Ajay Kalra

Dr. Tim Evans

FLK 598: Folk Art and Technology

Fall 2016

Term Project

Pats Guitars: An examination of the processes of imbuing

senses of age, vintage, and heritage and in contemporary
classics of American luthiery

American luthiery is an artistic tradition that has managed to maintain,

or rather enhance, its value in an age of increasing mechanization. It

has succeeded in doing so through a retention, even amplification, of

an aura of heritagean aura often mediated through various senses of

age, vintage, and tradition read into instrument-crafting lineages or

pedigrees as well as into individual products. This paper attempts, in

two parts, to investigate these processes of imbuing a sense of the

past in contemporary instruments. In the first, I examine the multiple

means, sometimes working in tandem, through which senses of age,

vintage, or heritage are imbued into American, primarily wood-crafted,

instruments that adds to their value beyond purely (and conceivably)

measurable functional attributes. In the second, I investigate how

some of these values are embodied in five of the guitars that a

particular individuala musician, guitar aficionado, and sometime

luthier, Patrick Spencer, of Johnson City, Tennesseehas either bought,

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designed himself, or had custom built to his aural and visual aesthetic

satisfaction.

Before further detailing all the dimensions of age or its

simulation that, I sense, influence an American-made instruments

valuation, I would like briefly to outline my methodology here. As any

avid musician smitten with wooden, stringed instruments, afflicted like

countless others by the musical instrument acquisition syndrome, I

have been accessing professional and amateur opinion, advice, and

reviews through dedicated magazines and websites for over two

decades (the former since March 1993 and the latter from c. 1999).

These are bolstered by my collection of over a thousand commercially

released instructional videos on classic guitar and mandolin

performance styles, which also talk about the vintage instruments

often played on these by the master musician-instructors. Thus, my

inspiration for the basic idea that I investigate further in this study

comes from a long-standing familiarity with the varieties of talk about

issues of sonic and visual aesthetics and corresponding valuations that

float around in global, and latterly increasingly virtual, guitar and

mandolin communities. Surely, local face-to-face communities are also

linked to these online communities and there is every reason to believe

that a more intense version of such talk in smaller interpersonal

contexts extends further, in history and over physical geography.

During the course of this investigation, I also revisited many such

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online resourcesexpert videos by luthiers, professional experts on

guitar-related advice, guitar and mandolin forums, and reviews of

instruments on online instrument stores. I did this specifically to find

verbal evidence to augment or challenge my impressions, formed over

two decades, about each major and minor factor I had identified as

contributive to an instruments valuation through imbuing it with a

sense of age, vintage, or a vague or specific heritage.

For the second part, I conducted extensive phone interviews,

lasting well over twelve hours, with Patrick Spencer. Spencer has for

fifteen years been my closest musical comrade, although we have seen

each other in person only twice since I left Johnson City in 2003. I first

met him in fall 2000 at the Bluegrass, Old-time, and Country Music

Program at East Tennessee State University, where I had arrived the

previous fall. Like me, he was an outsider therea rank stranger, a

thoroughgoing desperado who had long been out riding fences. From

the East, I had waltzed into town with a mandolin speaking the Kings

English (in the assessment of our English professor, Kevin ODonnell)

at the fag end of the previous millennium, and Pat came from the

Western antipode to this ostensible Upland South mecca of

Appalachian string music. Somehow the most out there souls found a

shared musical higher ground in there, somewhere. In any case,

despite a shared love for the classics of vernacular musical Americana,

our paths have been very distinct. While I will delve further into

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Spencers, I would like to introduce him at this point as not just a

musical artist, but also an aficionado of the history of American

acoustic guitars and a trained and certified luthier. Although he has

only built one guitar, the one I label #3 in this paper, he has been

significantly involved in the dialogic crafting, with another luthier, of

the #4, and especially of # 5, which he describes as his dream guitar

and his upcoming graduation gift (Spencer is currently graduating from

a BA in Liberal Studies from East Tennessee State University). For

simplicity, and because Spencer does not name his guitars like do

some famous axemeisters, I have stuck to calling these guitars by

numberPat #1 through Pat #5.

In examining contemporary American luthiery as an industry

which now has a strong modern technology base, one might compare

this industry with many others in which America was widely viewed as

a pioneer and leader through the first three quarters of the twentieth

century. In these other sectors, Americas dominance has come to be

challenged by countries whose technological products were initially

less respected, sometimes even mockedfor instance, the Japanese

car especially has seen a reversal of fortunes in terms of respect and

monetary value vis--vis the American automobile (if we compare

examples with similar technical specifications) in the last quarter

century (specifically, since the launch of Toyotas luxury brand, Lexus,

in 1989). Yet, despite a similarly high quality of its luthiery products,

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also well appreciated by a few major American musicians, Japans

guitars respectability and prices have only dipped after the 1970s,

when they were coming up in the world and were played, and

sometimes endorsed, by major players such as Carlos Santana

(Yamaha SG2000), Frank Zappa (Yamaha SG2000), George Benson

(Yamaha and Ibanez), Jerry Garcia (Alvarez Yairi Dreadnought), and Pat

Metheny (Ibanez). A small coterie of fans still tries to collect older

Japanese guitars from that decade, but newer Japanese instruments on

the wider market are priced much lower than comparable

(specifications wiseboth in terms of material and proportion of hand-

and mechanized-building process) instruments Made in U.S.A., often

by the same companyfor instance Martin and Fender have had lower-

priced series (Sigma and Squier, respectively) making versions of the

same models in Japan since the 1970s. As other Asian countries,

especially Korea, China, and Indonesia, have joined in the outsourcing

of luthiery work by both larger and smaller American brands, newer,

even lower, price slots for comparable instruments have also emerged.

Just the inscription Made in U.S.A., physically inscribes value by

invoking a storied history of luthiery innovation by legendary individual

luthierstechnological innovators later canonized as tradition-shapers,

extending from C.F. Martin, to Orville Gibson, to Lloyd Loar (at Gibson

from 1922 to 1924), to Paul Bigsby, to Leo Fender, to Bruce Weber (at

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Flatiron from 1987-1996)1. This history has been shaped into a

hallowed artistic tradition that is invoked as immanent in each product.

