I'm not really a Gibson guy; I found this awesome place because I had a basket case Studio that I picked up cheap and had some questions about LPs. Being an Ace Frehley fan, I always wanted a Les Paul that I'd love (I had a 73 black Custom and a 96 Standard that I got rid of). I learned in the Studio process that I liked looking at LPs more than playing them. The nice thing is that it led me to my own single cut design that works better for me. That others seem to dig it too is also a great thing. What keeps me coming back (even if I don't post as much as I once did) is the goodwill and the great people that are in this forum; it's been great getting to know some of you guys in person, too!

I'll also drink anything that's blue. Even PPG urethane.

Sully

 

[GooCart]

Wow, this was totally unexpected! I started this thread in '09 and now it's alive again. Really fun! And the whole meaning of the thread is still vital, it's really nice to know more about the guy behind the user name. I'm not posting as much as I did earlier but I'm still here, looking at all your amazing build threads, so keep posting

 

[fatdaddypreacher]

i was thinking as recently as 10 minutes ago it is a shame that goocart doesn't post much these days, as I am jealous of all those that came before me that was on board when all that was going on. i thought, wouldn't that be neat if he dropped in.....and bingo! check the forum and there he is.

nice to 'meet' you, goo. your reputation precedes you. your talent is awesome, as it is with many here, but some are just better at it than others, and you are definately one of those 'some'.

P.S. still ain't too sure about that emoney fella. i mean, do we really know that's a pic of him, and he hasn't 'borrowed' the bio from someone else??? ahh, the mystery continues. perhaps the shadow knows

i might add also that it is great to learn more personally the posters here. it adds yet another dimension to an already great forum. thanks to all that responded.

 

[scottop1972]

I'm Sully. I live near Dallas.



Sully

HEY! You are FAMOUS!!!! i have seen your videos!

 

[SG John]

Hi. My name is John Hess. I'm 52. I was born in Germany, and lived in a small wine village in the Hunsrueck region of Rheinland Pfalz for a few years. When my mum got pregnant with my sister, she decided to marry my father, and move to the Boston, MA area. I now live on the North Shore and have been married to my best friend since 2006. She and I met in '95, and it took 11 years to get her to say yes. We have no kids, but she constantly rescues feral cats at the airport, and has her trap, spay/neuter, release program that usually involves the release in our dining room.

I started playing the violin at 6 years old, because my father's dad played violin in several orchestras in the Boston area, and his mother was a descendant of Michael William Balfe. So, music was always around growing up. Now my parents still wonder when I'll get it out of my system. I started on guitar around twelve. Got my first real guitar, a Japanese Epiphone Coronet at the age of 15. I've played in many bands until a few years ago when I realized that I can't commit to anything due to work. It's tough when you work field service, and not know where you'll be from day to day.

At 17, I started working in a machine shop. After a few years, I started to get good doing prototype work. I have worked in this industry in some form since 1979. I have built road racing motorcycles from the frame up. restored exotic automobiles that have competed at Pebble Beach and Cavalino. Built stuff for the space station, etc. Now, I work for a world wide Japanese company performing CNC machinery repairs and installation. I specialize in 5 axis mill/turn centers. Those are what I was running before working for this company. I travel quite a bit mostly covering New England, but I'll be in Florence, KY in a couple of weeks, and just got home from the Chicago area.

Although I had been doing all my own guitar work since almost day one (except really major work, I'll hire a pro), I did not start trying to build guitars until a few years ago when I was temporarily laid off, and bored out of my skull not doing anything with my hands. A few friends of mine started a Facebook group, The Boston Home Brew Guitar Collective, then one of them rented a stall at a cabinet maker's shop, and they wanted to try to build some guitars. Once we were there, it was soon revealed that I was really the only one with any knowledge of the power tools, or some of the other basic practices. The owner made everyone sign releases that he was not responsible for them losing their fingers, and my friend that started the group wanted me around at all times to supervise. Getting seven or eight guitarists at the same time for a project is worse than herding acts. I have a lot of experience herding cats, see above.

