I’d like to give a huge thanks and shout of appreciation to Linda Leiva for writing up this feature in the Lewiston Sun Journal, and to Jose Leiva for taking these incredible photos of me in action at the Builder’s Workshop. You guys are both amazing, and so appreciated! Here’s a link to Jose’s photography website: Jose Leiva Photography. I very highly recommend him.<\/p>\n
Acoustic Guitar Maker Builds Each Piece By Hand<\/p>\n
By Linda Leiva, For the Sun Journal. Published on Tuesday, Dec 20, 2011<\/p>\n
Guitar maker Bill Russo applies the frame ribbing to an OMC Cutaway acoustic guitar in his workshop in Wilton, Maine<\/p>\n
When Bill Russo, of Wilton, spends time in his shop, he is anticipating a sound. No, it’s not the sound of saws and sanding machines that his profession as a carpenter might suggest. It is the unique tone of a custom-made, flattop acoustic guitar. Russo has spent a number of years crafting guitars, each of which has its own personality in sound and appearance.<\/p>\n
Russo\u2019s profession has brought him from being a carpenter, who specializes in trim work that puts finishing touches on beautiful homes, to dreaming of guitars in his shop in the small-town setting of Wilton. It is here that he began his effort to learn how to build guitars. Russo recalls, \u201cI played (guitar) for a number of years and I have a love for this woodworking thing. I always had a dream to build a guitar, but always thought it was out of reach. I began reading about it, researching to see if it was doable, and before I knew it, I had a box of wood, and I was building my first guitar, and it was pretty good!\u201d<\/p>\n
Russo builds guitars in the Martin style and, as he says, \u201cI take what\u2019s been done, enhance and build upon it so that (the guitar) is responsive, sounds good and looks good.\u201d He notes that being a musician has helped him to know what the feel and sound should be, blending his craftsmanship and his musical ability. The beauty of a custom-built instrument is in the personality of each piece of wood, bringing out the best in the material. Russo says, \u201cHand building helps to \u2018voice a top.\u2019 It\u2019s not so much a specific note, but how each piece of wood responds tonally, each grain is different. You have a stiffer grain and a looser grain, each is braced differently to bring out the optimum sound.\u201d He comments that each species of wood is a big factor in the tone of the finished product.<\/p>\n
For Russo, seeing how each guitar responds to his gentle hand is, as he says, \u201clike birthing something for the first time! There is excitement in having a guitar on the bench and stringing it. It\u2019s fun to anticipate where they\u2019ll go and who\u2019ll play them.\u201d Though Russo modestly says it is early in his career, he did derive a great deal of pleasure in hearing one of his guitars being played by a worship leader in a New York City church in front of thousands of people. \u201cIt was exciting to bring pleasure to the musician and to those hearing it,\u201d Russo admits with pride. \u201cThis just feels right, it\u2019s something I\u2019m supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another facet of Russo\u2019s work has brought him to the classroom, or rather, the classroom to him. \u201cA few years ago, I held a builder\u2019s workshop for a dozen or so students. It was a 12-to-14-week course, taking (students) through the complete process where they could work with service materials, work through every step, personalizing an instrument.\u201d Russo continues, \u201cSAD 9 Adult Ed was willing to offer the course so I became comfortable in it and it\u2019s been a great experience, I\u2019ve been learning with the students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russo comments on the visions and dreams artists have about their craft. Sure, it would be great to have someone really famous play one of his guitars. However, he says, \u201cI keep it all in perspective. I have been blessed. The Lord has given me ability and talent in my hands. It\u2019s a great way to finish out my livelihood, a fun journey and I am just scratching at it, learning after each instrument, trying to achieve a higher benchmark each time.\u201d For Russo, his reward \u201cis in getting really good instruments into the hands of really good musicians.\u201d For information on making your own custom guitar, please go to www.WRCustomGuitars.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’d like to give a huge thanks and shout of appreciation to Linda Leiva for writing up this feature in the Lewiston Sun Journal, and to Jose Leiva for taking these incredible photos of me in action at the Builder’s Workshop. You guys are both amazing, and so appreciated! Here’s a link to Jose’s photography […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,15,38,36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrcustomguitars.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrcustomguitars.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrcustomguitars.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrcustomguitars.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrcustomguitars.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wrcustomguitars.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrcustomguitars.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrcustomguitars.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrcustomguitars.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrcustomguitars.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}