Keilty Guitarworks

Keilty Guitarworks Musician and Luthier

A view from my night stand. What’s in your pockets?
03/12/2026

A view from my night stand. What’s in your pockets?

I’d like to break my own things sometimes, just so I can practice fixing them. You know, cause I don’t have anything el...
03/11/2026

I’d like to break my own things sometimes, just so I can practice fixing them. You know, cause I don’t have anything else to do. 🙄

The first time the head stock snapped off this thing, it was kid related damage. No big deal. But then I knocked it out of the stand and onto the concrete floor of my shop a couple days ago- I was in a hurry picking up an amplifier, the key being that “I was in a hurry”- nothing in this small space that starts with me being rushed ever ends well.

This is why all the customer guitars sit in cases in a completely separate room and only emerge one at a time when they are on the bench.

At least it’s an opportunity to revisit Mr. Ford and his rope clamp set up. The simplicity and brilliance of this set up, which is useful in a variety of different repairs, shows why the man was a titan of instrument repair.

Thanks for educating me. Old school like the old school.

A lot of posts lately, but there’s a lot going on- and I get excited when things start to come together. One of the fun ...
03/05/2026

A lot of posts lately, but there’s a lot going on- and I get excited when things start to come together.

One of the fun things about this work is getting creative with commonly available materials. The installation of the soft metals is tricky, but on the real thing, this fretboard is going to shine like sunset over the Atacama desert when the light hits.

A lot of posts lately, but I get excited when things start to come together. Tricky installation with the soft metal co...
03/05/2026

A lot of posts lately, but I get excited when things start to come together. Tricky installation with the soft metal components, but on the real thing, this fretboard is gonna shine like sunset over the Atacama Desert under the lights.

If you’ll be my Dixie chicken….
03/04/2026

If you’ll be my Dixie chicken….

Snow day.
02/24/2026

Snow day.

A little brass for the “head”- and the last piece of this custom build falls into place. Unlike my sister, I was an utt...
02/19/2026

A little brass for the “head”- and the last piece of this custom build falls into place.

Unlike my sister, I was an utterly mediocre artist during my school days. Drawing, painting, woodwork, crafting in general – never my thing. If you give me a pencil and something to draw, in about two hours, I can kind of sketch it – sort of.

And yet here I sit, only a few miles from where I grew up, after so many years and a long round trip- in my studio making playable jewelry.

It turns out that, like many things in life, there are all different kinds of art.

Hey local friends, I’m playing this Thursday night from 5:30-7:30ish in Morris, CT for the social. Come have some drink...
02/10/2026

Hey local friends, I’m playing this Thursday night from 5:30-7:30ish in Morris, CT for the social. Come have some drinks, hang and hear some original music, if you like.

The inside of this bin smells like the ocean. Last spring, I purchased a variety of tools, parts and partially completed...
02/06/2026

The inside of this bin smells like the ocean.

Last spring, I purchased a variety of tools, parts and partially completed builds from another local looth. This was in one of the boxes. Unused sets from the Martin guitar factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, circa my birth year in the late 1970s. Abalone, MOP and, fortuitously for my current project, black buffalo horn.

Now I just have to cut it.

Kind of disconcerting how tiny these inlays actually are after staring at the model for hours on a computer monitor. Now...
02/05/2026

Kind of disconcerting how tiny these inlays actually are after staring at the model for hours on a computer monitor.

Now on to the multi-material tests. Maybe I should get my glasses checked first.

This was supposed to be a two day post new-year cleanup….
01/22/2026

This was supposed to be a two day post new-year cleanup….

HNY. Out with the old…
01/05/2026

HNY. Out with the old…

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Litchfield County, CT

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