Official Luthiers Forum!

I would gift them if they are playable and built to last if not then you can have all sorts of fun on stage with one. If I was going to do the destruction rout I'd take them to the firing range first and then burn it and at least get some return on the work to create the thing.

I've got the first two guitars I ever built. First was an electric which hangs on a wall in my studio the second is an acoustic that I keep in my shop on a hook. IT doesn't look too pretty but actually sounds nice.

I just sold one to someone who already has 2 of my guitars. I sold it at about 30% of retail after disclosing the flaws, removing the label and covering the logo.

I have burned one too. It does feel good....

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Your idea has great merit, grump.
After all, auto and aircraft makers stress their products until they fail in order to learn.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Play Voodoo Chile on stage, then pour lighter fluid over it and light it...

Bandsaw to pieces and use it as firewood

Smash it on stage

Give it to some poor kid (my first built got sent to Afghanistan on a missions trip)

Use it as flower pots...

Blow it up with some M80/100/1000/blockbuster/quarter stick/etc.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I'm generally in the "donate it" camp. But since it sounds like you've got 4 to get rid of, you can certainly spread the use around.

I say donate two to your local Boys and Girls club (along with a couple of beginner books). Remove all identifying marks and drop them off without leaving your name. I doubt they will ever come back to haunt you.

Use one as a learning tool. Cut it in half as a visual aide, or put it through a stress test or some combination: string tension, finish durability (water/alcohol/sunlight exposure), drop test, etc.

And use one to heal. Smash it then burn it!

My first arch classical didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked, and then the airlines 'modified' it on the way to a GAL convention, requiring a quick and dirty super glue repair of the back. The thing hung around for years until I finally gave it to a friend, asking him to play it to death for me and not sell it. He sold it. A couple of years later I got a call from one of the folks in the chain of buyers, wondering if I could repair it. I explained the situation to him, and that's the last I've heard, but I keep expecting it to show up. I REALLY wish I'd burned that one...

All of my 'test mules' since are rough, and deliberately so.

Put it on the bandsaw and saw it right down the middle, then fit a block of new wood in each half that has keyhole slots , now you have 2 half guitar shelves for the shop

Viking Funeral at night. Set it on fire, It'll probably float for a little while before it slips into it's watery grave.
Add some flotation to make last longer and post video. Might be cool.
Oh yeah, "The Vikings" theme music.

If I had an old scrubber I built (I don't) it would most certainly become my test mule. I sure wouldn't waste it. Test brace shaving, try a PMTE, pull the top and retop with different bracing or different thickness tops or different species of top, try to make two identical tops and see how close they sound on the same body. Maybe try a thin cardboard gasket or similar between the top and sides for easy removal.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

I'm of the mindset to re-purpose the guitar. Either pull everything that is useful off of it and re-use them or just rebuild it. I hate repair work BUT it's certainly a very good teacher...

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

i also may bows and arrows. sometime i experiment with new designs, sometimes they break, sometimes they're just ugly. some of them take about 50 hrs to make. Once a year i gather up the losers and throw them on the fire. more like a funeral pyre. it frees up space and makes me feel better.

Burn it!
I have been playing #1 since Christmas Eve. I was slotting/reaming the bridge and filing grooves in the nut and finally got the low E on and while bringing it up to tension, was appalled at the flabbly sound . Anyway got her strung up and playable and it was not too bad. Played it for a couple of hours and left it on my couch, the next morning it was a different guitar. Fit and finish are probably typical for a first effort I'll give myself a C+/B-, I nailed the setup and the way it sounds exceeds all my expectations. So.......... its not in the stove if it was a dog it would be gone like a puff of smoke:)

I am a music educator by trade, and everyday I see the struggles that families go through to get their kids an instrument, and everyday I see kids with a sadness in their eyes because they are unable to play an instrument at all. I also get to see the other side, where a light bulb comes on and a kid walks out of my door with a lifetime's curiosity sparked.

If it is only cosmetic issues that are your concern, then please send it to me. I would be more than happy to put it in the hands of a young musician without the means to feed their interest.

I am definately in the give it to an underpriveledged kid camp. My way to combat violence in schools is through education, not by arming teachers. Give kids an idea that there is more to life than the misery they see around them. Remember the video someone posted about a man making violins from a garbage dump?

Remove your logo, or put "Factory Damaged, No Warranty" on the label if you must, but let someone use it. Think it is really worse than a hundred dollar cheapie?

But, if you just can't stand the thought, i think it's time this thread got truly creative. Burning is such a waste. I think of it as a lump of energy. If you want it gone, that energy can go one of two places. Either back into the earth, or into the atmosphere. Do we really need a little more CO2 released? I'd bury it before I burned it.

But OK, on to the creative ideas. I like the notion of displaying it at Woodcraft. And making a cutaway out of it. That is a great idea for shows. I have a dulcimer i didn't get finished before a festival, so I left it with the top off. I was amazed at what a hit it was, people wanting to see inside one, many for the first time. But those have been mentioned, so here are my suggestions:

1. Paint it thick with something like spar varnish, and turn it into a weather vane.
2. Paint it, make a sign out of it, and hang it on the wall outside your shop.
3. Turn it into a bird house.

Next?