Anyway, the time allowed ran out. I moved into a bungalow with a basement and set up a work shop down there, and finished my first build which was '59 Flying V. Then I built the Billy Bo that Doug K so graciously sent me a set of drawings for. And now, I have 2 SG's going, a non-reverse T-Bird bass, and a 58 Explorer. All while traveling for work. When I get some work done on the SG's, I'll start a thread. I'd like to build a couple of Les Pauls and also a Rick 330LS. I've been hoarding lumber and parts. As time allows, I'll get going with new stuff after I finish some of the others.

Here are my first two build threads:

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/luthiers-corner/108289-another-first-build-58-style-flying-v.html

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/luthiers-corner/211592-billy-bo-jupiter-thunderbird-build.html


A few cars that I've worked on.












Some recent guitar stuff:














And, me (the hair is starting to get longer since this photo)

 

[mux164]

hi im Corey from a small town in New South Wales in Australia, i am currently an Australian Authorized Officer which its a glorified name for a meat inspector at a beef works. I am 32 and i have a gorgeous wife, and two adorable kids (most the time)

i have always had a love for music and since i was 10 i wanted to play guitar. I originally played bass though, seeing the band Live unplugged on tv was the turning point, and i have had a love for bass since even though i play alot more guitar.

as far as my builds i mainly try to build guitars that i want but cant afford ie gibson dg 335, and a jazz master, i have made two others which were for my father in law and my mate.

i dont really have much experience "teching" or building guitars but i seem to get by. i mostly use pine in my builds, probably because its cheap so if i stuff up it only costs my $3 for another piece of pine haha, but i also like using merbau(open pored decking timber and i have recently found out about cypress pine which smells lovely when worked but its also very knotty.

i am very lucky to have a rotary mens shed nearby my house and work, which is a great place to meet people even though they are mostly old haha, but they have everything i need to pretty much do a whole guitar there, but towards the end i bring it home and tinker with it until its done

anywho howdy everyone

 

[Lagtastic]

Salut tout le monde!

I'm going to hop in this thread with great pleasure!

My name is Antoine and surely some of you knows that english is not my first langage (it's french) since i must had the all-time record for grammar errors in my previous posts! hehe I live in the beautifull Québec city, in Canada, and for those of you who may not know, the entire province of Québec first langage is french.

I'm 29 and i'm a Union representative for nurses and respiratory therapists. I've always needed a way to express a creative side of myself and for years, i've painted little cars and aiplanes models, ''figurines'' (don't know the english words...), etc... Music also have a big place in my life. I often say that my life have a soundtrack, that it keeps it more...damn...i'm searching my words haha.... that life is brighter, funnier, more intense with good music to accompagny it. It's really when I was radio show host during university that everything got out of control hahaha I had a show about indie rock for 2 years and access to thousands of records.

My passion for guitars is fairly new and began in a rather weird way...but is a logical step in my passion for music.

When i separated with my ex 7 years ago, she started to date a newcommer in our friend group..... and I became really close friend with that guy! He was at the time lead guitarist of a cover band and a really great guitar player and for myself...was a really great rockband guitar player (i know...)!! He then told me to get a real guitar and try to get as good as i was with that toy. Damn...he didnt knew at that time that he was unleashing something reaaalllly intense.

He helped me bought my first guitar: a satin finished brown LP studio (since gone) and shortly after, a BFG (also gone).

After some time, i discovered this place, MLP and the luthier section. Knowing that my friend had some talents working on wood and that i was in a serious need for a creative way to work with my hand (my job is mostly cerebral...), there was only a step before building a first guitar together.

Since that moment where we bought a horrendous 335-ish kit on GFS and tried to strip a paper-made-cheap-strat-copy and make something great with it, we have built more than 30 instruments and some peopole starts to ask us to build custom instruments for them. We combined our forces and i've focused only on the finishing part of the process. It has become more than a hobby and surely, it has a lot to do with the incredible community here, on the luthier subsection.

Without the advice from great and generous people here, i would probably still be trying to figure why my finish has scratches, bugs, lints, pits and uneven colors......!

A special thanks for Dougk that helped me A LOT since i've started here.

 

[hallj78]

I am as new as this community gets, only officially joining yesterday. But, I have been stalking you all from afar for over 18 months now.

