The work done shaping blocks
of wood to produce a specific note is painstaking and centuries old, as is the
luthier craft. And when done properly, each can produce a breathtaking tone.
MacPherson, a man with a ready smile and a workshop full of hand crafted
artworks, said that his passion for woods and woodworking sprang at least in
part from his experiences at Oscar Schmidt building not just xylophones and
marimbas, but flat top Harmony guitars as well.
“Making xylophones out of
wood, you really get a feel for them, bringing them to pitch…I learned this
even before building guitars,” MacPherson said. “It gives me something in my
guitar building that would not have been there, had I only started working on
guitars. I don’t think I would have approached them the same way, had I not
been a xylophone maker.” He said that the scalloping
techniques he used tuning xylophone bars were very nearly the same as those
used to tap-tune the tops of acoustic guitars by carving the braces.
“Where I do my scalloping,
it’s like making my xylophones,” MacPherson said. “I’m taking wood off the
center (to make the top’s sound lower) or off the end (to make it
higher-pitched).”
How a guitar’s top is tuned has a large degree of influence on the instrument’s sound, since the top translates and transmits the sound. And the bracing techniques MacPherson has learned over the years, and lessons learned at Oscar Schmidt, where Harmony archtops and flattops were built, has helped him by occasionally showing him what not to do.
“They made sterile sounding,
ladder-braced guitars, but for me that was a benefit,” MacPherson said. At the
same time he was working on his own guitars, first electrics and then
flat-tops.
“I started experimenting
continuously. I’d watch how the bracing was done—there wasn’t any internet, so
I’d go to the library and look up in books how to make them,” MacPherson said.
His shop does repairs on all
brands of guitars, and MacPherson even conducts classes to teach people how to
build their own guitars. He does that to show that “people can build a good
quality guitar in their own garage.”
He originally began repairing
guitars at 16 after what could have been a disastrous experience.
“A friend of my mother’s gave
me a National, a Dobro,” MacPherson said. “And my sister threw it out the
window. That was actually my first repair job.”
A family man, he wasn’t
always able to completely devote his time to working on guitars, but he has
continued, over the years, to produce high quality instruments in his off
hours.
He has now graduated to a
commute of less than 150 feet (his workshop is located on his property, near
his house), with a list of clientele including the Jonas Brothers and Delta
bluesman Little Toby Walker and a comfortably full production schedule.
Yet despite the all-star roster of artists using his instruments, MacPherson says his goal is to keep
his hand-made, custom guitars within reach of most musicians.
He said that having a
rent-free workshop makes it possible to keep his prices low enough for working
musicians to afford, adding that when he had a shop in a town near his house,
“I’d have to make three thousand dollars a month before I ever saw a nickel.”
His instruments are all hand
made and his use of high technology is limited
to a silicone heat blanket used by NASA to keep satellites warm in space, which
he uses to help bend the sides of his guitars.
“Man, I’m pretty much an old
school guy,” MacPherson said, showing some of the tools he uses daily. “Only
because it costs a lot to be high tech.”
While his primary tonal influences are Martin and Gibson flat tops, MacPherson learns a lesson from most of the guitars that pass through his shop—even the lower priced ones.
“I noticed with Takamine that
their intonation at every level was spot on,” MacPherson said. “I get lots of
guitars through here, some really high end, and while Martins sound great,
their older instruments have less than ideal intonation.”
For that guitar he used
design influences from Gibson’s J-200 to a Martin OOOO, and a Franklin guitar.
“For the jumbo for Local Music Gear Magazine I made it like a J-200 but it’s a little thinner,” MacPherson
said as he lifted up the dreadnought body. “Aside from the aesthetic things, I
tried to be practical. It’s going to be plugged in at a high school eventually,
so my thought process in making it was to give it a sound system with a smooth
sound. I wanted to use something traditional, that had some newer
characteristics.”
While he is most noted for
his acoustics, his electrics are the most popular sellers. His M-2 (double
cut-away) and Delta, which is similar to a Les Paul only with a Telecaster
bridge pickup and a P-90 in the neck, are each priced under $1500 and are his
best sellers. He also winds his own pickups for electric guitars. But for
acoustics, he prefers Fishman or K and K pickups.
“I sell a lot of pickups when
people walk in,” MacPherson said. “Since I’m not well known as a pickup maker,
I sell a lot more pickups than people know because I sell them in the guitars.”
He has tried Lindy Fralin pickups to add variety to his pickup line and is even reaching out to a Local Music Gear Magazine favorite, Zexcoil, to try their noiseless Telecaster pickups in
his Delta electric guitars.
“I like to give a couple of
pickup options. I would prefer to sell my own pickups, but when you’re selling
electric guitars, people go with what they have heard of,” MacPherson said.
“Local customers buy pickups from me in the shop all the time, but
international buyers want a name they’re familiar with.”
“There are those who snicker
about it, but the world is changing and I have to consider how I impact not
only my own health, but those around me and the overall environment as well,”
MacPherson said. “Water based finishing products have come a long way in the
past decade, particularly as it relates to instrument finish. It takes a little
getting used to as far as the application, but the end result is great.”
His tone woods are what make
his guitars remarkable. While declining to give specifics, he said most of his
tops come from Alaska or Canada while his backs and sides come from “reputable
suppliers known in the business.” He is a frequent user of Brazilian rosewood,
mahogany, koa, and other exotic tone woods in his guitars.
The single most common complaint
among his customers, including the Jonas Brothers, is that his guitars aren’t
more readily available, according to testimonials on his web site,
macphersonguitarworks.com. MacPherson says that even through the recent
recession, his business has proven its ability to thrive. He said he’d like to
enlarge his business, but that might mean compromising his customer service—and
that’s not acceptable to him.
“Between the repair business,
the classes I hold and the guitars I sell, I’m doing alright,” MacPherson said.
“The only way I could make more money is by making more guitars. And I’m only
one guy.”
When asked about expanding he
said that he feels too much responsibility to his customers to do so right now.
“Where art is the end result,
as well as music, you’re reluctant to turn anything over to someone else,”
MacPherson said. “I mean, at the end of the day, my name is on that guitar.”
Dennis MacPherson
MacPherson Guitarworks
Makers of “Black Pearl”
acoustic and electric guitars
62 Colfax Drive
Ringwood, NJ 07456
862.200.5019