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

My first guitar sounds and plays great but is cosmetically terrible by a luthiers standards. Still its my favorite guitar I play it everyday and I am proud to have made it.
It looks like an old guitar thats been thru allot. I get offers from folks who want to buy it all the time. I work with kids in the school district locally who cant afford instruments and want to learn
and fix donated ones for them to play. It would be a real shame to let a guitar that plays just fine go to waste when it could change some ones life. You should consider removing your logo and making
an anonymous donation.

I still have that uke from the first challenge that I am unsatisfied with. It looks great but due to my lack of understanding of ukes it sounded tinny and it's too heavy. I am not sure what to do with them, so it sat in my shop gathering a thick layer of dust.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

That one had a bolt-on neck with short fingerboard (not glued to the top), right? Take the neck off, route the top off, bevel the tail block so the part that contacts the top is only as wide as the linings, or a bit more. Could thin the whole block down to 1cm thick or so, but it would be risky to chisel where you could slip and jab the back, and the weight is more a matter of comfort than anything, so probably just leave it. Helps to counter-balance the tuners anyway, and may in fact help the sound, similar to Trevor Gore's mass-loaded sides Then put on a new top, with a smaller bridge plate, made of spruce. Or add wings on the bridge and skip the internal plate. Same stiffness distribution either way.

My "that build" is #3, a 15" lower bout dread-style shape. Many difficulties during building, and then it started to cave in around the soundhole due to poorly designed bracing:

The upper legs of the X are too far down from the upper transverse brace, due to the X angle being very wide. Probably would have survived with 3/8" tall soundhole braces, ends scooped down to 1/4" tall and notched into the UTB and X. But they're only 1/4" tall, and not notched at all.

But on top of that, the neck is too thin and pulls up too much relief, the truss rod rattles (maybe it's not even working, and that's why the excessive relief?), the upper bout isn't quite coplanar with the neck surface, the tuner buttons I made for it need to be redone because I cut them with the grain running parallel to the screw hole so they split if I tighten the screws, I made the Manzer wedge a little too intense, and the headblock and tuners are too heavy for my spoiled taste

I think I'll rebuild it someday. Probably could save the back, sides, headplate (with inlays), fingerboard, bridge, and rosette. The neck may be possible to save if I could get carbon fiber bars installed in it, but I think I'll just redo it. For now, it hangs on the wall, wasting space. I'd never destroy it outright, due to all the nice inlays on it.

Well, how bad is it anyway? Lots of ugly road worn guitars sound great. Think Willie Nelson. If it has a lot of issues then maybe light a fire and use it to roast marshmallows. The first one that I built, I had to smash. Yeah, it was that bad. The second one was not much better, but I gave it to my brother. He liked it. Between you and I, he's not really a guitar afficiando.
But I think that before you destroy it, you should remember that the search for perfection is an endless wire.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk 2

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Under Compensated Nut!

My wife has a bakery right next door to my shop, and I am in charge of building a fire in the oven every morning. So if I have something that I'm not satisfied with, it becomes kindling, and then I'll make a new replacement part. I'm always relieved to get rid of the offending piece, and as a result I've never had to consider burning an entire completed instrument. Last time I did this, everyone working there could not believe their eyes as I casually walked into the bakery, and threw a banjo neck right into the fire. That was fun.

Thanks for the pic. It's interesting to be able see how the bracing was on a failed top. That coupling between the X and transverse is one thing that I really got from the Cumpiano book, and ya, looks like that x might want to pivot on the waist.
And how much was the over-wedge? Bad aesthetics or tone?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

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Pat

Right now I am building a tenor uke to apply what I learned, I just don't feel like breaking an existing build apart but I might do a "cut in half" display or something...

I think bolt on neck is a mistake with ukes, dovetails work much better there and doesn't add significant weight. It is really hard to get a bolt and allen key inside such small body.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I'm in the "burn it" camp. I don't want anything sub par out there that can be associated with me.
I build electrics. My first guitar I stripped it of anything useful, right down to the truss rod. I used most of this to build my second. I am planning to strip that to build my next. I'm 6 instruments in, but it was not until my third that I was actually happy with the resulting instrument.
Numbers 1 and 2 will go on the burn pile. YMMV

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

If anyone EVER plans on selling their guitars. Re-read the above.

I've been there. Done that. It's not worth the potential damage to your reputation.

I've cut up, smashed, burned, jumped on, at least 15 of my test mules. I don't regret destroying these guitars for one second. And I wish I could destroy many others now looking back that I jumped in earlier than I should have because I thought I had figured one or two things out in my naivety/arrogance.

I've had people bash me, publicly, and otherwise, for destroying these instruments. Don't care.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

AFAIK, the wedge doesn't affect tone significantly. More a matter of comfort. This one is about 5/8" difference between the bass and treble sides. I just tried playing it a little and it feels better than I remembered, not tilted any more than I normally tilt to see the fingerboard. Most people would probably prefer less angle though. I'll stick to maybe 3/8" difference over 15" span in the future.

As for avoiding reputation damage when giving away flawed instruments, try to remove any marks that could be traced back to you through internet research, and give it to someone you don't know (friend of a friend, pawn shop, kid on the street, whatever). That way no one can use your good name to sell it for more than it's worth, and nothing goes to waste.

Does the back look nice? If so, send it to me and I'll take care of it for you. I'm also a box maker, and always on the lookout for nice wood. I'll cut it up, make something out of it, and you won't have to worry about it ever coming back for warranty!

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."