Yet, beyond such literal physical inscription in letters, the art often

draws on other more material ways of reading, sometimes even

literally rubbing in, a sense of age and storied tradition varyingly into

American-built instruments. At the other end of the spectrum, many

allusions to aesthetics of vintage to which guitar aficionados, players,

collectors, and builders refer can verge on the realm of the

infinitesimally subtle and immaterialsome of these are captured later

in Pat Spencers talk about what all qualities he values in his guitars

and their historic antecedents.

Pertinent to our focus in this class are questions about American

luthierys relation to folk art (or at least to vernacular art with folk

cultural aspects).2 So, is it a folk art? It surely still can be, at least in

the smaller workshops of individual luthiers who have learnt their craft

within family or local apprenticeship. Yet, more pertinent to this study

is how that sense of folk craftsmanship continues to be imbued even

into commercially-manufactured instruments, whether built by hand

in the U.S.A. or in varyingly mechanized settings in factories in

Mexico, Japan, Korea, China, and Indonesia.

1 For an authoritative yet concise treatment of all these luthiery

legends and their classic guitars, other than the much younger Bruce
Weber, see Bacon.

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Is American luthiery an art or a craft? It has been described as

both. As a functional sound-producing device, a guitar or a mandolin is

clearly valued for how well it functions in that arena. Yet, the

assessment even of success in that functional arena is very much

aesthetic and definitely not free from influences of aspects or

considerations that are not in a measurable physical domainin this

case, before any others, the sonic domain. An example of the above is

seen in popular notions of tone and endless debates about it, which

give us a sense of how, in the absence of a widely-available objective

timbral measurement method or device (which could, conceivably,

bolster or counter subjective assessments), evaluations of sonic

aesthetics are also subjective and susceptible to influence of such non-

sonic factors as a semblance of vintage.3 Sonic aesthetics of an

instrument, when played, do start nudging the buyer into an aesthetic

dimension. Still, often it is the invocations realized by the visual

aesthetics that convince the buyers fingers and ears.

2 I distinguish between folk art, which I view as a narrower definition
somewhat obligated to align with specific criteria outlined as requisites
by a lineage of disciplinary folklore theorists, and vernacular art,
which might be viewed as operating in a less restricted communication
with the popular level of culture. Vernacular art, in turn, may be
distinguished from popular art by its having a local or group-specific
(and thus vernacular) circulation and expression. As we will see with
Pats dialogic designing of his guitars, while there are many popular,
wider-circulation, and commercial resources upon which he and his
luthier associates draw, the connoisseurship and specific artistic
communication that guides their nuanced expertise if cultivated in
smaller, esoteric circles that are in more intimate contact. These latter
folk cultural aspects focus and channel popular cultural circulations
into more local vernacular groups and artistic expressions.

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There are a number of not unrelated aspects of American tradition that

may be invoked by an individual instrument that look backwards

alongside its current or prospective owners. First, I will attempt to list

examples that capture these aspects, as simply as I can; later in the

paper we will find some of these invoked by the artistic talk between

Pat Spencer and two luthiers he has utilized for shaping his last two

guitars.

Fig. 1 The classic Martin headstock inscription.

3 Tone, which is the moniker widely used in common parlance for the
gestalt qualitative assessment of the timbre of an instrument, can
definitely be viewed as having a quantifiable aspect wherein an
oscilloscopic reader charts the relative volumes of the various partials
constituting the perceived holistic timbre or tone. In the real world,
no one sells or buys an instrument based on any such attempt at
quantifying timbre.

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Fig. 2 The Martin D-1 Authentic 1931, a limited edition replica of the
first Dreadnought released under the Martin label in 1931. At $6,999,
this guitar is over twice the price of a 2016 non-vintage D28 , the
models most famous descendant.

Common ways of invoking a sense of either age, vintage, or

heritage employed within American luthiery may be viewed as

including: 1. Allusions to a history of individual brands well-advertised

and well-known histories of humble-yet-idealistic beginnings in small

luthiery shops in specific locations (e.g. Nazareth, PA, 1833, for Martin,

inscribed on each headstock, as in Fig. 1, and also touted in

advertisements, touristic factory tours, and history videos posted

online) where a master luthier innovated and shaped a distinct

American tradition out of European traditional roots and American

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innovative vision.4 An instrument by Martin or Gibson is thus more

valuable than their Sigma or Epiphone subsidiaries, respectively. This is

communicated in a number of verbally and numerically imprinted ways

on the body of the instrument. 2. Referencing a history of a specific

master luthiers work at such a companyfor instance, the early 1922-

24 Lloyd Loar-built and signed instruments at Gibson can fetch

astronomical prices. Even contemporary builder Bruce Webers

mandolins built from 1987 to 1996 at the Flatiron Company, which in

1996 was acquired by Gibson and used for producing its less-expensive

line (still called Flatiron), regularly fetch more than comparable later

non-Weber-built Flatiron and Weber-built Weber labeled mandolins.

While Weber might be much more comprehensively in control of the

product in his company, which he started in 1997, the older line he

supervised at Flatiron has acquired a patina of legend, associated

somewhat with the popular conception of a young artistic genius in his

4 The Martin Guitar Co., for long, has almost monopolized the inside
back cover of the major acoustic guitar related publications such as
Acoustic Guitar and Flatpicking Guitar Magazine with advertisements
that specifically emphasize the heritage of the family-run business and
casting it in parallel with American family heritages of Martin guitar
pickers. Of late, with the emergence of Internet channels such as
YouTube and Vimeo, the company has increased the thrust of capturing
its long history of innovation in officially released videos. This year, this
has culminated in a celebration of the most popular acoustic guitar of
all time, designed by Martin in 1916, in a multiple award winning
documentary, Ballad of the Dreadnought, posted on Vimeo by Martin
and also celebrated by major online guitar magazines and other
channels.

