Rainey's finely tuned hobby
Aug 2, 2011 Brian May
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Queen
Timaru musician Dylan Rainey is fine tuning a hobby making guitars.
Mr Rainey, a joiner by trade, is also a luthier – crafting guitars from scratch in his spare time.
Inspired by guitarist Brian May, of Queen fame, Mr Rainey researched the possibility of making the instrument, which he has only been playing for 22 months.
He started his hobby a year ago and has completed three guitars so far including a six string electric and a six string acoustic. He stepped his hobby up a notch for his latest project, a double neck electric guitar which he completed on Sunday. Each guitar has taken him four weeks to complete.
“About a year ago I found out guitarist Brian May, from Queen, built his own guitar and I thought that’s pretty neat so I looked into it. I didn’t know if I could do it so I did some research and gave it a shot, and it worked.”
Mr Rainey’s first attempt at the project was his six string electric guitar, which he built with wood from an old apricot tree that had been chopped down in his backyard, along with mahogany his grandfather sent to him and paua he inserted along the finger board. He wired it up incorporating in-phase, out of phase and series parallel. He can also split the coils on the “pick ups” to allow different tones to be used.
Pleased with his first attempt, Mr Rainey moved onto his second project an acoustic six string guitar using mahogany and white pine. He has since added a third guitar to his collection, a double neck electric guitar, which is now his favourite.
Although it was twice the work of his other two guitars, it still took him just 80 hours over four weeks to complete and cost about $1000.
“I got a bit faster at making it.”
He said wiring it up proved to be the most difficult aspect.
“For the double (guitar) I couldn’t find a diagram for wiring so I guessed, but it works.”
The top neck has 12 strings and the bottom has six, which can be alternated using dials and switches.
Mr Rainey’s projects look technical, however he plays that down with a description that makes it sound easier than it looks.
“For the body I cut out two pieces of wood, join them together and thickness it. I make up templates just on a piece of paper and draw it out and cut it out on a bandsaw.”
The majority of work is done using hand tools, he said.
Mr Rainey enjoyed woodwork at school and has made furniture including a dresser and piano stool in the past but never dreamed he would one day be making guitars.
Now he takes his craftmanship to perform a repertoire of rock music with friends, including songs by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Rage Against the Machine, Metallica and, of course, Queen.
– The Timaru Herald
Tags: Brian May
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