Workshop Tour
Richard Wilson Guitars are built in a small production shop. Each year approximately 10-20 guitars are individually handcrafted in the Brisbane workshop, utilising a unique blend of age-old techniques combined with modern efficiencies. Here you can take a look at some of the tools and techniques that go into building each guitar.
Acoustic timber is stored in racks until it is ready for use to ensure it is stable, acclimatised and free of warpage. Most timber will be racked for 3 months or more.
The first step in building an acoustic is to bend the sides. This Bending Machine allows sides to be bent quickly and accurately. By swapping out the interchangeable form I can build any guitar body shape possible. It's seen here with the standard Weissenborn form.
Two of the benches where most aspects of the build take place. Even with many modern machines and tools at my disposal 90% of the guitar's construction is still performed by hand.
The far side of the shop with the drill and another bench. With as many as six guitars being built concurrently it pays to have ample workbench space.
At the right of the front bench is the bending iron where sides, bindings, purflings and more are hand bent.
The bandsaw is the most heavily used machine in the shop. It comes in handy for everything from rough profiling of backs and sides to carving headstocks and resawing spruce brace billets.
Ebony bridges are rough carved from blanks before being sanded to a smooth surface.
Headstocks are individually carved and drilled from a matching timber.
Fretboards are slotted and fretted with steel frets, a contrasting wood, plastic or filler depending on the customer's requirements. Frets are only a visual tool on lap steels but some players use conventional steel frets for effect.
An assortment of just some of the different bindings and purflings available.
The 'rim' of most guitars is actually completed well in advance -- often before an order has been made. They are hung on the wall out of the way until the top and backs are ready to be installed.
A top with its braces being glued. This is a clamping method originating in Japan where tensioned rods provide even clamping pressure while gluing. After drying the clamping rods are removed and the braces are fine-tuned with chisels by hand to bring out the best acoustic properties with the specific soundboard and bracing combination. Each piece of wood is different so the bracing needs to take this into account.
To bind the body, a ledge must first be carved into the edges of guitars. Using a laminate trimmer fixed to the table but moving freely vertically, the desired ledges are cut quickly and accurately.
Acoustic weissenborn style guitars and electric lap steels at various stages of construction. Some of the body timers shown include Tasmanian Blackwood, Queensland Maple (acoustics) and Jarrah, New Guinea Rosewood (electrics).
More builds at different stages. The leftmost is a custom build from Tasmanian Myrtle with a Western Red Cedar soundboard, the middle two are Tasmanian Blackwood and the rightmost is Queensland Maple.
Thanks for taking a look at the shop. If you have any queries about the production process feel free to get into contact with me.