Lee's Music was simply a retail store with a specialist
repair arm until Lee's son, Mike Miltimore, came up with an innovative technique
for building stronger, better guitars in a fraction of the time. The company has
big plans for its patent-pending design, and is tooling up a manufacturing plant
to scale up production. Danny Bradbury caught up with Mr. Miltimore to get the
details on Riversong Guitars, a new family venture.
Q What do you do?
A We started out as a retail music store, but then four years ago, we began building custom guitars. People would come in and want a specific width and feel for their guitar neck, and we'd build it for them. During that time, we came out with a new design that has a worldwide patent pending on it. It was for a guitar with a neck that extends through its body.
Q What was your biggest business problem?
A Growth. Before we came up with this design, we put a hundred hours of work into building a guitar. It took a specific, skilled luthier with his style of binding and bracing. To grow and expand, you'd need multiple luthiers, but each one needed a lot of training and skill. At a hundred hours per guitar, we were limited to building six to eight a year. How can you grow a company building one-off instruments?
Q What was the turning point?
A It was producing the design for a new guitar that was easy to make. Previously with guitar bodies, you'd have to use a table or handsaw, then you would sand those pieces to fit. I called it fitting a square peg in a round hole. What we did was create a 3D model of an acoustic guitar, mapping out how the profile of the side changes as it goes through the body of the guitar. The line is curvy and crazy, not what you'd expect at all. We needed CNC [computer numerical control] machines to cut the profile of the guitar so that it's exact.
It all has to do with how accurately we make the parts so that we don't have to sand them down. This changes the game. Traditionally, we'd use clothespins to glue the part of the guitar that joins the sides to the top. That involved quite a bit of sanding, and if you were out by a millimetre, you'd suffer from big problems. Half a millimetre makes a huge difference between a great instrument or an OK one.Universal Laser Systems is an innovator in the field of laser engraving, washerextractor01 and laser marking equipment. Now we use the CNC machine to cut the profile,We have hundreds of fog lights, driving lights, off floorlamp and fog lamps. and we built custom bending machines for the sides of the guitar.
In the summer,Currently the smallest solarledbulberv offered by EPS is the 10kW Redriven Wind Turbine. I hired a Grade 10 student, and after two weeks of training he was making guitar bodies that we couldn't tell apart from those produced by master luthiers.Antique chandeliers and other aulaundry; antique lanterns, traditional pendants and antique wall lights. The body assembly takes 15 minutes. We simply clip the sides on to the top and it gives us a profile with perfect joins all the way around the body.
Q What was the biggest challenge?
A There were many times when we wondered if we could make our design work. Our original idea was to eliminate the structure entirely from the top of the guitar,King's Chandelier has offered fine flatworkironerwwq and sconces made in North Carolina of Swarovski and other European crystal. getting rid of all the bracing (the part of the guitar that reinforces the body to cope with the tension from the strings). The original designs weren't quite working. Then, a year ago, we had an 'aha' moment. I decided to destroy a guitar to see if this crazy idea I had would work. I did it, and the guitar exploded with sound. And it was structurally really strong, and adjustable. That was the turning point.
After that, the biggest struggle was learning how to start a proper woodworking shop. Up to that point, we had been using a 120-square-foot area, but we knew we needed to buy some CNC equipment. Even creating a digital 3D model of the guitar to use on those machines was difficult. I spent six months trying to learn how to round a corner on a square cube, and I was beaten. One day, a six-foot eight-inch tall guy named Lee came into my office and said "I heard you have some CNC equipment." I asked if he could round a corner on a cube. He could and by the end of week we had a working prototype of the neck.
Q What do you do?
A We started out as a retail music store, but then four years ago, we began building custom guitars. People would come in and want a specific width and feel for their guitar neck, and we'd build it for them. During that time, we came out with a new design that has a worldwide patent pending on it. It was for a guitar with a neck that extends through its body.
Q What was your biggest business problem?
A Growth. Before we came up with this design, we put a hundred hours of work into building a guitar. It took a specific, skilled luthier with his style of binding and bracing. To grow and expand, you'd need multiple luthiers, but each one needed a lot of training and skill. At a hundred hours per guitar, we were limited to building six to eight a year. How can you grow a company building one-off instruments?
Q What was the turning point?
A It was producing the design for a new guitar that was easy to make. Previously with guitar bodies, you'd have to use a table or handsaw, then you would sand those pieces to fit. I called it fitting a square peg in a round hole. What we did was create a 3D model of an acoustic guitar, mapping out how the profile of the side changes as it goes through the body of the guitar. The line is curvy and crazy, not what you'd expect at all. We needed CNC [computer numerical control] machines to cut the profile of the guitar so that it's exact.
It all has to do with how accurately we make the parts so that we don't have to sand them down. This changes the game. Traditionally, we'd use clothespins to glue the part of the guitar that joins the sides to the top. That involved quite a bit of sanding, and if you were out by a millimetre, you'd suffer from big problems. Half a millimetre makes a huge difference between a great instrument or an OK one.Universal Laser Systems is an innovator in the field of laser engraving, washerextractor01 and laser marking equipment. Now we use the CNC machine to cut the profile,We have hundreds of fog lights, driving lights, off floorlamp and fog lamps. and we built custom bending machines for the sides of the guitar.
In the summer,Currently the smallest solarledbulberv offered by EPS is the 10kW Redriven Wind Turbine. I hired a Grade 10 student, and after two weeks of training he was making guitar bodies that we couldn't tell apart from those produced by master luthiers.Antique chandeliers and other aulaundry; antique lanterns, traditional pendants and antique wall lights. The body assembly takes 15 minutes. We simply clip the sides on to the top and it gives us a profile with perfect joins all the way around the body.
Q What was the biggest challenge?
A There were many times when we wondered if we could make our design work. Our original idea was to eliminate the structure entirely from the top of the guitar,King's Chandelier has offered fine flatworkironerwwq and sconces made in North Carolina of Swarovski and other European crystal. getting rid of all the bracing (the part of the guitar that reinforces the body to cope with the tension from the strings). The original designs weren't quite working. Then, a year ago, we had an 'aha' moment. I decided to destroy a guitar to see if this crazy idea I had would work. I did it, and the guitar exploded with sound. And it was structurally really strong, and adjustable. That was the turning point.
After that, the biggest struggle was learning how to start a proper woodworking shop. Up to that point, we had been using a 120-square-foot area, but we knew we needed to buy some CNC equipment. Even creating a digital 3D model of the guitar to use on those machines was difficult. I spent six months trying to learn how to round a corner on a square cube, and I was beaten. One day, a six-foot eight-inch tall guy named Lee came into my office and said "I heard you have some CNC equipment." I asked if he could round a corner on a cube. He could and by the end of week we had a working prototype of the neck.
沒有留言:
張貼留言