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prime.5 3. Invoking a history of a less-specific period (with popularly

associated models and styles) at certain companies (and sometimes

their specific factories)for instance, pre-war 12-fret Martin guitars

in a number of models. 4. Invoking each of the above in vintage series

(sometimes limited-edition) where the pieces are priced higher

compared to continuing, but not specifically distinguished, modern

descendants of the same model (with the same retained historic model

number). An example of the former is the $6,999 Martin D-1 Authentic

1931, a limited edition reissue model running only through 2016

(Fig.2); in the official online video aired through Martins official

YouTube channel, we find a vintage-celebrating guitar talk, touting

exacting replications of the specifications of the inspirational modelit

is in a parlance of the sort that finds resonance in Pat Spencers artistic

talk presented later in this paper. An example of the latter, less

exacting reissue lines, can be found in the number of price gradations

in reissue series that Fender guitars has offered since the 1990s. 5.

Unauthorized replicas or knock-offs that have, through age and

accreting legend, developed their own level of esteem and

collectabilitya number of such replicas from Japanese builders dating

5 For brief synopses of Loars innovations in the consecrated tenure at

Gibson (late 1922-1924), see Bacon and the PBS video 1924 Gibson F-
5 Lloyd Loar Mandolin, with renowned vintage instrument appraiser
Frederick Oster. The latter shows Oster appraising a Loar-built Gibson
Master Model f-5 mandolin at $175,000, when it was bought by the
current owners grandfather during the Great Depression for $20
(equivalent of $600 today).

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to the 1970s are sold at high prices by invoking their successful

simulation of the original American classic by calling them lawsuit

guitars, which in eBay guitar-community parlance implies that the

original manufacturer had brought (or intended to bring) a lawsuit

against the Japanese copier because the particular knock-offs visual

and sonic qualities made it almost indistinguishable from the original.

Fig 3. shows an example from Takamine that was touted as a lawsuit

guitar on eBay recently. 6. Imbuing a sense of age and history through

association with great players by issuing artist signature models,

typically based on an already vintage individual guitar the artist played

in his prime, a time typically also somewhere in the rear-view. The Eric

Clapton Signature Fender Stratocaster, for instance, is modeled on the

legendary Blackie, a guitar that Clapton had a Nashville luthier

assembled from three 1950s Stratocasters. The levels of desirability of

an authentic sense of hallowed vintage can be seen in the selling

prices of three guitars that invoke that connection with a specific

guitar: Blackie itself sold at a Guinness Record price of $959,500; its

Fender Custom Shop replications sell at $4,599, and its humbler non-

Custom Shop versions at a mere $1,599, which is still 50% more than a

Fender American Standard Stratocasters price tag of $949. 7. Imbuing

a sense of age by artificially aging the finish through varying processes

such as antique finish and distressing. 8. Combining the previous

two ploys to bump up the price tag above products utilizing either

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approach individuallythe pricing of the Fender Jazz bass can capture

a number of these systematically layered-on senses of value through

association with general vintage, specific eras, specific players, and

specific legendary guitars. A fretless Fender jazz bass guitar, modeled

after the personally de-fretted one that was played and favored by the

storied 1970s jazz-funk player Jaco Pastorius, runs in price from $300

for the Squier labeled Vintage Modified Fretless version made in

China, through the Fender Standard Vintage model (Made in Mexico),

Fender 70s Jazz (Made in Mexico), American Standard, Fender Jazz

Roadworn Series, Jaco Pastorius Signature, to the top-of-the line

Custom Shop Jaco Pastorius Signature Jazz Bass (with distressed finish

to match the worn appearance Jacos personal bass had acquired after

years of continuous use), the latter priced at $4,900 (Fig.4). The almost

five times price difference in just the American made models with

similar specifications provides a fertile field to study how judgments

about visual and sonic aesthetics and their relations to general and

specific senses and valuations of vintage can accrete around musical

instrumentswhich are, varyingly, works of mechanized production,

craftsmanship, and art, while still being required to be fully (and often

divinely) functional devices.

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Fig 3. A so-called lawsuit guitar. This Takamine guitar from the 1970s
was up for auction at eBay recently with the legend, This 1978 guitar,
one of Japan's finest, was on every guitar player's wish list, as a high-
grade and premium priced direct ripoff lawsuit copy of the Martin D-
18.

Fig 4. Fender Custom Shop Jaco Pastorius Fretless Jazz Bass Relic. At
$4,900, the top of the line model based on the legendary performers
actual road-worn guitar.
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Fig 5. Jaco Pastorius with the 1962 Fender Jazz Bass guitar from which
he removed the frets himself to devise perhaps the most identifiable
bass guitarvisually and aurallyin history. This has been the
prototype for the two posthumous signature models bearing his name,
with the Custom Shop Relic(ed) version, commanding thrice the price
of the other model.

In addition to the above, there are a number of other ways that

individual instruments acquire a post-facto sense of becoming

distinctive art objects through specific historiesa standout example is

Willie Nelsons 1971 nylon-string Martin N-20, Trigger, widely viewed

and even heard as an iconic piece of American art that became

distinguished through its history of use (maybe verging on ab-use).

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Trigger is notable enough in its own right to have a dedicated

Wikipedia article, as does Eric Claptons Blackie. Nelsons guitar,

which he refuses to retire from active touring duties, continues to

inspire many other musicians to hasten the history-inscription process

on their own instruments. Rolling Stone has produced a short

documentary on this living relic titled Mastering the Craft.

Fig 6. Willie Nelsons road warrior, Trigger, featured in a Martin

Guitars advertisement that aligns the histories of the company and its
iconic individual products.

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Fig 7. Trigger and the official Martin replicathe limited-edition

N-20WN.

Similarly, post facto hagiographies can canonize even less

concrete aspects of musical art that exist primarily in an aural realm.

For instance, the continuing encomiastic reviews of Allman Brothers

1970 recording At Fillmore East over the ensuing decades have

ensconced it firmly in the rock music pantheon as one of the greatest

live recordings of all time and pushed Duane Allmans and Dickie Betts

highly memorable guitar tones captured on that document into the

realm of aural art. That hallowed sound has inspired individual guitar

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workers to hand-spin holy grail pickups to match the ones on the

Brothers guitars on that recording. These appear on e-bay sporadically

at over a $100 a pickup, much higher than any current production

model pickups for the same guitar.

