Aspiring Musical Entrepreneur
Just last month, I caught wind of a guitar maker in Buipe, the town of 8,000 where I had been living for the past four months. My two good friends, Yakubu and Daniel, accompanied me to visit the guitar maker, Zachariah, who they knew from school. Zachariah has lived in Buipe all his life, except for a 2-year period when he was in Tamale, training to become a carpenter. After training, he came back to Buipe but could not find any work as a carpenter. His love for reggae music inspired him to utilize his carpentry skills for guitar making, a notable hobby if you ask me. This scruffy looking 22 year old with B2K T-shirt, stylish jeans and imitation converse all-star shoes, fits the very stereotype of a guitar maker. Although he is not able to play the guitar, he envisioned his design through studying music videos.
Buipe’s finest artisan
Unfortunately there is no money in the guitar-making industry in Buipe, but he manages to find random jobs working for a contractor as a painter and brick layer. Amidst the poverty in Northern Ghana, it is rare to find someone who embraces the arts, veering outside the standard carpentry activities of tables, chairs, and door frames, and into the artisan world of guitars, guitar bags, and walking sticks. He has only made five guitars, but he was excited to learn I was putting an order in for two. My only request was for him to teach me how to make a guitar.
Zachariah lives with is mother, Abiba, and brother, Razak. They live in a small mud hut compound, home of five chickens, two goats, three dogs, and a pile of scrap wood that he has collected over time.
Fine selection of scrap wood
Razak, who has become his apprentice, gathered the materials and headed over to the work bench under the huge mango tree which provided shade during the scorching 40 degree midday sun.
Shady spot under the mango tree
Zachariah took a piece of cardboard and folded it in half and then traced the face of the guitar. Carefully cutting around the traced lines, the unfolded cardboard yielded a symmetric face which was ready to be traced on the plywood. In order to cut the bottom and top piece of the guitar body, Zachariah nailed two pieces together before sawing around the traced shape. With one of the pieces of plywood, he took a compass and used it to find the centerline, and then used the compass again to trace the circular opening for the guitar face.
Where is that centerline?
He then took 8 vertical support blocks and nailed the top piece to the bottom piece. For the structural supports, he used wood from the Wawa tree. With that name, the wood was destined for greatness in the music world. To ensure the top and bottom piece were perfectly aligned, we walked to the nearby health clinic to find a 90 degree corner in the building. A piece of soaking plywood was then wrapped around the curved edge of the face and was nailed to the vertical supports connecting the top and bottom piece.
Wrapping plywood around face
After smoothing the edges with a razor and sandpaper, Zachariah applied the veneer using glue. He didn’t know the name of the wood used for the veneer but it was definitely of finer quality to the rough plywood. Once again, he took the razor and sandpaper and smoothed the corners, patched the rough spots, and performed the finishing touches to perfection.
Applying the veneer to guitar body
The following Saturday we tackled the bridge, fret board, and neck. Zachariah had a piece of wood for the fret board ready to go and shaped it to match the guitar he had envisioned. On a piece of paper he drew three designs for the neck and I chose the one that resembled a classical guitar. He traced and cut the piece and then used a chisel to dig out the openings for the tuning pegs.
Cutting the fret board
Once he nailed the two pieces together, he applied the veneer for the finishing touch. With the guitar body in hand, he carefully laid the fret board on top and screwed it in place and secured it with a vertical support. He used evenly cut slivers of wood as the frets and glued them into place. Thanks to my brother Geoff, the standard bicycle wires used for strings were replaced by 5 sets of Dean Martin guitar strings brought over from Canada.
Applying the veneer to neck
Finally looking like a guitar
The guitar was almost ready for its first strum when we ran into a problem. The tuning pegs used to secure and tune the strings comprised a piece of metal hammered into the neck with a wooden turning knob. With the new and improved guitar strings came the need for higher tension which the pegs could not support. And thus a design modification was needed.
The next morning I saw Zachariah at the Kokoo and Koshe breakfast stand. We sat down and started to brainstorms ideas to resolve the problem while eating the creamy porridge and deep fried breakfast goodness. He came up with the idea of using a nut and bolt system to firmly secure the strings in place. Brilliant! Knowing there would be more issues arising over the design period for building this guitar, I told him I would support a GHc 5 innovation fund for design improvements. With all six strings wound around the pegs, it was go time. But when we started to play, we discovered that the frets were uneven since six of the frets played the same note. This fine detail was typically performed by machine, but was now being created by a carpenter-turned-artisan, with only a chisel, saw, hammer, and razor. If the frets were only slightly off mark, it would affect the entire instrument. Zachariah worked long and hard to even the frets and finally found a balance that worked.
As he walked me to the road after a hard day of work, I asked him how much he was going to charge for one guitar. He gave me a price of GHc 8 which equated to $10. We then went through the total cost analysis of the guitar.
· Veneer wood – GHc 1
· Plywood – GHc 1.5
· Glue – GHc 1.5
· Neck – GHc 0 (uses scrap wood)
· Pegs for strings – GHc 1.5
· Strings (bicycle wires) – GHc 1 (replaced with real guitar strings)
· Trip to Tamale to pick up materials – GHc 2
Quickly summing the total it came to GHc 8.5, and this did not even include the three days of labour to create the fine piece of art. I tried teaching Zachariah the concept of profit and loss, but he didn’t seem too interested. I then strongly suggested that he take the GHc 15 from my hand.
I’m planning on giving one guitar to two of my friends Daniel and Yakubu, and the second to a pastor’s son, Matthew, who wants to learn and play at church. My grand scheme is to purchase a total of 5 guitars and start a guitar club to promote music and support a local artisan. I can see it now, the Buipe School of Guitar. Five classically trained Buipeons, playing the guitar. Another thought comes to mind that this beautiful guitar playing could replace the loud and booming dance music that plays in the community centre next to my compound three nights a week till 3:00am. Here’s hoping!