Fulfilling a Dream
by Bill Hollenbeck

William Daniel "Bill" Hollenbeck of Lincoln, Illinois died Friday April 4, 2008 at Memorial Medical Center, Springfield. He was 74 years old.

A consummate luthier who made great demands of himself, Bill was one of the 22 contributors to Scott Chinnery's "Blue Guitar" collection. Chinnery sent each luthier a bottle of the same color stain, Ultra Blue Penetrating Stain #M 520, and instructed them to otherwise build the guitar of their dreams. The collection was ultimately shown at the Smithsonian and inspired a beautiful book called Blue Guitar (Ken Vose; Chronicle Books; June 2001). In a still broader perspective, the assembly of the collection and the resulting book and exhibit together qualify as one of the seminal events in the revival of interest in the archtop jazz guitar.

Bill was also a longtime friend and associate of Mel Bay, and he and his wife Sandy always received me warmly at the annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS) convention in Nashville as well as at the Great Midwest Guitar Show in St. Louis. Bill generously provided William Bay and me with copies of Blue Guitar, and I will always treasure my copy.

Naturally, I invited Bill to write an article for the "Featured Luthier" column of Guitar Sessions. It was no surprise that he applied the same craft and diligence in writing the article and providing illustrations that he would have applied in building one of his guitars. I was gratified to learn that the article resulted in the sale of a Hollenbeck guitar to a client in Japan.

Here, as a tribute to Bill and Sandy Hollenbeck, we are presenting Bill's original article as it appeared in the April 2001 edition of Guitar Sessions.

Stephen Rekas
Guitar Sessions Editor

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In 1990, I decided to end a twenty-five-year teaching career so that I could follow a lifelong ambition. I came from a family of musicians. My mother played both organ and piano, my dad played the saxophone, and my sister played both sax and piano; my brother played the trombone and I played the radio! I had always been interested in guitars, however, so at the age of sixteen, I purchased a used Kay guitar that had a bad neck. I worked on this guitar for about a year with very little success. That was my first attempt at repair work. My folks kept encouraging me but I could only play on the first three frets. Finally, they decided to purchase a 1949 Gibson ES 125.

During this same time period, I became a big fan of Les Paul. I liked the sound and distinctive style of his playing. I couldn't figure out how he could do so much on a guitar. I read about his experiments with stereo amplification and within a year I wound a coil and added a second pickup. I cut a new hole and rewired my guitar for stereo. I also added a second E string using a banjo tuner next to the high E on the headstock. By throwing the string a little bit off key, the effect sounded more like Les Paul. That was the beginning of my building career!

After high school, however, my hobby had to be set aside. I entered college and graduated with a B.S. in Education, then entered the Army for a two-year stint in Italy with the Signal Corps. I got married, had a family and eventually went on to earn a M.S. degree in Industry and Technology. I worked as a partner with my father in the heating and electrical contracting business until 1965. At that time I decided to enter teaching and work in the field of electricity/electronics.

In 1970, while teaching in Lincoln, Illinois I met Bill Barker of Peoria. He and his brother Jack had gained reputations as master guitar builders, making handmade instruments for professional musicians in their Peoria shop. Bill and Jack allowed me to work as an (unpaid) apprentice in their shop. I would drive to Peoria on weekends, holidays and during the summer breaks. When I designed and built a three-dimensional carving machine the Barkers realized that I was really serious about learning to build guitars. I traded the machine with them for a 17" Barker guitar. The machine greatly diminished the amount of hand carving that was required to build an archtop guitar. Now, with my background in woodworking, drafting, machine shop skills and welding, coupled with years of teaching electronics, I was well prepared for the intricacies of guitar construction!

Over the twenty-year period that I worked with the Barkers, I had the opportunity to work on approximately fifty guitars. It was about five more years before I made my first guitar under Bill's guidance. A few years later, I started a second guitar. After Bill sold his shop, he and I began building another three guitars in my shop; these were about three-quarters finished when Bill passed away. By this time, I had a complete shop set up in my garage, and when I had an opportunity to exercise an early retirement option from teaching, I took advantage of it and started full-time building in 1991.

The building process started with trying to create designs that were distinctly my own. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of players and I would always ask them what they didn't like about their guitars. I started a file of their comments and saw a pattern emerge that was relevant to both manufactured and hand-built guitars. The file helped me incorporate a lot of unique design features in my guitar construction. Eventually, I decided to build a traditional style guitar incorporating ideas that I had collected over the twenty years that I had worked under the Barkers' supervision.

Since I had decided by 1970 that I would eventually be a full-time luthier, I had begun to buy and store woods. These include 10 to 30-year-old air-dried maple which has fantastic grain designs and is quite moisture resistant. I also bought wood from Alaska, Canada, Germany and the West Coast. Actually, almost any wood can be used for the sides and back because their main purpose is to support the soundboard, just like the harp and piano. For the tops, I use Sitka spruce and cedar. Quarter-sawn white pine or even some stair treads can be used with really nice results. Of course, the carving techniques, along with chamber size, sound ports and thickness are important considerations when choosing woods, and tradition plays a big role as well.

I design and construct my own tailpieces. I use the same tailpiece design on all of my archtop models and the Jim Nichols "Simplicity". (The other Nichols signature models use a Bigsby tailpiece.) I make the tailpiece from brass that I polish and send out for either gold or nickel plating. If the bridge and saddle assembly on an acoustic guitar is too heavy, the frequency response of the instrument will be affected. In order to minimize the damping effect of the bridge and saddle assembly, I weigh it on a postage scale. I use rosewood or ebony for the fingerboards. If the fingerboard is rosewood, then the pickguard, bridge, and trim are also rosewood. If I use an ebony fingerboard, then the other components are also made of ebony.

