Old School

 

Quite literally.... I'm building a couple guitars from an old school.

First, the current "beauty shots"...   now with strings and is playable.  Lots of details left to do + letting it break in.  So far so good, sounds great.

Banks School District is tearing down its High School / District Office and building a new one.  They didn't want to see it all just bulldozed and hauled away to the dump, they asked the community if they wanted any of the pieces and parts.  I don't live in Banks, but I do run their networks. In discussion with Banks, I offered to build some guitars and donate them back to the district.   

I think I have enough to build a dreadnought for the HS, an L-OO for the MS, and a baritone uke for the ES.

On the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, the HS Principle met me at the half-torn-down building and we pulled out as several prime old-growth, ~100 year seasoned Douglas Fir boards.  Here is a photo of the room the boards came from, mostly from the inside of the closet.  My haul is stacked on the floor.

On May 2026, this is what the old Banks District Office looks like:

This board has "Peterson + Waale - Bank Or" written on it:

I'm starting with a dreadnought.  Both the top and back are four piece.

Here is top braced and voiced + the back glued to the sides & lightly stained to make the grain pattern pop:

More to come!