Being a Maker.
I found an amazing video shared on a friends blog page the other day. It was on my friend Phil from http://precisionguitarkits.com/ . An amazing site selling beautiful guitar bodies and necks. The short video was on the subject of being a “Maker” . It took me a few seconds for the videos subject matter and title to sink in.
A “Maker” the term seems simple enough but what was it and what did it tug at in me. The gentleman on the video was talking about what it is to be a maker, a builder, a craftsman a maker of things, be they mechanical or artistic or purely functional.
Once I had clicked into the groove I was so drawn in.
For I am a maker.. I in no way make any claims to be a craftsman, I never took woodwork at school, I never served under any master builder or cabinet maker or trained in any apprenticeship or trade school. But I grew up with a father who was the best “Maker” I or any of our friends an family knew so he was always “making” various items for people and of course for our family.. The largest has to be mentioned, an ocean going canoe! This 20 odd foot long canvas and wooden frame was built from a popular mechanics plan I think over months in damp dark basement.. The lighting issue was fixed when my dad -who was working for the local council at the time – was given the biggest bulb in existence in Auckland city.. A lamp Bulb from Eden Park. Our local rugby field.. this thing was around 600 watts and so severe to wrk under my dad developed sunburn on one side of his face and neck from working under the intense light and heat.haha.
But he was a grand Maker.. he built toboggans, tables, chairs, dolls houses, a wonderful scale model of The Paddle Steamship The Waverley that sails from Glasgow still, and the obligatory Radio control planes, models, kit-sets, and finally after he was retired early due to a terminal illness he taught himself to picture frame and then become of of the only Guild members of framers in New zealand. His framing work was an art in itself.. And finally in his last stages of being able to walk and move around easily he started learning how to do lead free pewter castings of local creatures and scottish celtic knot-work..
My dad was as untrained as myself , he had a brother who owned a large cabinet making business back in scotland but my dad was just someone that could take a pile of wood and screws and nails and make whatever was asked of him. And I somehow got that side of him passed into me.
I have built a number of things for my own business through more necessity than desire. Being a guitar and instrument technician I always need specialist tool boxes and and stands and the huge cost of importing meant I was better to try make them myself, most of the time it worked.. Luckily I had spent as much time as was possible in my dads workshop. An amazing place full of so many tools and screws and dusty old shortbread and biscuit tins full of old hinges and nuts and bolts. It was a pandoras box of Maker-ness... the smell of tung oil and bees wax hung heavy in the air around an area specially set up for the coating of woods and thru the haze of sawdust a battlefield of saws and sanders and planers stood at attention ready to attack the next 4x2 piece of wood or tear their teeth into some section of lumber...
There were pull out drawers all neatly organized with the tiniest of screws and nails, almost seemingly impossible to hold in there smallness and yet somehow my old man could take these minute shiny objects and built a world in miniature.
Sadly my father passed away just over two years ago. It was a terribly sad time for me. Though I had had an abrasive teenage time with my dad as we both grew older we grew much closer together and I could see the amount of knowledge I had missed out on through my own pig headed vanity and a mouth that never knew when to close and just listen. I guess we were both stubborn people. Tho I know I cam off the loser I the end.
When he passed I was left all his tools, my older brother is safe with a hammer most of the time but anything with a saw blade and 7500rpm I'd be worried about. The tools have found a perfect new home in my new workshop in the barn of my wife and I's home, and tho my working space is 1/3 of the size of the old workshop my passion for creating and building and “Making” has come on ten fold.
The most exciting stage of my life to date has been the starting up of a guitar custom amplifier business with one of my best friends Ryan Thomas. We have toured together for so many years when I was his guitar tech, then for a while we were room mates and of late have found a new exciting venture in our lives. And its a new venture my wife doesn't mind.. Our not so hair brained scheme to build a line of guitar amplifiers catering to the local market first and then who knows. Ryan is a technical wizard. He can read a schematic like I read a Batman Comic . And his brain and base of knowledge is quite extraordinary. Plus we both have similar ears for tone so we share that together. He has been designing the layout inside the amp and we have been designing the controls and I have been designing and building the amplifier cabinets.
Now I must say the first Wolverton amp cab I built was my first ever. I'd never built a guitar cabinet or a speaker cabinet until we started building them. My learning curve was a phenomenal line up. And it was tough to be learning what to do and inventing my own way of doing it as I was building our first amp for a customer.
I see a few faults in that first build and luckily as I'm the tech for the band I have had a chance to grab the amp back and redo some flawed pieces , but its been a challenge on each build to fine tune what I have taught myself. Sure the odd Youtube video has been searched for help but largely I have designed and built these amps from what I want now what I know.. So after reading and looking at other builders work I have seen I have already over engineered our builds which is great as our amps are mostly going out on the road touring, and thats a tough place for any amp to live.
