This page is set up to answer any question you may have about Zachary Guitars. I get many e-mails with questions about my guitars and periodically I will answer these questions on this page for everyone to see. So send me your questions and if its not classified information I will try my best to answer it sincerely.
I'd just like to know how you made your first guitars i.e. without the aid of heavy machinery. Were you a particularly good craftsman at all or is it simple enough? & also, how can you make the guitar sound better? your work fascinates me & I am envious of your skills, but were they a talent which was already in your blood? what does it take to make a guitar look & sound so good? Joe (Keighley, England)
I made my first guitar in 1992 on the dining room table and the floor of my living room in my apartment at the time. I started with an unfinished Wormoth body and neck. I had no tools because I was going to school in Minnesota and was just there temporarily. I just bought a cheap hand drill and that was it. The guitar turned out a mess aesthetically but remarkably it played and sounded better than any guitar I had to that time, including my "82 Gibson Les Paul. I sold my Les Paul soon after that and just played this Frankenstein guitar until I gave it away to a friend because I decided to buy a brand new PRS McCarty. I soon wished that I did not give it away because to my disbelief my Frankenstein was a much better guitar. It played better, had a nicer neck, weighed less and sounded much better. You can imagine how stupid I felt after I spent a ton of money on a Paul Reed Smith with a 10 top, god hardware and birds. I was a GOOF and deserved what I got.
This PRS experience had changed my life because I got angry and decided to build myself a better guitar. I would become a serious guitar builder. I would not make kit guitars but instead make everything from scratch. I would also not make prefabricated clones like many highly respected "Luthiers" do. I would also not use computer programmable machines or prefabricated necks and bodies. I would build a better guitar than any mass produced guitar and I did not care if I sold any or not.
Not knowing too much about fretwork, my first instrument was a fretless bass. I bought a few basic hand and power hand tools and a few specialized tools like nut files. I was not expecting this fretless bass to turn out at all. This first instrument was the hardest thing I had ever done and suffered through the whole process, completely nervous with every move I made, afraid that I would make the wrong move and the instrument would be ruined.
To my surprise, It turned out quite nice. Full of mistakes, but nicely finished and playable. It already had my trademark oil finish and Samurai, Uniplane headstock. I will one day photograph this instrument and upload it to my website. After this bass I was making exclusively guitars, since I am a guitar player.
How do I make them without heavy machinery?
Every machine I use, be it heavy or light, is directed by hand. The machines are not programmed to work independently. I own just basic machines. The same ones that are found in almost every basement woodworking shop. I am remarkably consistent despite that each guitar is still a unique creation.Was I a good Craftsman? Is it in my blood?
I believe that I was born to work with my hands. I was always tinkering with things, taking things apart, fixing bicycles, and building things. I need to constantly build things. If I can't buy something exactly the way I want it, I just make it myself. I was born with this need to create. I just find it very exciting to take a raw material and make something nice out of it.I am also artistic having been heavily involved in visual art, specifically watercolor painting. Something I plan to pursue again in the future. The elements of design are very important to me and there is always a right way and a wrong way to make something . This is determined by how closely one obeys the laws of design.
I think I was born with creative and hand talent but just as important I was born with an interest to create and I also have an attitude which drives me. You must have an attitude, it gives you passion, direction and a goal. As I mentioned my PRS experience made me want to seriously build guitars because I got angry and wanted to prove that I can do better and make myself a better guitar. Attitude may piss some people off but its a very good thing to have because without it one just ends up being a follower.
How can I make a guitar better?
Sometimes its remarkably simple. Most guitar players only have the commercially available, mass-produced guitars as reference. You must remember that these companies are not in the business of making a great guitar. They are not even interested in making a good guitar. They are interested in selling guitars. Therefore, they will do almost anything to make the guitar sell and not to make it great. This is where I come in. All I have to do is do some very simple things and I have a better guitar. For example, I eliminate the thick plastic finish that does nothing for the tone of the guitar but does sell millions of guitars to naive consumers. I am able to also take risks with such simple things as making a wider neck at the nut. Guitar companies all copy each other and are terribly afraid to stick their necks out for fear that it will be bitten off. They assume what they know what guitar players want and this is what they all make. Everything from the type of wood, pickups, finish, shape, dimensions, etc. is all based on what they think you want as a guitar player. This is very limiting and as soon as one gets away from this type of thinking one can very easily build a better guitar on every level.By eliminating the thick finish one will loose marketability to a large segment of consumers who are looking for that certain candy coated product. You will however improve the tone of the guitar tremendously. As soon as you get away from the traditional shapes, you will achieve a more balanced instrument. As soon as you get away form certain conventional neck shapes, you will get a much nicer neck. As soon as you drop the traditional headstock you will get a stronger and more functional headstock design. I can go on and on like this.
What does it take to make a guitar look & sound so good?
Any guitar will be a superior guitar if it does what it is supposed to but better. By choosing the best finish and most functional hardware and unique design features, my guitars resonate more and function better as sound generators. The more sound you generate and the better the instrument resonates the better the tone will be. The absence of a thick surface finish allows my guitars to resonate unrestricted and this along with the well chosen hardware and unique design features creates a big sound and more sustain. The bridge design makes the strings vibrate longer with less breakage. The pickups makes the sound more defined and full. The simple yet effective electronics gives you all the right sounds without clutter. The neck and action gives you effortless playing, comfort and speed. The shape gives you very good balance and ergonomics. The special nut material gives you remarkable tuning stability. The tuners give you the smoothest and most solid tuning. My neck joint design gives you very good and stable transfer of resonance between body and neck. These are just some of the examples of how to make a better guitar.All this is possible by not following others and taking a fresh approach to the electric guitar.
What guitars do you base yours on?
Even I was to copy the body shape of any existing guitar my guitars would be uniquely Zachary. Everything from the headstock design the neck joint, the tremolo setup, neck contour etc. are all unique to the Zachary design. The way I learned guitar building is to watch, listen and read everything I could about guitars and guitar building. After I acquired all this information I consciously made myself forget it and ignore it all. Remember I wanted an entirely fresh approach to what I was doing. The main reason to acquire all the information is to learn about all the mistakes that others make and all the misinformation that is out there. I invented my own ways of building guitars, my own procedures and methods. I often feel that I do not build guitars, more accurately I build Zachary Guitars. I can honestly say that my guitars are not based on either one of the two main styles Gibson and Fender. I think that as much as people are used to these two styles of guitar design, they are flawed in many ways. I try to correct these flaws without being bound by tradition or marketability. Leo fender did the same thing as I did by stepping out of conventional norms mainly because he was creative but did not really know anything about guitar building. Being ignorant is sometimes a great advantage. It allows you to have an open mind which is essential for creation.
So to answer your question again, my guitars are not based on any other guitar.What makes a guitar sound good?
You can refer to my previous explanations but to summarize everything; eliminate whatever you don't need and add all the simple but effective things that you do need to have this device we call the guitar function better. If it functions better in terms of physics it will sound better. In other words, cut the bull shit and concentrate on the important elements of design. In order to do this, you must be liberated from nostalgia, marketing, fashion, and propaganda. Unfortunately these are all elements that the guitar industry is built upon.
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