Pats Guitars

In the following part of this paper, I attempt to trace the

aesthetic developmental history of a specific musician and sometime

luthier, Patrick Spencer, who is first and foremost a music lover and

aficionado totally consumed by various aspects of some very specific

vernacular musics within the American and British 20th century

firmament. Spencer is also a very good (I have told him gifted) singer

and accomplished acoustic fingerstyle guitar player who also continues

to dabble in songwriting. Third, somewhere along his journey of falling

deeper and deeper into the world of classic pre-WWII American guitars,

Spencer also decided to acquire training and certification as a luthier

from Minnesota State College-South East, Redwing. While he has not

ventured into any building after his term project at the luthiery school,

Spencer has been involved in dialogically directing the specifications

and crafting of his last two dream guitars, in an artistic conversation

with two different luthiersthe first a classmate from the Red Wing

luthiery program who has managed to set up shop and the second a

renowned master builder of vintage-inspired classics. Through the five

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guitars we discussed for this project, Spencers evolving sense of

engagement with increasingly more involved and minute aspects of a

guitars material, functional, and aesthetic aspect emerges. The picture

that emerges of this specific market segment of contemporary

American luthiery through this project is one of a dialogic vernacular

art, where both the makers and the musician-customers nuanced

readings of the history of American guitars and senses of aesthetics

comes to bear on the process and the final artistic product.

Pats journey into the further reaches of American guitar

connoisseurship started roughly at the point when he and I physically

parted ways in 2003, when I left Johnson City to start at the doctoral

program in ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin.

However, I like to claim part of the responsibility for the initial nudge. I

think the following account of Spencers earlier orientations within

music serves as a snapshot against which we can compare later

snapshots of his aesthetics. When I first met Pat at a jam at Brandon

Braggs apartment, which was right below mine in the famous

bluegrass house on the perimeter of East Tennessee State University,

he was playing a Seagull guitara cutaway dreadnought from the

economy sub-label of Godin, a respected large-scale largely

mechanized Canadian manufacturer known especially for electric-

acoustic instruments with piezo pickups. It was a serviceable guitar on

which Pat played with a plectrum in an untutored but idiosyncratically

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melodic way. Pat and I jammed not infrequently with another local

presence and ETSU bluegrass alumnus, Eric Burrell, or Burl Baker as he

was often called. We also played together in informal configurations

with additional musicians at local pizza joints and clubs as also in a

bluegrass ensemble called 44 Smokeless at the university (Fig 8). In

those days, I distinctly remember that our talk was not about the

specifics of guitars, their looks, or tones, but about other aspects of

music. We mostly talked about our love of specific American and British

music that either served as roots for the folk revival and the ensuing

countercultural brew or flowed out into the subsequent decades from

those mixes. For the sake of simplicity, one could view these as the

roots of the Americana (super)genre that emerged in the 1990s.

While we often discussed classic recorded tones, from Tony Rices

signature flatpicking sound to Duane Allmans molten lava Gibson

Les Paul tone, with regard to our own music, the discussion was more

about considerations such as technique and timing. Commending each

other on the overall or gestalt effect of our playing was perhaps the

most common topic of our artistic talk.

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Fig 8. 44 Smokeless, an ETSU bluegrass ensemble performing at the

semester end concert in late April 2001. From Left: Kelly (guitar),
Patrick Spencer ($350 Seagull Dreadnought guitar), Ajay Kalra ($250
Shenandoah Mandolin), and Scott (double bass).

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Fig 9. Music soothes the savage beast: Pat Spencer in concert in 2016
at the Acoustic Coffeehouse, Johnson City, TN. The guitar is a borrowed
sunburst Yamaha acoustic-electric dreadnought in the $700-800 price
range.

While Spencer is a naturally gifted singer who just discovered

that talent when he bought his first guitar at the age of nineteen, he

has never been convinced that that could be enough to make music

performance a trade. Although a full-time musician is all that he has

ever wanted to be and it is also the way he views himself to this day at

the age of forty-four, Spencer has always thought that if he could add

just one more ability to he performance armamentarium, he would be

ready for big time. Thus in 2002, he proceeded to buy a Deering

Goodtime open-back banjo and started dreaming of going pro once he

had mastered the frailing style. This was the point which invited my

nudge. Recognizing this tendency of perpetually stalling in my vocally

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talented friend, who I already thought had the most desirable and

innate of the musical talents, I asked him to get rid of the banjo and

transfer his fingerstyle ambitions to the acoustic guitar, which he

already played. Somehow, Spencer took the cue and pawned off the

banjo. When I met him next in 2007, he owned the first two guitars

described below and almost all his talk now revolved around the

specifics of these vintage reissue guitars by Martin. Something had

changed.

There were a number of resources that helped guide Spencer on

his journey into the depths of a vibrant culture of American guitar

connoisseurship. Most of these are common to most others who follow

that path, although Spencer is among a smaller subset who decide to

invest significant resources in actually earning a diploma in luthiery

through a full year of in-residence attendance at a state college. Those

commoner resources include print publications, musical gatherings and

workshops, and, of late, various types of web businesses and forums

that help musicians in their decisions in choosing various aspects of

selecting, setting up, repairing, and building guitars and other wooden

stringed instruments.

In the pre-Internet era, the dominant resource was print

publications. Despite the encumbrance of a material format, even

these had significant penetration, including internationally. Spencer in

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the US and I in India found our way to some of the same publications in

the 1990s, and Spencer remembers Guitar Player and Frets as the

most significant ones in discussing the minutiae of guitars and some

aspects of luthiery. In the new millennium, two stick out for Pat as most

significant. These are Acoustic Guitar, for its in-depth reviews of the

finer points of factors that make vintage and reissue acoustic guitars

desirable, and Fretboard Journal, for a more luthiery-oriented approach.

Over the years, as he read about and drooled over specific vintage

guitars, Spencer says he started cataloging these parameters

materials, measurements, building techniquein my head.

Eventually, he came to a point where he wanted to build one.