I have built with what I want as a roadie and a guitar tech and I haven't ever been told to save money or cut corners or cut quality to speed up work.. Ryan has always been right by my side and never pushed me further than I can go but he's always pushed me to get the best out of me and its made my work all the better for it, and I thank him for that.
But we work from a point where we know were still doing R&D on our own productions and these first players are as much of our R&D team as us as there giving us great feedback , even when they say nothing at all.. - If there not complaining we must be doing something right.haha
But I face a constant challenge being so uneducated in what I'm tackling that when I hit slumps I get stuck. I dont know all the ways to mitre a cut or join two pieces of wood correctly as its taught. I can get worked into a corner and almost tear my hair out trying to work myself back out of it. But I just have too, Ryan is a genius in the electrical workshop but knows even less about woodwork than me so I'm left trying and retrying until something works.. I know if someone watched me build one of our amps they'd probably pull the weirdest faces watching me go at it from my own build point. But at the end of the day My work is really quite something . My builds have been roadworthy and have come into there own as I had added flourishes and unique points of interest I haven't seen other amp builders use..
My tolex covering is getting better but I have only done about 5 amps and its something that really stumped me early on. Even to the point of trying to find a night-school course on upholstery to try get some much needed basics.. (its still on the cards)
But after watching that video about “makers” I realized what I do has a bigger picture.. I get so close to my work seeing the smallest detail in the build and the finish that I had forgotten just what we are doing.. Building someone an amp that should for all intensive purposes last them a lifetime then there children behind them. And thats just mind blowing. We are building in some way a part of a musicians history, whether they make it big or not. We help get the tone they hear in there head and in there dreams ( and yes I met a guitarist or two that dreams bout tones) and onto the stage.. Thats a mighty empowering thing to be part of. I often think its the closest thing to childbirth each time I finish a build and we put the amp together and its ready for the customer.
We have an amp thats now residing in the studio of Billy Gibbons world renowned Blues rock player in Houston. We are now part of his musical history and that in itself is something that almost blows my mind to think about.. The scale of that is so far off what we ever intended – I often joke if we to only build 3 more amps we'd have done better than so many other builders with production runs in the thousands.
And now I have started designing and building speaker cabs to match the heads and when I started this I worked solely from the Jim Marshall Line of thinking..
'He was once asked the science behind the now iconic 4x12 quad box that has been seen on so many stages and music videos.. The magazine wanted to know how he came upon the dimensions for the cab and his answer was simple..
“I just built a box big enough to hold 4 speakers..!”
Now I am working on my own designs that of course look like a speaker box , its hard not to look similar but I'm able to build them from my own construction methodology. There robust solid cabs built from Marine Ply thick and sturdy and I think with a beautiful resonance. I built a 1x12 to try out with an amp a while back the night before its first show and rushed it through so fast I was afraid the Vinyl would peel off under the hot lights as the glue hadn't even cured yet.. hahaha
We needed a 2x 12 for Wolverton and I needed a 2x12 myself so I used that impetus to design and build a cab to my liking first. I didn't steal another companies design or measurements. I didn't sift thru websites and pictures to get a plan. I just simply put down two of my personal antique 1957 G12 Celestions and worked out just what size box I needed and I wanted and Voila.. what I think is the perfect cab.
A day like that makes up for ten days when something goes wrong, I cut the wrong size on the final cut and ruin a job and have to scrap it and restart. I have days I look at my hands and hate them for not doing that I expect of them when I pick up a tool. And I blame myself for not listening more when I had the chance.. Each time I pickup of his tools I can feel him there. The “maker” that never let a job beat him and always found a way round a problem.
I know with time I'll be more at ease and have learnt more and know what I'm needing to better but the journey is so much fun along the way. My biggest problem is I go look at the custom amps out there and I try compare my 2 or 3rd amp to there 500th made by true craftsmen and women. I find flaws in my own work seeing the perfection of these perfect models. But then I let myself off the hook a bit when I realise we're in our teething stage still. Each new amp layout and build is just that. A new build I am making for the first time. If I've made the same amp twice the third time gets easier but each new variation is another steep almost cliff face of a learning curve. Each new shape means another start from scratch but with each new build I have added another set of skills or lessons to the job.
I also have another trick up my sleeve when I really hit a slump.. I put down the amp and go build a table or a set of cubby hole shelves for my wife or go build something I can do now easily and it restores my faith in myself and in my hands and it shows me I will learn what I need too in good time...
I am a Maker and I hope my son will maybe one day make something himself that brings the same pleasure I get from it.
Gavin
. A Huge thanks to Phil@Precision, for being an inspiration and a new friend made along this rich journey called life.
Also check out his other amazing company.
http://liquidmetalguitars.com/
