New Wave Ukulele

New Wave Ukulele website launched today

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Eric Vossbrink

sure it’s just getting off the ground, but it’ll be “Tonally Awesome!”

Posted in New Wave Ukulele | 2 Comments

A little bit about me… (Part Deux)

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Eric Vossbrink

When I got to San Diego, I realized that I was on my own. My parents gave me $1,000 as a gift to start my life out… my dad also told me that he had a bill for $23,000 for my life up to that point. I imagine that he billed me a grand a year for all the years I lived at their house…So I started my life out 24k in the hole, not bad since I was on my way to making a little more than half that my first year.

I quickly realized that all of the guitar knowledge that I had cultivated would thrown out the window. My job description…make parts. I had to learn the ins and outs of woodworking, table saw, band saws and shapers were my tools. and I wasn’t making parts for one guitar at a time, but many hundreds of guitars for the months ahead. Back in 1990, we made 10 guitars a day with 25 workers both in the factory and office. I decided that even though it wasn’t what I set out to do, it was a stepping stone, and I might work for the company for a year or two. In my time, I became very capable on most aspects of woodworking from joinery to wood bending.

Every month we would receive a unit of lumber to chop up into backs and sides and misc. parts. we would inevitably have to ship a portion back to the lumber company because the material was not what we would use for our guitars. I was only at the company a year when I said to Bob… Why don’t I go to the lumber yard, sort thru the material and we could get what we need without having to pay for return shipping. after one trip to the local yard, my unit of lumber came in, and the yield was excellent, and another line was added to my job description… Grading lumber. In time, the local lumber yards were not able to keep up with our consumption, and my trips to find material became a cross country search and eventually it took me around the world. I traveled to the East Coast to grade Mahogany for necks backs and sides. I would spend a week at a time grading 30k -40k board feet of lumber to get 10k. that would keep us for a couple months. the trips became more and more frequent eventually taking me to the jungles of Hawaii to grade material for the Koa line of guitars. it was there I met a good friend that would eventually throw me a life line.

Another aspect of my job was to sort tops. The guitar top is a pretty important part of the overall sound quality of the instrument. At that time, tops would be separated labeled and stickered for dying. We would glue up and sand out a number of tops each day, and after processing, the tops were pre-sorted for the various models. The best looking tops would be left for Bob to inspect, He would make the final decision on any tops that would be set aside for the “top” of the line models. I watched him do this do this weekly and In time I had a pretty good idea about what kind of top would be the best in his eyes. Over the years I had seen just about every kind of guitar top, and had a pretty good idea about how it would sound when it was strung up.

My one to two year commitment to the company ended up being nearly 11 when it was all over. I traveled the world, met many interesting people, and got to ride a wave of success of a company that was un paralleled. Near the end I was no longer doing the things that I loved which was aspects of building guitars, but managing people. I remember one of my employees telling me that he was going to his see his parole officer, and taking a drug test after work… he added that he may not be in tomorrow morning. It was a heart wrenching decision, but I finally came to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore and with tears in my eyes, I tendered my resignation to Bob. he asked me this one question that I still remember “What are you going to do, you’re a guitar builder.” however at that point in my life I had lost my love of the instrument and my will to do anything that had to do with musical instruments.

Posted in New Wave Ukulele | Tagged About Me, Grading Lumber, Guitar Tops, Lumber, Lutherie, Taylor Guitars | 2 Comments

A Little Bit about me…

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Eric Vossbrink

Many years ago I started playing music. No one is quite sure why, because no one in my family ever played music before me. in the beginning it was the flute, followed by the saxophone. I played in concert bands, jazz bands, marching bands and symphony’s. After high school I went to work for a small full line music store. there we sold the tools of my passion, musical instruments, accessories and sheet music. One bread and butter aspect of the small shop were guitars and their accessories, something that I knew nothing about.

At one point I was asked if I could re-string and tune a guitar… I had no idea,and I had no idea where it would lead me. that day I learned the basics of the guitar and how it works. I was picking up a lot during this time and I started taking lessons with the teacher at the store when he had no shows. I got two or three lessons a week for a couple years.

one afternoon a guitar student asked if I could install a humbucker to replace a single coil pickup on his Ibanez guitar. I had never done anything like this before, so I asked him to give me a week to see what it entailed to do the job right. I found a guitar repair book at a local store, bought it and read it cover to cover that night. the next week I routed a cavity in the body and installed the pick-up. the job was so clean that one of my co-workers remarked, “You’re becoming quite a luthier.” After a little research, I finally figured out what a “Luthier” was.

Months later I was on my way to the only school (at that time) to learn how to build guitars. the Roberto-Venn School in Phoenix AZ. Four months and four thousand dollars later I was a Luthier. out of work and in debt. I went back to the music store, but much had changed and the doors would soon close.

I took a job at a machine shop making parts for injection molds. I learned much about machining parts to high tolerances after a year or so, I was making a good living for my age, and then the call came in. on the other end of the line was Bill Eaton from the RV School. He gave me a lead on job building guitars in North Hollywood CA. after careful deliberation and some soul searching, I quit my well paying job and took a 50% pay cup to go to work for Valley Arts USA. My time there was short lived, but I spent my time wiring up and then setting up electric guitars… five a day.

That January, two weeks after I started at Valley Arts, I ran into Bob Taylor at the NAMM show in Anaheim. I struck up a conversation and came to learn that he was located in Santee, a suburb of San Diego. My then girlfriend was attending SDSU at that time, and we had plans to marry, so I figured I should look into moving 130 miles to the south. After a 6 month game of phone tag, a tour given by Bob himself, he called me at work, offered me a job with a slight pay raise and I was on my way to San Diego.