By Doron Markowitz

Blindworm Guitars

Hello again, and welcome to another installment of Luthier’s Corner. For this month’s interview, I was honored with the opportunity to speak with Andrew J. Scott of Blindworm Guitars, in Colorado Springs, CO. For those that don’t know, Blindworm Guitars creates instruments that are equal parts music and artwork, by literally carving the most elaborate musical sculpture out of wood! His creations are useable art. I have included some pictures of his work so you can see what I mean. His work is extraordinary and I learned so much about him and his craft through the course of this discussion.

Doron: Hello Andrew, and thank you very much for taking the time to sit with me to talk about the art of lutherie. I appreciate your time. Tell me a little bit about how you got started carving guitars, how you started Blindworm Guitars and what the company philosophy is.

Andrew: Thanks for the invite Doron. I’ve been a lifelong musician and artist. After college I opened a commercial art and custom woodworking business out here in Colorado. I spent a few years of building all sorts of random objects and elaborate furniture, and frequently held jam sessions in my shop. It was only a matter of time before I put two and two together, and started making my first instruments. In the beginning I focused more on acoustic instruments. My first builds and orders were violins, banjos, mandolins, cellos even. The art-centered approach was there from the start though. As my custom orders grew, they gravitated more into the custom electric bass guitar market, and eventually on to the 6-strings. Now the latter two make up almost all of the builds.

I ran a full service instrument repair service for the first few years to get Blindworm Guitars off the ground, and slowly tapered that off as the custom orders started to flow steadily. I have enlisted some great and talented help recently, and we are starting to get through these orders a bit more rapidly. I like to think of our philosophy, as “no sacrifices”. What this means to me, is that there will be no sacrifices to the wants and creative desires of the customer. No corners cut to create the guitars we build, and no limits to the design, electronics, and functional needs of the guitar being built. If you can dream it, I’ll find a way to put it together. And not as a toy on the wall, but a fully usable and satisfying instrument. Without sacrifice.

Doron: How can someone order a guitar from you?

Andrew: I prefer to be contacted via a phone call or social media to let me know who you are and the basics. But then it typically is all worked out through emails. Depending on the intensity of the build, the design process can take up to a month or more of daily email discussion to nail down exactly what the customer is wanting. Some of the more elaborate builds will go through a handful of different designs laid out for review before the final product is settled on. I take pride in the clarity of the design presented before the build commences. I love how the end product matches the expectations.
The number is 719-291-8406, and email is blindwormguitars@gmail.com

Doron: Did you do any other type of wood working before beginning to craft guitars?

Andrew: In my commercial art business I built all kinds of furniture. We did a lot of antique remodeling and such, build commercial signs, and dabbled in some unusual restaurant and bar design and construction a bit. I also did a good deal of smaller intricate work such as jewelry making, custom trophies, tap handles, you name it. I’ve tried to build one of everything I could secure a customer for.

Doron: What was it that made you decide to devote your life to crafting instruments?

Andrew: When I made my first instrument, a crude upright bass thingy, it all sort of clicked in my brain as to how and why I got here. After a lifetime of making all sorts of things and learning all kinds of trades, I had found one that I felt could encompass all of my passions. The art, the music, the precision woodworking, the sculpting and inlay work, the creative customization processes. It was all there. My soul rang like a bell that day and I knew I was at home.

Doron: Did you find that the guitars on the market lacked something that you thought you could improve upon, which made you decide to become a luthier?

Andrew: Absolutely. Many great builders big and small are starting to make a better axe available to the populous, so the ability to acquire a more adequate guitar is becoming more and more of a reality. But like in my commercial art business, I wanted to provide an unlimited palette of creation for a customer. If someone wants a guitar carved out of a stack of recycled shoes, or a rock from the moon, I’ll do my best to make the dream a reality. It can get pricy though. I have often built parts of the guitar like nuts, bridges and other hardware, out of meteorite, jade, and rare stones and bones. I did a bass with a granite fretboard once. Many of our axes lately are built with full MIDI capability.

Doron: How long have you been crafting stringed instruments?

Andrew: It was February of 2005 when I made my first few, and by 2006 I had completely converted the woodshop to instruments full time.

Doron: What do you look for in tone woods?

