How to Build a Guitar?

Wayne Henderson has an easy answer. "You just get a pile of good wood and you get yourself a sharp whittling knife and then you carve away anything that doesn't look like a guitar." A tongue-in-cheek response from someone who knows how to build an instrument. His guitars are some of the most sought after acoustics made, with a client list that includes Eric Clapton and Doc Watson. In fact, the article about Henderson, written by Allen St. John for Popular Mechanics, includes work-in-progress photos of the guitar Henderson's building for Clapton (St. John is also the author of the upcoming book, Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument). Henderson makes only about 20 instruments a year and his customer, Gabby Bumgarner, sums up how sought after they are. "I've had three heart attacks, open-heart surgery, cancer and diabetes. And that's nothing compared to waiting for a Henderson guitar." Story.