I have been playing fingerstyle guitar for at least eight years and have been taking lessons from Ron van Opijnen here in Zaltbommel all that time. Blues and Latin American music are definitely my favorites. I now have three guitars. I use two for standard and dropped-D tuning and the other for more exotic tunings such as DADGAD or open C. Because the stands take up quite a lot of space on the floor (and I can only play one at a time) and they leave ugly marks on my floor, I want my guitars to hang on the wall. All in all a nice project for a woodworker.
While looking for an example I came across this wall holder. Unclear who created the original design. There is a version on Instagram from an American guitar maker (teckemeyerluthiery), but the same design als pops up on a French open source platform. So I didn’t feel bad about copying it.
If you compare my other designs you will see why this guitar holder appeals to me: sleek, but not straightforward and it consists of three different types of wood.
It took me some time to convert the picture into a design and a work sequence. First hurdle: the dimensions. From the photo I could reasonably estimate the proportions. Ultimately my guitars have to fit in it and they should hang freely from the wall.. Fortunately, the width of the neck is the same for all three (4 1/2 cm) To test these functions I made a rough mock-up out of plywood. I then determined the dimensions and worked out the design on paper.
Second complexity: the inner parts are tapered. I had to dust off my high school trigonometry to calculate the angle at which to set the sliding saw. In addition, I made a tapering jig or rejuvenation jig. A nice plus: this jig can be used universally by my colleague woodworkers at the Coöperatieve Afdeling Houtbewerking!
Third bump: gluing the parts
On the first attempt I made all the parts separately and then glued them together step by step. This is extremely difficult due to small size and the tapered blocks. The clamps are large and smooth, and they tend to slip when tightening.
For the second attempt I glued a row of oak/maple slats alternately – enough for four wall brackets. That was a lot easier. With the tapering jig it was also easy to cut the tapered shape.
The outer parts are made of flat wood. But there is a curve to it. For this I first made a mold in MDF. I roughly sawed out the curve with the band saw, and the neat finish was done with the jig and an edge cutter.
Surprise
When I showed the wall holder to my guitar teacher, he immediately tried it out on his guitars. And then it turned out that the dimensions of a guitar neck are not as standard as I thought. The neck width (or nut width) can be between 41 – 48 mm. My guitars are 43mm. To solve this, I shaved a few millimeters off the inside of the two ‘hooks’. This makes the opening larger and fits most guitars. And my guitar teacher is delighted with a nice accessory.
I will be making these guitar mounts on and off, and from different wood types. You can pre-order them in my webshop.