Spencers move to Asheville, North Carolina, in 2004 had brought

him in contact with another community of music aficionados and his

new roommates collection of guitar instruction videos also proved an

important element in his love of vintage guitars. These videos bear the

legacy of the 1960s folk revival, and have again had an international

penetration. Two companies have dominated in passing on the

guitaristic styles and aesthetic gravitations of the folk revival set to the

subsequent generationsHappy Traums Homespun Tapes and Stefan

Grossmans Guitar Workshop. I first encountered pirated copies of

some of the tapes on these catalogs in Bangkok in 1997, and Spencer

also had bought a few on VHS. His Asheville roommate, by contrast,

had over a hundred such instruction tapes, taught by Traum and

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Grossman and stellar stables of instructors that included such 1960s

and 1970s masters as Tony Rice and Norman Blake. Others included

folk blues and ragtime guitar acolytes from the 1960s who covered the

playing techniques of such 1920s and 1930s masters as Blind Arthur

Blake, Mississippi John Hurt, and the Rev. Gary Davis. Almost no

instructor on the tapes on either of these production houses ever uses

a contemporary production model guitar. The spectrum runs from

contemporary reissues of noted vintage models, to actual vintage

(typically pre-war), to actual iconic individual instruments. For

instance, flatpicking legend Norman Blake uses pre-war 12-fret Martins

on his videos for Homespun and Tony Rice uses one of the most

legendary individual instruments, the 1935 Martin D28 Herringbone

model with an enlarged soundhole that was previously owned by

flatpicking pioneer and country rock legend Clarence White.

Tonal or timbral considerations have been a significant focus in

such instruction in classic American acoustic music styles and very

often the discussion does veer into a consideration of the specific

vintage guitar or guitar type being used to realize that tonal ideal. With

Tony Rices storied guitar, which has spawned a number of

reproductions, the instruction videos (Rice has released four on

Homespun) spend even greater time in indulging the viewer in a

celebration of the vintage and the legendary. This one particular guitar

has served as the prototype for the Santa Cruz Tony Rice Signature, the

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Martin Clarence White, the Dana Bourgeois Tony Rice Tribute Guitar,

and the 2016 limited edition (of 100 guitars) Martin CS-BG-16. Tony has

talked about the guitar in numerous other print and video interviews,

and the specific guitar production number, 58957, has itself become

iconic, among other things serving as the title of his career

retrospective album, 58957: The Bluegrass Guitar Collection (Rounder

Records, 2003). Spencer admits that these instruction videos,

especially in an era before YouTube, were very significant in imprinting

an association between his guitar heroes and their vintage fixations,

from the broadest to the exactingly specific.

Fig 10. Tony Rice with the 1935 Martin D-28 Herringbone model
previously owned by flatpicking guitar style pioneer and country rock
legend Clarence White. 58957 was the specific production number of
this individual guitar.

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Other regional, local, and more face-to-face contexts have also

been part of Spencers engagement in guitar enthusiast communities.

Among the most important ones in his journey have been guitar

gatherings (especially the Swannanoa Gathering), camps, and

workshops. He also cites hundreds of hours spent in online acoustic

guitar communities such as the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum. Of

course, his time at East Tennessee State Universitys Bluegrass and Old

Time Music Program and the Minnesota State Colleges luthiery

program offer insight into some of the variety of contexts in which such

guitar and luthiery history is shared and connoisseurship developed.

Below I present the five of the seven or so acoustic guitars that

Pat Spencer has owned (with the last one ready to be delivered upon

his graduation in less than two weeks) over the last 12 years, each one

sequentially heading toward his ideal or dream guitar that he hopes

will capture all aspects of aestheticsvisual, sonic, and tactilethat

have evolved during his journey into guitar connoisseurship. The

specifications mentioned are the ones that Spencer emphasized.

Pat #1 was a Martin 000-16 S, bought in 2003 from Pick n Grin

in Knoxville for $980. It featured a solid high-gloss spruce top with solid

mahogany back and sidesboth, Spencer added, have historically

been specific to the 16 series. The 000, Spencer loves to point out,

stands for triple ought size, introduced in 1902. While triple O is the

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usual pronunciation, guitar aficionados do love the sound of the

oughtmaybe there is an aural aesthetics to the sound of

knowledgeability. He also points out that it is the same size as

Claptons 1939 Martin that the British blues guitarist had famously

featured on MTV Unplugged and which inspired a reissue from Martin

that sold out at record speed. Claptons 000 also inspired a book

Claptons Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect

Instrument, which celebrated one pickers guitars reconstruction in

detail by another legend. Wayne Henderson, a musicians musician and

a pickers picker, is a fingerstyle guitar player from Rugby, Virginia,

whose mastery of both a highly individualist picking style and luthiers

art has made him a legend among a smaller circle. Yet, his renown was

enough to trickle out into the wider world of acoustic guitar

connoisseurship for a global star such as Clapton to approach him for

his new custom dream guitar inspired by his vintage production-

model standby. The very few instruments that legendary builders such

as Henderson are able to manage to produce not only inspire their high

pricing, but their legend, multiplied through encomiastic talk in guitar

magazines, at guitar gatherings, on online discussion forums, and

through such documentary books and videos keeps musicians,

collectors, and aspiring luthiers such as Pat Spencer inspired by the

aura of the vintage and the classic that inscribes value into a

distinctive American luthiery tradition. From Spencers emic valuation

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of the #1, the following additional comments help chart a sense of his

developing aesthetics. It just sounded good. It had a vintage-y look

simple and tasteful. I gravitated to the guitar holistically and learned

later to appreciate the contributions of specific components. These

specific components that might have helped him gravitate toward the

guitar, in Pats current estimation, include, Waverly vintage-style

open-back tuners, a herringbone rosette, back and sides built of solid

mahogany (Honduran), and a satin finish that gave it an aged look. In

addition, Spencer points to functional aspects that might have

influenced his choice, finding that the guitar had both, looks and

comfort: it was ergonomically correct and I did not have to [struggle to]

reach out for the lower frets [because of the 12-fret design].

