Strumming a Piece of History

**Rick Albertson** · Jul-12-2012, 10:04am

Carving Music Out of City Landmarks
"Wooden debris harvested from demolished or renovated structures is transformed into custom-made instruments at Mr. Kelly's Carmine Street Guitars. He calls his unusual materials "the bones of Old New York."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...%7E200%7E67%7E

**bmac** · Jul-12-2012, 12:13pm

This makes perfect sense since old NYC buildings used virgin timber of a quality no longer available anywhere in the US. The prime problem is of course that it is normally full of nails, screws, etc. making its selection and use labor intensive. On the other hand for a small builder there is no better source of quality wood.

**MikeEdgerton** · Jul-12-2012, 12:51pm

Orville Gibson looked for old furniture. The concept isn't original

**Jim Garber** · Jul-12-2012, 12:58pm

I don't think they mentioned that his shop is around the corner from where John D'Angelico had his shop. Lots of luthier ghosts in that neighborhood. One of my favorite haunts in the city.

**TijnBerends** · Jul-12-2012, 1:23pm

And he's using it to make an electric guitar. *facepalm*

**sunburst** · Jul-12-2012, 1:58pm

...Sigh... Here we go again...

""It sounds broken-in already. It sounds like the recordings you're used to hearing on old vinyls.""
"Mr. Kelly attributes the sound to what he contends is crystallized resin in the 200-year-old wood, allowing for better resonance."

More BS to have to try to "un-convince" potential customers of.

I'm as much for using recycled materials as the next builder, but only if it is good wood. If it was good wood when it was new, it might still be good wood, but it might not. Just being old doesn't necessarily make wood anything special.
Even though now days, we surely have access to wood as good as and better than luthiers ever have, and in amazing quantities, it's fun to use salvaged wood, but the hype about it being superior to new wood sure gets old, especially when materials have been studied, wood anatomy and behavior in instruments is fairly well understood, and most of the information is available to the public. As I've said before, sometimes it's more fun to not know. "...crystallized resin in the 200-year-old wood, allowing for better resonance" just sounds more romantic and artistic, I suppose.

**Rodney Riley** · Jul-12-2012, 3:05pm

I have a piece of very old wood that no one seems to want to make an instrument out of.

They called it "petrified"! Never have seen that type of tree before. I think it would make a great fret board 'cause it's hard as a rock....

**Wilbur James** · Jul-12-2012, 4:14pm

I believe there is a batch of guitars that was made from the original Ryman auditorium, they were sold at Gruhns.

**greg_tsam** · Jul-12-2012, 11:26pm

Originally Posted by sunburst

...Sigh... Here we go again...

""It sounds broken-in already. It sounds like the recordings you're used to hearing on old vinyls.""
"Mr. Kelly attributes the sound to what he contends is crystallized resin in the 200-year-old wood, allowing for better resonance."

More BS to have to try to "un-convince" potential customers of.

I'm as much for using recycled materials as the next builder, but only if it is good wood. If it was good wood when it was new, it might still be good wood, but it might not. Just being old doesn't necessarily make wood anything special.
Even though now days, we surely have access to wood as good as and better than luthiers ever have, and in amazing quantities, it's fun to use salvaged wood, but the hype about it being superior to new wood sure gets old, especially when materials have been studied, wood anatomy and behavior in instruments is fairly well understood, and most of the information is available to the public. As I've said before, sometimes it's more fun to not know. "...crystallized resin in the 200-year-old wood, allowing for better resonance" just sounds more romantic and artistic, I suppose.

Careful there, buddy, or the "my instrument wakes up after playing it" crowd will come in here asking for your family jewels on a stick followed by the "sounds change the structure of the wood and glue making my mando sound better" consortium. Stop stirring up trouble for us doubting thomas' and naysayers.

***I'm joking. Everybody settle down.***

**Ivan Kelsall** · Jul-13-2012, 3:25am

If it's a firmly held belief of the luthier,then i'll go with it. On the other hand,it's simply marketing 'hype',then for me,it detracts from the integrity of the builder (IMHO). A good,well built,good sounding/playing instrument is just that. It doesn't need any 'hype' to make it so,just a good luthier & a good player.
From Greg - "...my instrument wakes up after playing it...". My mandolin DOES wake up after playing it !!. It's the listeners that go to sleep,

Ivan

**Bertram Henze** · Jul-13-2012, 4:31am

I want a resonator guitar made out of this:

**Bernie Daniel** · Jul-13-2012, 5:00am

Originally Posted by greg_tsam

Careful there, buddy, or the "my instrument wakes up after playing it" crowd will come in here asking for your family jewels on a stick followed by the "sounds change the structure of the wood and glue making my mando sound better" consortium. Stop stirring up trouble for us doubting thomas' and naysayers.

***I'm joking. Everybody settle down.***

most likely it is the player's ear that "wakes up"!

**Bertram Henze** · Jul-13-2012, 5:34am

Originally Posted by TijnBerends

And he's using it to make an electric guitar. *facepalm*

Since you can make everything an electric guitar by screwing on/bolting on a few metal parts, this seems to be the safest way to go for wood reeking of mojo and creaking with crystallized memories...

**Marty Jacobson** · Jul-13-2012, 8:33am

I think what Rick Kelly is doing is really cool as art or sculpture. Clearly NY residents have responded very positively and like what he's doing. Bravo for him.

From a lutherie standpoint, the work is pretty basic and nothing we haven't seen before dozens of times. But he's an artist, not a luthier. He's really making stories, not guitars. The guitars just need to be good enough to carry the story.

I'd be bored after making 60 Strats by hand, though, let me tell ya....

**jackc** · Jul-13-2012, 12:16pm

Some of you may have seen and played some mandolins by Michael Heiden with "Ancient Red Spruce" labels inside. These are really great mandolins, and Heiden has an upcharge of $2K for these tops that came from the beams of an old warehouse somewhere in Indiana. I know the guy who provided the wood for the tops and have seen some of the raw wood. It's very hard red spruce, and not easy to work.

Every Heiden I've ever played has been really good, so I don't know how much the "ancient" (yes, that's a stretch) contributes, but I can say that they all sound really good.

Who can say? But we all love the idea of old wood, and we all can agree that wood changes over time.

**Erk** · Jul-13-2012, 7:23pm

...Sigh... Here we go again...

""It sounds broken-in already. It sounds like the recordings you're used to hearing on old vinyls.""
"Mr. Kelly attributes the sound to what he contends is crystallized resin in the 200-year-old wood, allowing for better resonance."

More BS to have to try to "un-convince" potential customers of.

I'm as much for using recycled materials as the next builder, but only if it is good wood. If it was good wood when it was new, it might still be good wood, but it might not. Just being old doesn't necessarily make wood anything special.
Even though now days, we surely have access to wood as good as and better than luthiers ever have, and in amazing quantities, it's fun to use salvaged wood, but the hype about it being superior to new wood sure gets old, especially when materials have been studied, wood anatomy and behavior in instruments is fairly well understood, and most of the information is available to the public. As I've said before, sometimes it's more fun to not know. "...crystallized resin in the 200-year-old wood, allowing for better resonance" just sounds more romantic and artistic, I suppose.

And my amplifier goes to 11!

**Rob Grant** · Jul-13-2012, 9:07pm

It ain't New York City, but it's home.<g>

One of my recent builds (f style octave mandolin) with a three-piece neck made from one of the wall studs used to construct our old local fire station back in the early 1930s. Check out the "mine field" of nail holes in the recycled stud shown with the instrument.