Graham Ross: Guitar Guy
NEIRAD enilno edition
Last week you might have noticed all the of the woodworking projects on display outside of the auditorium, two of the pieces out were senior Graham Ross’s guitars, which he made from scratch. He was awarded first place for “Best Finished” by the adjudicator, Mr. Wood.
It took a lot of hard work and (patients) for Graham to build his own guitars. He took up the project for his own entrainment, he was already taking a Woodshop class, and thought making the guitars would be fun. The first one he made was a blonde, solid body electric, which took around a month and a half to finish. The second one he made was a hallow body electric and acoustic guitar, which took him two months to make.
Graham started playing the guitar a year and a half ago, after previously playing the violin for nine years and a bit of the piano, you could say he is a pretty musical kid. He picked up the guitar to expand his musical knowledge.
“It was a good experience and it’s a lot more fun to play my own instrument, and way cheaper” said Graham Ross. The reason Graham wanted to make a guitar in the first place was that the guitar he really wanted was a whopping ten thousand dollars, so he decided that he could just make himself one instead.
Mr. Leon Strecker, one of Ross’s teachers who helped him though his project, said, “I’m glad his project is over because I’m glad to get him out of my office, it has become a Zen experience for him.”
Building the guitars was a long process. For his second, more prized guitar Ross spent a lot of time perfecting it. At first he took a big block of curly maple (flamed) and then cut out the inside of the body with the milling machine. Then he cut out the shape in the band saw, modeling the lead guitarist of Phish, Trey Anastasio’s guitar. He then put the top on (made out of spruce) and glued it all together. Ross put on the neck and applied accessories such as the pickups, tail and bridge. He varnished it with a clear lacquer to give it a natural look and then winded all the electronics in to it. To top it off, he lazar engraved “Graham Ross Guitars” on the top.
Ross had to wire it all himself, only ordering out for the pegs, pickups, and knobs, which he made modifications to, to make them just right.
The hardest part of the project was getting the acoustics just right, “It is a complex mathematical process that a professional guitar maker told me” said Ross. He was in contact with a custom guitar maker, David Coleman, (http://equatorinstruments.com/homepage.html), and the guy who fixes his violin and also makes instruments, Bob Isly. The bonding was also a difficult part of the project. The part of making the guitars that was the most fun was “The finished product and playing it in pops,” Ross said. Ross is a member of the extra string ensemble, Pops, who play more rock and pop music, where he added a more authentic feel to the music with an actual electric guitar.
Ross plans to make guitars in the future; he is in the process of making a website to sell custom guitars. So if you are interested in purchasing one of his awesome custom guitars- hit him up!