Pat #2 was a Martin D-15 S. It was bought in 2005 from Morrells

Music, Johnson City, for $800. Pat points out (although I and other

guitar enthusiasts do know much of this information) that the D stands

for dreadnought, a size and shape that Martin developed in 1916 for

the Oliver Ditson Company and introduced under its own name in 1931

and that went on to become the most popular among acoustic guitars

sold worldwide. The S in the title designates Standard, which means

that 12-frets of the fingerboard are clear off the body and the neck

joint occurs at the 12th. In post war Martins, the 14th fret joint placing

replaced the 12th as the norm, but demands from aficionados of pre-

war Martins has opened up a market for all levels of retro-looking

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instruments at various price points. These contemporary relics revel in

the mystique of a hallowed period in the companys history when it

was actually in a fertile, innovative phase; yet in such celebrations of

the vintage, a lineage of innovation can be cast with an aura of history

and tradition. Pat admitted that at that time he did not know much

about Martins history. In the emic evaluation of #2, the following

comments stand out and contribute to a charting of the musicians

aesthetics. Spencer found the guitar, Very deep, sonically. [It had an]

earthy qualitysonically and visually. [It was] very unassuming, yet

with very bold presence. Spencer also pointed out that the satin finish

all over and the lack of binding rendered a spare, no-frills look. Pat

loved the very dark brown mahogany stain, which made it sound like

the sonic equivalent of a fine cup of Colombian Joe. He continued,

this is part of what I am chasing with the guitar I am having Tony

Klassen build for me [Pat #5], [which is proving to be] like chasing a

woman you may or may not get. Spencer always mentions the slotted

headstock in his guitar talk, something that this guitar featured. When

probed about what specifically makes him partial to the design, he

said, Frankly, I just like the look. Everything that Martin did with 12-

frets had slot heads coming from the early parlor [guitar] tradition. It

just looks right! Here, Spencer invokes an even earlier tradition that

has become highly valued among blues and ragtime guitar aficionados.

Once a very esoteric knowledge, the awareness of a connection of

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early rural blues and ragtime guitar from the 1920s to the mid- to late-

1800s tradition of parlor guitar music has spread within guitaristic

circles. This has led not only to a greater appreciation of parlor-sized

and other smaller-bodied guitars that preceded the 1930s introduction

of the dreadnought and the jumbo (which became the most popular in

the post-war era), but it has also made varying structural and aesthetic

elements of those earlier instruments trickle forward to the reissue

industry for typically 1930s prewar guitars. Retro-looking

contemporary guitars, today, varyingly recreate a) near-exact replicas

of specific guitars, b) inspired reproductions of specific models from a

specific year or a broader period, or c) they might incorporate

elements stretching across a broader swath of American luthiery

history.

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Fig 11. Pat #3: Pat Spencers self-built graduation project guitar from
the luthiery school in Red Wing, Minnesota, featuring uncommon
tonewoods. The guitar features a number of choices that deviate from
12-fret pre-war Martin 018s, which provided the essential prototype.

Pat #3 is the only guitar Spencer built himself. It was his

graduation project at the luthiery school in Red Wing in 2010-2011. The

design was like a 12-fret Martin 018 with 13.5 lower bout. Spencer

justifies the choice for his project guitar thus, While 00 size (the next

larger one above the 0) is more versatile with more powerful bass, the

0 size with the shorter scale (24.9) is easier for older hands because

of lesser string tension and closer frets. He chose this model from four

available major blueprints that his teacher had built from vintage

guitars on which he had worked over his career and whose precise

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measurements he had taken. Spencer notes that classes at the

academy focused on wood choices on classic guitars and their sonic

propertiesmostly Martins and Gibsons classic combinations of

woods. Larivee, a Canadian builder, was the only more current builder

examined.

While Spencer made the choices for his only self-built guitar,

practical considerations did not allow this to become his ultimate

dream guitar. While he leans toward satin finishes for their aged look,

the satin finish on this guitar was not intended. The original intent was

to learn to put on the industry standard of nitrocellulose lacquer. As

that requires ten or more coats and Pat fell well short, a somewhat

satin finish resulted that ended up aligning with his aesthetics just fine.

His choice of the solid wood for the top also departed from traditional

tone woods used in the Martin 018, which was the prototype Spencer

had in mind. As a fingerpicker, instead of the red spruce top of a Martin

018, he went for a medium grade (AA or AAA) western cedar top,

which he finds, still very pretty and sonically proven to have a rich

and reverby tone, and [yet] to respond vey crisply to a light touch. For

the back and sides, Spencer again chose a non-traditional

tonewoodclaro walnut. He found it to be very pretty and with

elaborate figuring [the term used for visible patterning in the wood]

even on the cheaper, lower grade versions. Pat describes this wood as

having a crisp and woody quality, somewhat like mahogany, but with

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Ajay Kalra

richer overtones. He continued with his considerations of timbral

nuance and the related acoustic aesthetics noting that walnut

produces rich-yet-subtle overtones, unlike the more commonly

favored East Indian Rosewood that produces overtones that run away

from you, producing a muddy sound.

At this point, Spencer had been deeply immersed, multi-modally,

in the history of acoustic guitar for over six years. His previous store-

bought guitars also guided the specifics he wanted in his own hand-

built instrument. Thus he again went for the slotted headstock, as

featured on the #2 and Martins 1800s parlor guitars. He chose a bone

nut and saddle, by now standard in the retro guitar industry. With other

wood components, Spencer continued his experimentation in mixing

and matching from inspirations from different vintage guitar models.

The fingerboard and the East Indian rosewood bridge were inspired by

pyramid bridges or Chicago style bridges featured on Larson

Brothers guitars or early 12-fret Martins. Pat called it a nice look and

also wanted to experiment with tonal properties.

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Ajay Kalra

Fig 12: Pat #4: A slope-shouldered dreadnought built by Kaleb Fitting,

Pat Spencers classmate from the luthiery school, who is now an
independent luthier in Savannah, GA. While he was not the person
wielding the tools on the workbench, Pat had significant input on the
shaping of individual elements of this piece of luthiery art.

