Owl Designer Fair update

This years Owl Designer Fair was (insert hyperbole here)!

The vendors were top-notch, the organization was great and the folks coming through the door were amazing (and seemingly never-ending).

Thanks to Emmy for working her butt off organizing and promoting the event.

 

 

I received lots of great feedback and managed to send some fine instruments out to good and loving homes. I know that some of you will be getting a really cool Christmas gift.

 

I have a few modifications to make to some guitars and then off they go.

 

For those of you who wanted amplifiers and were disappointed at the lack thereof, I assure you there will be more on the workbench shortly. I have four pre-wired waiting for some miscellaneous  hardware bits (en-route via the US Postal Service) and a hot soldering iron at the ready. I am on the search for some more sweet-looking boxes so keep your eyes open. If you find a box you like, get it to me and I can build yours custom-like.

 

And for you amp-heads out there, the word on the street is that a new amplifier circuit will be available through scrapwerks in the new year. It will allow for more power source options, and greater control over the shaping of the sound. STAY TUNED!

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New guitars! Yay!

Here are some photos of the projects I’ve been working on since Christmas. If any of you were at the February Fox Fair you may have seen these on my table.  I will follow up with posts and a description of each one in the “For Sale” category on the right.

Tea Box Axe

Picture 1 of 34

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Long time…new update.

So I have now caught up on the backlog of orders before Christmas. It’s been a bit of a crazy time in the workshop of scrapwerks. The stock buildup in preparation for the Owl Design Fair was pretty labour intensive. The fair went amazingly well. Thanks to all those folks who stopped by the booth. Many of you left with some cool little instruments. I hope you enjoy playing them as much as I like building them! A lot more left with business cards and a few left with crazy ideas about building your own stuff.

By the end of the event I only had to carry 2 guitars back to the car.  This means that at the moment I have very little stock left. I’m expecting to have replenished electronics bins come January (Yay! More amplifiers!) and some more boxes and wood needs to be sourced then as well.

 

 

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Fall and Winter Events

Don Thomas AcousticThe time has come to flog my wares at another great local craft show!

The Owl Designer Fair is slated for December 2nd and 3rd, 2011 at the Fernwood Community Center 1240 Gladstone Ave, Victoria BC.

I will be featuring my display of guitars, ukuleles, tin-can diddly-bows and a wide variety of unique instruments. I also have a growing number of Cigar Box Amplifiers, ready to plug your new instrument into and rock the house.

Hope to see you there!

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Residential Design and Architecture

Just a quick side note:

If anyone is thinking of doing renovations, adding to their existing home or building a new one come see us at www.smithdesigns.ca or come read my random design ramblings at blog.smithdesigns.ca. It’s my main source of income and a damn fine design firm to boot!

See you there!

Rich

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New photos coming soon!

For the last few weeks I have been so busy making guitars that I have neglected to get any pictures of them. My attempt last night to get some quality photos was a bust: low light, grainy and horrible. I’ll have to wait until the kids go to bed tonight. Stay tuned!

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Custom 5-string guitar.

Here is a custom build using vintage stratocaster electronics. It features a 5 string layout to work with on open tuning as requested by the owner.

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Why 3 Strings?

3 string

 

Most of my guitars have three strings. I’ve been asked “why 3 strings?” more than any other question. There are a few reasons:

-3 strings sound great. It pares the chord down to the bare minimum and lets the raw harmonics shine through.

-only having 3 strings makes them easier to build. There’s no need for overly complicated neck bracing or truss rods. Remember, we’re talking rustic instruments here.

-I want these to be able to be played by anyone so I want to keep the fingering simple.

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