Elmfield Guitars

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September 30, 2011
by Richard James Winter
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Whistling Past The Graveyard 2 – sold

Whistling Past the Graveyard

Whistling Past the Graveyard

This is a three string model. The body is a bit different because I cut the wood from the graveyard crosses and glued them together in a different way than with the first version. It’s thinner (4cm) and lighter of course.

Below you can see some photos. This is a very nice guitar if you play blues slide or would like to start. It has many advantages to just open tuning a standard 6 string. Nice actually, when I heard it I thought about keeping it:) but I won’t because I built it for someone. Continue Reading →

September 21, 2011
by Richard James Winter
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1 Comment

Whistling Past The Graveyard 1 – final photos and demos – SOLD

Whistling Past The Graveyard

Whistling Past The Graveyard

Here are the final pictures and a few sound demos of Whistling Past The Graveyard 1.

This guitar is for sale for €199. Contact me if you are interested.

This is a very nice guitar if you play blues slide or would like to start. It has many advantages to just open tuning a standard 6 string.

SOLD

Continue Reading →

September 7, 2011
by Richard James Winter
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Whistling Past The Graveyard 1- SOLD

Whistling Past The Graveyard

Whistling Past The Graveyard

I have been busy as usual, and now I have nearly finished Whistling Past The Graveyard 1.

Final photos are here.

This is a solid body 4 string slider with frets. The body is made out of my trusty crosses from the graveyard… spooky.

The neck is straight through. The wood has a few blemishes, but then again, it’s been down the cemetery a while…. It’s extremely sturdy.

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August 19, 2011
by Richard James Winter
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3 New Guitars, 1 Conversion & 1 Restauration in Progress

Lots going on at the moment. I am working on 3 new guitars (3 & 4 string slide guitars), 1 conversion, working name is “Royal With Cheese” and one restauration (is actually also a bit of a conversion)

“Royal With Cheese”

Royal With Cheese

Royal With Cheese

This is a conversion, which means I have bought an old guitar, have stripped it down, will cut holes for the extra parts, sand it down, re-spray it (it will be off-white with dark red highlights), plug the sound hole, add a pick up (in this case a so called toaster pick up) add the electronics, build a biscuit, nut, bridge and tail piece. The machine heads will also have renewed in this case.

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August 11, 2011
by Richard James Winter
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How to connect the biscuit to the homemade Resonator

Connecting the "Resonator" to the biscuit.

Connecting the "Resonator" to the biscuit.

This is a new category.

I am going to be adding “How Tos” here to help you build your own instruments.

This is how the biscuit is connected to the “resonator” (actually a sieve from the kitchen but you can use what you want).

I used this method on the Elmfield Spaghetti Western and The Elmfield Transonator

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August 7, 2011
by Richard James Winter
799 views
2 Comments

Elmfield Conversion – Spaghetti Western – Final Photos & MP3 Demos

Elmfield Conversion – Spaghetti Western

Elmfield Conversion – Spaghetti Western

Here are some final photos and MP3 demos of the guitar.

Recording chain:
built in pick up (gibson?) > Fender Frontman 212R amp > Studio Projects B1 >Focusrite ISA ONE > Echo Lalya 3G > Wavelab.
Any distortion as such is from the pick up; the amp was set to clean. The reverb is the string reverb in the amp. I did not process the files afterwards, except a fade in and out.
I didn’t make any direct acoustic recordings, the sound was fine; obvioulsy not quite as twangy as a real resonator, but metallic all the same.
The next conversion I will record like that too.

Want one? Contact me! (This one has been sold)

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July 27, 2011
by Richard James Winter
629 views
1 Comment

Elmfield Conversion – Spaghetti Western – Progress #1

Elmfield Conversion – Spaghetti Western

Elmfield Conversion – Spaghetti Western

A quick update to show you what I have been doing.

  1. cut the hole for the “resonator” – a kitchen sieve
  2. added wooden supports under the hole
  3. using that wood I cut out out a circle as a cover for the original sound hole
  4. glued on a block of wood in the pick up area
  5. used a router to cut the slit for the pick up – due to the neck I had to build some rails as a guide for the router; but of course I couldn’t get the depth I needed so I got out my trusty chisel
    Continue Reading →

July 25, 2011
by Richard James Winter
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0 comments

Elmfield Conversion – Spaghetti Western

Elmfield Conversion - Spaghetti Western

Elmfield Conversion - Spaghetti Western

I have decided to call this one The Spaghetti Western, yes, it’s a cheapo western guitar (that’s what acoustics are called in Germany) and a kitchen sieve kind of thing.

A friend gave me the guitar, it’s in a sorry state, he said “It’s really good, there’s just one string missing” :) .

Update is here.

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