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Ajay Kalra

Pat #4 was built by Spencers ex-classmate from the Red Wing

program, Kaleb Fitting. Unlike Spencer, who entered a bachelors

program in liberal studies at East Tennessee State University in 2012

and never built another musical instrument after graduating from

luthiery school, Fitting has proceeded to become a working

professional. He worked for a long time at the legendary jazz guitar

builder Benedetto Guitars in Savannah, Georgia, and then set up his

own shop in the city. Spencer believes Pat #4 is Fittings fifth guitaras

of this writing the same guitar is still displayed on his website and

online shop. Pat paid around $1600 for it in 2014. It is a vintage jumbo

model (also called a slope-shouldered dreadnought). The top is solid

spruce (Sitka or Engelmann) and the back and sides are of solid

mahogany.

On his website, Fitting subtly describes the subtle aesthetics,

stating that the guitar has an, understated elegance, with flowing

lines and a nod to pre-war aesthetics. [It is] subtle and classy, without

being too bold. [It features] nickel Waverly tuners with ivoroid buttons,

handmade in Bozeman Montana USA. A certain shared aesthetics of

this still esoteric yet expanding world of retro-looking guitar

appreciation club starts to coalesce when we compare Spencers

description of the same guitar, now in his possession.

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Spencer had found out that Fitting was already making a slope-

shouldered dreadnought. He had the top and the back and sides

tonewoods already selected and had decided upon a Martin-type

scalloped bracing. At this point, Spencer, not comfortable or motivated

to build a guitar himself, laid claim to this artistic project, a work in

progress. He sent Fitting pictures and links of his desiderata beyond

the already chosen overall design and tonewoods. Spencers by now

very fine tuned sense of aesthetics and knowledge of guitar history

started playing a significant role in a dialogic shaping of this art work.

Spencer, was going for an Epiphone Texas, ca. late 1950s, as played

by my hero Wizz Jones. That guitar featured a wider neck, and was

wider at bridge and saddle (for playability). But Spencer suggested a

shallower lower bout than the inspirational prototype. It features

open-back vintage Waverly tuners, for vintage visual aesthetic, which

are again now standard in the vintage guitar industry. In fact, what was

a small-scale industry for such vintage guitar part reissues has

significantly expanded its reach and sales after dedicated retailers

such as Stewart McDonald started online shops. The pickguard on Pat

#4 is inspired by the very rare Gibson J-55 (for vintage + rare visual

aesthetic). Pat also drew my attention to the vintage jazz guitar

aesthetic of the bracket shape of the high end of the fingerboard.

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Fig 13: A Klassen guitar based on a 1929 Gibson Nick Lucas Special on
which Pat #5 is, in turn, being based.

Fig 13: Pat #5 under construction at Tony Klassens workshop. While

Klassen is a master luthier known for having made exacting replicas of
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many vintage classics, some of which his online shop offers as

readymade pieces, he often works with musicians, collectors, and
guitar aficionados such as Pat Spencer to incorporate their artistic
visions into the final piece of what I have been calling dialogic art.

Pat #5 is what is what Spencer is hoping will be his dream

guitar and his graduation gift to himself, as he finishes his liberal

studies degree from East Tennessee State University in early

December. While it is based on a specific classic template of Spencers

choosing and one Klassen has reproduced as a modern classic earlier

(Fig 13)a late 1920s Gibson Nick Lucas modelhe has been trying to

stay in an email dialog with the master builder Tony Klassen to

negotiate distinctive modifications to that base in a process I describe

as dialogic art. It brings up questions we have encountered regarding

who the artist is, or how the artistic process and work might be shared,

when customers bring their own sketches and visions to a commercial

tattoo artist or when the conceiver of an artistic fencework is different

from the actual welder/craftsperson who put the pieces together.

To be sure, Klassen himself is a master luthier and artist highly

regarded for both the functional craftsmanship and the aesthetic

artistry of his work.6 He commands high prices in the market for

vintage-influenced guitars. Spencer himself, as a trained luthier, is also

6 Among other honors, Klassen was enlisted by the Buddy Holly

Foundation to build the True Love Ways guitar, featuring a fret from
Hollys acoustic guitar and recently gifted to the legendary singer and
producer Peter Asher. Ashers duo, Peter and Gordon, had had a hit
with that song in the 1960s, and he utilized Klassens guitar to sing it
the Hollys widow, Maria Elena Holly, in a NYC ceremony.

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Ajay Kalra

both those things, albeit at a much less accomplished levels in terms of

technique. But as an aesthete and a connoisseur of American luthiery,

when he enters into a dialog with the master builder that influences

many functional and aesthetic aspects of the final work, how much

artistic credit could he share? The final work, now nearing completion

(Fig 14), as it emerges from the following dialog could be viewed as a

bricolage of inspirational elements culled from various vintage guitars

and brought together in a modern classic by two artistic visionaries,

both embedded in a cultural web of shared artistic aesthetics and talk,

although with only one craftspersons touch. Following are some of

Spencers descriptions of the #5.

This is the first time that [dream guitar actualization] would

happen. There was always some compromise. Spencers assessment

of his own artistic contribution is suggested when he says, If you are

having someone else build, all you can give them is the best

impressions of what you are seeking. If the builder is a playerlike

Tony Klassen is, but Kaleb Fitting is nothe is more likely to understand

the nuances of what you are envisioning. [He will have] much more

acute sense of what you are looking for.

The vintage iconic referents and inspirations that shaped Pat and

Tonys visions of the #5 emerge in the following excepts from

Spencers emails to Klassen, Regarding body depth, Santa Cruz did an

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Ajay Kalra

all mahogany, deep body NL [Nick Lucas] version of their Otis Taylor

(H) model a while back, the Chicago, I think it was called. But they

don't follow traditional designs exactly. Upper bout is significantly

shallower, scale is long, and who knows what's going on under the

hood! Spencer continues in another email, I did have a crazy notion

of suggesting a bare bones experimental all-mahogany Crooked Star

[a Klassen guitar model] version NL [Nick Lucas]. But regardless of

depth, I think it would be good to build this guitar a wee bit heavier

than a Kel Kroyden type. The guitar would be too delicate for anything

other than light touch fingerstyle work. I am 85% fingerstyle. but do

like to strum a few. Think Freewheelin' era Dylan, Guthrie, or the show

you just saw, maybe. A singer songwriter's tool. I think, with the hog

top, that the optimal dynamic range could be found, even though it is

inherently limited. Sensitive enough for articulate fingerstyle, raw

enough for country blues, and strummable enough for cowboy hobo

train songs. An earthy, woody, smoky toned [emphasis mine] guitar. I

am probably not the first long-winded overthinking customer you have

had, am I?

