William Livingston is the founder of the über cool Californian/New York publication Kelp. We first crossed swords through Instagram right at the beginning of that platform and since then I have worked with Bill and Kelp in various ways, however it was the discovery of Bill’s ‘making’ that promoted me to want to put this interview together. It’s a superb story that is sure to be familiar with a lot of reader of H9. Questions - Karl Mackie. Words & Pictures - William Livingston.
Its also my last post! I have to say it’s been a pleasure folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed my various musings throughout the week. Until next time – thank you. Karl.
How did the making of Guitars and Ukulele’s start?
The guitar and ukulele building were a natural progression from my furniture and cabinet building. I never really liked the pieces one could by in the stores and I couldn’t afford custom. So, I built my own custom. A friend who I had helping me in the shop is an accomplished guitar player and wanted to learn woodworking so he could start building his own guitars. He did and convinced me to build ukuleles thinking that as a surfer I’d have more interest in building them rather than classical guitars. Guitars were an obvious next step in the building process so I did. That was in 2001 and I have built a number of each since. But not yet the, “100 to become a true luthier”.
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Can you explain a bit about the process, how you source the materials and what your inspiration is?
Part of the process for building anything for me is reuse. I’d rather take apart an old piece of furniture and use the wood for something “new”. The same goes for surfboards, motorcycles and cars. I think most design now is pretty homogenous to be able to sell to the lowest common denominator, the masses. My next guitar hopefully will be built from wood that is currently a shipping pallet. I like to have a little humor in my design/builds.
Another area of interest to me currently is urban forestry. For years cities have taken down trees or removed fallen trees and chipped them into mulch for disposal. Now there are individuals going around to city yards and taking the wood for re-sawing into lumber. I currently have some Black Acacia I acquired from one such forester on my bench to use for a ukulele.
The Acacia tree is the same family as Koa. A wood found in Hawaii and was used by ancient Hawaiians to build dugouts and surfboards. Today it’s sought after for use in guitars and ukuleles. The hunt is sometimes as rewarding as the finished piece.
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My own workshop has become an extension of me, with so many ideas hatched in there and much making done. Do you have a workshop where your ideas come to life?
My workshop is one half of a typical California two-car garage. While on a photo shoot in Detroit, MI, my actual profession, I found a fax slid under my hotel room door. It was a hand drawn layout of a house my wife had purchased; I didn’t even know we were looking. She bought it because of a wall dividing the garage. I guess I had taken over both sides as “my shop” in the previous home. I don’t think I’ve ever parked a car in a garage.
The layout of my shop changes with each project with the exception of the table saw and large worktable. While I was restoring an old 1969 Triumph motorcycle it looked like a mechanic’s shop with parts and tools everywhere. During guitar builds and turntable plinths, it’ll look very much like a wood working space, clean and everything in its place.
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Within the surfing fraternity, making things is nothing new, and the two have always gone hand in hand. Naturally the Ukelele has historic links to the ocean. Does surfing play a part in you’re making?
Surfing plays a part in everything I do. I grew up in a city, although not a beach city, with a very strong surfing community. It was also a movie and television center, so much of the work was in those fields. My first job was in TV commercial production, when the director overheard us “kids” speaking enviously of a particular actor’s lifestyle – fast cars and faster women. He came up to us and asked, “yeah he has all of that, but does he surf?” That set the tone for all future jobs and relationships.
My cousin grew up surfing in Santa Monica, during the heydays of California surfing. Foam boards were the new thing and no one new about wetsuits except maybe the divers, and those were too thick to be of use for surfing. My Uncle, his father, was the “build it if you need it” type and thinking back was probably a big influence on me.
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Over the past year I’ve been following, on Instagram, the progress of your new project – turntables. What’s the story behind this new direction?
Music and all things musical have a very strong hold over me. I can lay out my history by using songs that were in play at any given time period of my life. My LP collection was for years stored in my attic, which is probably the worst place for a vinyl object to be in sunny Southern California – heat rises. For some reason I decided last year to bring them into the controlled environment of the house and was wondering if they were still playable.
Not many people today would have a turntable in their house, and I could count myself in that group. The simple solution was to buy one; luckily I had kept my Marantz amplifier to play my iPod through so all I needed was the turntable.
Once I found a turntable and discovered the LP’s were in fact still good, I saw a whole new area of re-use and design. The turntable was housed in a plastic/wood plinth that just screamed to be real wood. I started buying up old turntables, fixed the broken ones, tossed the plastic plinths and installed the turntables with natural edged wooden plinths.
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Do you have plans for folk to be able to order a custom project from you in the future?
Fortunately, I make a good living as a commercial photographer. I have been able to support my family and live a fulfilling lifestyle all from what some would consider a hobby. I know some people struggle to make a living in jobs they don’t like, and others try to eek out a living doing what they love but struggle trying to compete with cheap imports from countries who don’t have the opportunities we do.
I give my guitars and ukuleles to my photography clients as gifts or sell them to friends for cost of materials and a little bit for my time; I don’t want to sell them on the open market for less than a luthier would charge and screw up his business with “cheap” instruments. I don’t feel I’ve earned the right yet to say mine are of the calibre of someone who has spent their life building hundreds of guitars or ukuleles. Who knows what will happen when I finish number 101….
The turntable plinths are another matter as I put them in the design category and will be selling them when I figure out who my market is.
I have three on the workbench and once they’re finished I’ll switch to sales mode.
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Finally, what keeps you making, Bill? What makes you get out in the workshop and start a new guitar, ukulele or turntable?
If I’m not shooting or surfing I need to be doing something that keeps the creative juices flowing. There are so many things that I don’t yet know how to do that I think I’ll have years more of learning and creating.
Art, in my opinion, is an overused word to describe too many things. A lot of things we make and use on a daily basis are the result of a craft such as a person’s skill in running a lathe, welding, weaving and countless other trades that are being passed over today in exchange for CAD built objects. The idea of a surfboard blank being cut out and roughed on a CNC machine is against everything I hold as craftsmanship.
What was years ago a wooden bowl turned by hand to hold fruit is now something one buys at a Gallery as “art”. I try to separate art from design. Art is something to adorn your living space, but not necessarily something to use on a daily basis.
Well designed pieces that one uses daily should be beautiful to look at but also perform a function, such as holding fruit rather than the apples rolling off a counter. My hope is that by me learning new trades and skills and applying them to objects such as ukuleles and turntable plinths, I might be able to inspire someone else to try their hand at it.
If by reading this piece someone simply drills some holes in a piece of found wood to hold their pencils, I will be a happy man. Cheers.
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Visit Bill’s website here - billlivingston.com
Follow him on Instagram here - instagram.com/wmlivingston