I designed the headstock with a scalloped profile for finger relief. I wanted to allow the tuner buttons to be gripped and still have room for the thumb and index finger. I had noticed that it could be difficult to turn the buttons when changing strings or when fine tuning a single string while playing. It takes longer to construct this style headstock but several players have indicated that they like it.

If fret markers are requested, I use mother of pearl inlays. I always install dot markers along the side of the fret board. I use dots or rectangular-shaped pearl and will execute a one-piece custom inlay if the customer furnishes the design outline. If a customer wants a large pearl job, I will use one that is pre-cut or have it custom-made. As a signature feature, I always put a fluer-de-lis on my acoustic guitars.

I make my archtops in three chamber sizes, a 16" guitar Reminisce model, the 17" Jazz Reflection and the 18" Time Traveler. I also make a Simplicity series. These guitars are made with plain maple, minimum binding, pearl dot or plain rosewood fingerboards, and nickel hardware. They can be either electric or acoustic. The sound is the same as my custom instruments; only the appearance and prices are different!

A few years ago, Jim Nichols purchased one of my 17" Jazz Reflections and two years later asked me to build a special electric signature guitar to his specifications. I started a new series, the "Jim Nichols Signature Guitar." It is a carved, semi-hollow body electric 16" guitar with Seymour Duncan double coil pickups. The neck is sized to his hands, and feedback is held to a minimum through deliberate design and construction features.

People always ask a lot of questions about carving tops. I keep records of the thickness measurements of all the tops I have carved. The varying grain structure and density of diverse types of wood always keep things interesting during the carving process It usually takes me a week to carve and tune a top.

There are three stages in the carving of a top:

1. The open plate itself must be cut to size, shaped, thicknessed and then tuned to pitch. I use two tuning forks for tuning.
2. Adding bass bars to the open plate and tuning to pitch again.
3. Gluing the top to the sides and then cutting the ports. The ports can be f-holes, round holes or whatever shape you choose. Then, fine-tune the top.

Note: There may be a Step 4. This step is required if you drop, crack, or cut through the top during the first 3 steps and have to do it all again! When I was commisioned by Scott Chinery to build a guitar for his Blue Guitar collection I built a twin sister for use in the event that any minor detail of the top of the prime candidate were flawed.

I find that every guitar has its own tone quality when you string it up to pitch. Mother Nature never grows two trees the same. It takes a lot of carving, practice and patience to maintain consistency in the sound response curve for an archtop guitar. It's enough to make you lose your hair! (Note pictures.)

One of the main areas of concern for the customer is the feel and playability of the neck. The necks I make consist of five pieces of wood- three of sugar maple and two thin walnut strips for contrast. The sugar maple is very dense and stable. I use a key-wedge combination to mount the neck on the chamber. It's a little more difficult to cut-in and set, but it will stay in place even without glue. (Yes, I do apply glue later.)

I make and install the truss rod during construction of the neck. I always install the rod. It allows for heavy strings and changes in temperature plus any abuse by the player.

As I mentioned, I make my fretboards of ebony or rosewood. I offer two scale lengths, 24 3/4" or 25 1/2". The customer usually orders one of these scale lengths. The width of the fretboard usually depends on the individual's hand size or the size of the guitar that he/she is accustomed to playing. Most of today's players want wider necks. I always install binding on the edge of the fretboard as this feature adds a softer feel to the neck.

The machine heads (tuners) are nickel or gold plated and I order ebony buttons for the acoustic models. I will install whatever the owner furnishes or specifies. I always install a faceplate on the headstock. I use different woods depending on the style, color and fretboard used on the guitar. On my best archtops, I usually blend in a back plate on the backside of the headstock. I think it adds a nice touch and more strength to the nut area.

Applying the guitar's finish is a procedure that takes a lot of time. I don't use opaque finishes because I want the grain and color variations to show through the finish. I like my finish to look like the older colors of the 40's and 50's, but with a new luster and the capability to almost "shine in the dark".

I use neck-mounted floating pickups that are attached to the end of the neck. They have very little affect on the guitar itself and never touch the top. I tested eleven pickups of this style and found four that worked well within the frequency range of the guitar, exhibiting a good flat response curve. The Jim Nichols Signature Model uses a Seymour Duncan dual-coil that mounts in the top. It will go from hard rock to electric jazz with a flick of a switch.

Since I began building full-time in the early '90s, my wife and I have had the opportunity to travel all over the country, from Vermont in the North to Long Island in the East, Florida in the South, Texas in the West and many locations in between! We have exhibited at the Smithsonian Institute twice, first with a show called "The Electric Guitar, Its Makers and Its Players" and later as one of the twenty-three luthiers featured in Scott Chinery's "Blue Guitar" collection. This past year, I attended a new show called "The Great Midwest Guitar Show" in St. Louis at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

I've spoken to many civic, church and college groups and have been interviewed by the area television, newspapers and magazines. Martin Taylor has played my guitars in the Arts Center at the College of Dupage near Chicago and in concert at the Smithsonian. Jim Nichols uses my guitars for many of his club gigs in the San Francisco area, at the CAAS (Chet Atkins Appreciation Society) convention in Nashville, and has played his Hollenbeck guitars in European festivals and engagements. Most of my clients, however, have been hobbyists and semi-pros. I always try to work with my customers to make any modifications or changes they request.

We have met many wonderful people and formed some great friendships during these past 30 years. I feel really fortunate to have had the opportunity to follow my dream!

For comments or further information, please see the Hollenbeck website:

www.hollenbeckguitar.com

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