Klassen, clearly the busier one in this relationship, kept his

responses relatively short, as in this one, Now were talking!

Understated but elegant [emphasis mine]. I think we should stay with

the 4 depth body. I never have run across a Nick depth guitar in all

mahogany and maybe there is a reason for that? I do know the

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Ajay Kalra

shallower depth will give more projection and volume. While the in-

demand and heavily-booked luthier clearly has less luxury to indulge in

lengthy art talk about guitars than some customers, Spencer has found

him very receptive toward and accommodating of his artistic input. The

final artwork should bear testimony to the degree of collaboration in

this, at least partly, dialogic art.

Fig 14: Pat #5, the dream guitar, at Klassens workshop, almost
realized and ready for delivery in late November 2016, in time for
Spencers graduation in early December.

Conclusion

American luthiery was a highly innovative field in its early years

and especially between the 1890s and the late 1930s (the hallowed
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Ajay Kalra

pre-war years). High level of innovation continued in American

electric guitars until 1960s. 1970s and 1980s mechanization and shift

to urbane aesthetics, which made Japanese instruments (not only from

older giants such as Yamaha and Ibanez, but also from previously small

brands such as Takamine and Aria) challenge Americas dominance, set

the scene for American luthiery to recast itself as a traditional art. This

is evidenced in an acoustic renaissance [Spencers characterization]

and a retro craze (Bacon:140) at last since the early 1990s.

As the Unplugged phenomenon and overall roots orientation

(with the ascent of Alt Country, Americana, and acoustic roots world

music) of the 1990s became a dominant trend in popular music, it was

paralleled in the growing demand for American guitar brands to offer

reissues of their now traditional looking/sounding classics. Custom

Shops established by Martin (1979), Gibson (1983), and Fender (1987)

started focusing on channeling history into new product. Independent

acoustic builders who had started their shops earlier saw

breakthroughs to larger markets; the major crossover success stories

included Taylor (est. 1974), Collings (est. 1973), and Weber (est. 1997).

As newer builders developed their own modern legacies, they also set

up custom shops for individualized bricolages of aspects of previous

years classicsan example is the PRS (Paul Reed Smith Guitars)

Private Stock branch that emphasizes the personally crafted and

touts a one-off mentality to deliver heirloom-quality musical

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instruments. While mechanization and volume building and sales

have moved the process to a different reality, the aura of the old,

however, can still be imbued in the new through various methods of

invoking vintage and heritage with varying degrees of specificity.

With increasing portals of dissemination of knowledge, extending

beyond traditional physical media, and more widespread sharing of

opinion online, connoisseurship has extended, and so has the market

for instruments invoking an aura of vintage. In Patrick Spencer, we find

an example of an extremely invested and knowledgeable musician,

connoisseur, and certified-albeit-inactive luthier who operates in a web

of connoisseurship where, dialogically, customer-visionaries work with

artists/craftspersons to bring to life their vintage dreams, often

bricolaged from various classic archetypes, in personalized works of

sonically and visually satisfying works (and instruments) of art.

References

Atsuko, Kimura. 1991. Japanese Corporations and Popular Music. Popular Music
10(3):317-26.
Bacon, Tony. 2001. The History of the American Guitar: From 1833 to the Present Day.
Surrey: Merchant Book Company.
Ballad of the Dreadnought: A Musical Icon Turns 100. Filmed 2016. Vimeo video.
Accessed on November 30, 2016. https://vimeopro.com/user48581009/the-ballad-of-the-
dreadnought

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Ajay Kalra

Dawe, Kevin and Moira Dawe. 2001. Handmade in Spain: The Culture of Guitar
Making. In K. Dawe and A. Bennett, eds. Guitar Cultures, 63-88. Oxford: Berg
Publications.
OGrady, Thomas. 2007. My Coeval Archtop. The Massachussets Review 48(2): 203-
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Kies, Thomas J. 1998. Aesthetic Judgment of Luthiers: A Case Study of Mexican Guitar
Makers. The Galpin Society Journal 51(7): 86-109.
Klassen, Tony. New Era Guitars. Accessed on November 30, 2016.
http://www.arkneweraguitars.com/index.html
Martin, Darryl. 1998. Innovation and Development of the Modern Six-String Guitar.
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Martin Guitars Official YouTube Channel. The Authentic Series, 18 Series, Custom
Shop & Limited Editions Models. Filmed 2016. YouTube video, 4:51. Accessed on
November 30, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFLH__jjppk
PBS Tulsa Hour 2. 1924 Gibson F-5 Lloyd Loar Mandolin. Filmed [July 2013]. PBS
Video, 3:21. Accessed on November 30, 2016.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/season/16/tulsa-ok/appraisals/1924-gibson-f-5-lloyd-
loar-mandolin--201104A33
Smith, Paul Reed. Private Stock. Accessed on November 30, 2016.
http://www.prsguitars.com/privatestock/
Ryan, John and Richard A. Peterson. 2001. The Guitar as Artifact and Icon: Identity
Formation in the Babyboom Generation. In K. Dawe and A. Bennett, eds. Guitar
Cultures, 89-116. Oxford: Berg Publications.
St. John, Allen. 2006. Claptons Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson
Build the Perfect Instrument. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Thomas, John. 2011. True Love Ways: The Buddy Holly Guitar
Foundations presentation in New York City. Accessed November 29,
2016. https://www.fretboardjournal.com/columns/true-love-ways-
buddy-holly-guitar-foundations-presentation-new-york-city/

Weber, Bruce. 2016. Weber Mandolins: History. Accessed on

November 29, 2016. http://webermandolins.com/about/history

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