I am Josh Hall, 35, and an active duty soldier in the Army, currently living in Manhattan, KS. I have been married for 11 years, have a 6-year old son and 4-year old daughter who make my wife's full-time job taking care of them and keeping them from killing each other.

I want to find the original guy who said that people who retire eventually die young because they get so bored, kick him in the groin, and mock him, because he obviously never found fun things to do with his time. I cannot wait until I can retire, because then I'll have all the time in the world to build things out of wood, read massive volumes of German history (one class away from my MA), kick around a football (yes, the round one, not the oblong one), take photographs of cool places and things, form my own band, learn every instrument known to man... you get the idea.

I started playing bass guitar in 2000, and played it off and on for the past 14 years. It's always hard to play bass by oneself and being in the Army means not much time to start a band.... not to mention having a family. Like E-Money, I learned regular guitar the hard way. Two years ago I was roped into joining the worship team at our chapel service in Qatar. I said, sure! Why not. I know G, C, D, and Em! Of course, I can't switch between them very easily. So, I learned how to play guitar in front of a church service. Now I'm hooked. It was about that time that I started getting investigating building my own guitar for fun. I had always loved wood-working but figured guitar building to be too difficult. That's when I stumbled across MLP and got hooked.

My wife hates my hobbies, because they cost money. OK, not really, it's cheaper than boozing it up with Army buddies like I used to, but I always have to temper my enthusiasm.

Like I said, I dabble in photography and will probably combine love of adventure stuff outdoors, music, history, football, and photography at some point to construct an ultimate apex of hobbies. The uberhobby!

Obligatory self-portrait. No, I didn't build that.


some of my best photos:

 

[scottop1972]

^ you are right down the road.... i live in KC. there are a couple more of us forumites here as well.... i know renkenstein lives in south KC and there is another guy local as well. welcome.

 

[Spotcheck Billy]

I just saw that my own personal guitar hero, Jeff Beck, is playing KC in August. He is on my bucket list so I will try and score tickets to that show. Don't know much about KC as I tend toward St. Louis since I have relatives in that area.

 

[John Bauers]

I just saw that my own personal guitar hero, Jeff Beck, is playing KC in August. He is on my bucket list so I will try and score tickets to that show. Don't know much about KC as I tend toward St. Louis since I have relatives in that area.

I have been lucky to see Jeff Beck twice this month, last October, I bought tickets for his 'Royal Albert Hall' concert, I took my wife and daughter (my daughter is 12 and it was her first proper concert, you always remember your first concert and at least hers was not One Direction, It was an astonishing gig Jeff was on top form and his band were great.

I have told you I saw him twice, well as luck would have it my band buddy runs a lighting firm and got the job of supplying crew and lights for the UK leg of the world tour. He knew that I really enjoy JB's playing so managed to get 2 ticket for the Oxford gig. This was in a small intimate theatre and we were in great seats. The whole gig was beyond belief. If you love guitar playing and you haven't seen Jeff Beck please try really hard to see him. He is 70 in July. I was also able, as a guest of my freind, after the show to get on stage and have a sneak at his rig, pedal board. It is all very minimal, Wah, ring modulator, chorus, drive pedal, reverb & delay run into 2 marshall JCM 2000 and a couple of 4 by 12s.

Of the 2 gigs the Oxford gig was far better, so Spotcheck Billy enjoy. He has to be one of the best around and totaly unique.

 

[Spotcheck Billy]

I have been a fan of Jeff's since I first listened to Beckola when I was in high school. His career has touched on so many genres that it proves him to be perhaps the most versatile in the business. He may not be as financially successful or as popular as Clapton but in my mind, he is the superior player. Clapton is good at poprock and a master of blues but Jeff does that along with his rock-a-billy and jazz fusion chops. He is the grand master. I will make every effort to get to a show. I have downloaded many concerts from throughout his career (post-Yardbird to present) and those are my go-to choices for listening. I have played through them so many times I can anticipate almost every lick he presents. Tremendous stuff. I think it is a greater contribution of British culture than even the Bard from Avon! YMMV