Steven Klein tutorial evaluation

Received 11/14/03

I have a pretty active imagination and am very ambitious when it comes to things that I am excited about.  I scheduled a session to build an electric guitar with Mr. Cumpiano more than a year and a half ahead of time.  Within those many months, I planned and re-planned every aspect of the guitar, from inlay patterns to electronics schematics.  Going into the two week session, my hopes for the way the time would be spent and my imagination of the final product were incredibly high:  most likely, too high for someone with so little experience with woodworking and electronics.  For this reason, after the session ended, I was thrilled and even somewhat shocked to realize that my expectations had been met and far exceeded. 

            I arranged to stay with the Cumpianos in Northampton, MA, a beautiful and vibrant town with a collegiate atmosphere in a wonderful setting.  The accommodations with the Cumpianos were lovely, far nicer than had I chosen to stay elsewhere in the area.  Mr. Cumpiano's wife, Jeanette, was incredibly sweet and hospitable, and I am glad I had the opportunity to meet her.

            The first day at the shop, I noticed something obvious: a set of some of the most exquisitely created acoustic, classical, and other guitar instruments, both finalized and in repair stages.  I personally own a Taylor Koa series acoustic guitar, given to me as a graduation gift, that surpasses in sound, quality, and playability, anything that I have ever played on in any music store (including the Taylor presentation and 900 series which I love).  The guitars I played on at Mr. Cumpiano’s shop, however, I now realize to be in a different league.  Not only were they beautiful as artistic feats, but their sound and playability were incomparable. 

            The actual guitar building process was exciting and challenging.   From the onset, we made all of the specifications, which allowed me to have say in the form and other aspects of the guitar.  We built a Les Paul type (I love the body style) with neck-thru body arrangement using mahogany, ebony fretboard, and curly koa top.  As I mentioned, I had hopes for completing certain inlay and electronic configurations and other specs.  However, to my excitement, Mr. Cumpiano proposed many features that I never imagined doing, and we completed them all wonderfully.  We nicely bound the body, used a matching koa headstock veneer, and made a headstock cover with an embellishing inlay.  The top we hand-carved, and it looks incredible.  The back contour is fabulous, emphasizing the neck-thru construction with a small lip that looks quite nice.  Several neck strengthening features went into play that both look beautiful and make the instrument sturdier.   Unlike on Gibsons, we smoothed the neck heel for more playability.  Before the finishing steps, we strung it up and intonated, etc., and I spent a whole night playing on it.   It played fabulously. Basically, I have three very nice Gibson les pauls, and I am more excited to play this instrument than any of the others. 

            Overall, I cannot say enough about Mr. Cumpiano’s talents or the experience in general.  I am pretty much a perfectionist, but my skills in this realm certainly weren’t perfect.  Several times, I made a mistake that I was convinced would mar the final instrument.  Sure enough, each time Mr. Cumpiano was capable of fixing it or helping me fix it.  Eventually, I just stopped being worried!

            My very sincere thanks to Mr. Cumpiano and his wife for the amazing experience.  I would certainly do it again, and would recommend a session to anyone.  It was relaxing, exciting, fun, and productive all at the same time.