Andrew: It varies a lot depending on the customer. I spend a great deal of time to comparing new and unusual woods to the tonal qualities of more well-known woods. A good part of making a visually striking instrument is to supply a good palette of alternatives to the traditional tone woods. It can be quite a surprise to people to learn the options. I ask for customers to tell me the brands and models etc. that they like the sounds of. Many folks know what kind of neck wood or fretboards they like, and that gives me a great start to compare a slew of new options for them.
I also don’t order wood from anywhere except for the most extreme requested circumstances. I go great lengths to hand-select each plank that enters into my shop. I can say confidently that I have personally picked or been gifted 99% of the wood I have ever used. You might catch me in a lumberyard bouncing a certain board on the concrete to listen for a chime-y marimba-like tone, or tapping a piece of wood balanced in the air.

Doron: Are there things unrelated to the guitar that inspires a new idea or concept that you incorporate into guitar building, like certain architecture, or nature, etc? Where do you draw inspiration from for some of your builds? (I’m lumping the last two questions together)

Andrew: I get asked this a lot. I often jokingly answer that my inspiration comes from the universe. I do love the organic flows of nature. A lot of designs that I have a part in conceptually incorporate some form of mythology, often twisted a little. Customers have brought a lot of it to the table as well, with astrological signs, favorite movies, spirituality, and so on.

Doron: What is your philosophy in regards to guitar crafting? (the no sacrifices philosophy as mentioned above.) I noticed that your guitars are equal parts instrument and artwork/sculpture. How long did it take you to hone your carving skills, and what was the most difficult carving you have done to date?

Andrew: I remember some of my first carvings began around age 10. Whittling wizard faces into balsa wood and such. It was a slow gradual process that picked up immensely when I started the commercial artistry business.
The “Larkspur Rose” guitar was definitely my biggest challenge. You can easily find a video about it on YouTube. The body of the guitar is a full 3-D sculpture of a Cancer crab embracing the Gemini twins. I hadn’t done a lot in the ways of people before that one. It was a real trick to figure out how to have all of the crab’s arms and women’s’ body parts intertwine while keeping within a playable surface of a guitar face. The women’s’ arms go right up into the fretboard and continue as inlay. In the end, the guitar is perfectly balanced and comfortable. You can’t even feel that anything different is going on under your wrist and those strings. Unless you look down, haha.

Doron: How long does it typically take to carve a guitar for an average client?

It varies greatly, but can take between 3 months to a year from the time the design is settled upon.

Doron: Is the entire guitar hand carved, or do you use CNC machines for any part?

Andrew: Everything is hand-crafted. I build 100% from scratch and employ no CNC for any of the processes whatsoever.

Doron: Being a luthier myself, I find that I love the smell of exotic woods as I cut and shape them. What are some of your favorite species of woods, scent-wise?

Andrew: I love the smell of Cocobolo, and Roasted Maple is another one that gets me. I enjoy them all, even the funky ones, but those two hold a special place in my nose.

Doron: What are some of your favorite species of woods to work with, carving-wise?

Andrew: I enjoy the way Paduak works, also Poplar, Beetlekill Ponderosa, Ebony, and Osage Orange. I know those are woods of very different densities and hardness, but they all share a smooth consistency to the tool.

Doron: Have you ever encountered a project that seemed too much of a challenge for you to take on?

Andrew: Not in a guitar. I thrive on it. But in commercial woodworking before the guitars, I did a $55,000 deck once that about killed me.

Doron: For anyone out there, thinking of a career in lutherie, what kind of advice would you give them?

When I first got started, I encountered so many naysayers. An unbelievable amount of luthiers told me to slow down and try to build more traditional instruments. Not to re-invent the wheel so to speak. I can truly say that I am only here now because I didn’t listen to them, at least about that. However, I have learned the most of my constructional and practical lutherie knowledge from the hundreds of other luthiers out there in forums, my city, and books, and I could not be there without all of the shared knowledge.
So I guess my point is to build what you want to, and take advantage of all of the great knowledge others have to share. When you get to the point where people ask you how you did it, return the favor and share back.

Doron: Thank you so much for taking the time out to talk with me today, Andrew. I greatly appreciate it. Before we go, is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

Andrew: Yes. Don’t settle for a mediocre axe. Find a luthier that can make you something special. We’re out there. Also, Star Wars bass guitars rule the galaxy!!!



D Guitars Miami has been a full-service repair and manufacturing shop since 1988 serving South Florida with the highest attention to detail one can expect. No job too big or small. Whether you need pickups replaced, new frets, a total refinish, broken head stock rebuilt, or just want a custom crafted instrument built to your exacting specifications, D Guitars Miami can do it all, from acoustic, to electric, guitar or bass. (305) 896-1811 dguitarsmiami@yahoo.com
 
blog comments powered by Disqus
 
 
 
Bookmark and Share
© Copyright since 2011 - Legal Notices