Pogue Guitars

Pogue Guitar Branding

Pogue Guitars is a boutique guitar brand.

Sketching Iterations

Exploring an option of using SP as the logo instead of “Pogue”

“Pogue” Sketches

During 2020’s COVID pandemic. I took the opportunity to go and study lutherie up in Big Rapids, Michigan. I have always been passionate about music and guitars in particular and was always interested on the building and repair sides of things. I chose to take an internship semester and pursue this interest to see what new career avenues I would be introduced to.

Monarch Guitar Build

At school we built the model they designed, called the “monarch”. Therefore we only had a few chances to put our own voice and style in to the guitar. One of those times being designing the headstock pattern. We cut this piece on the bandsaw and put pieces of maple purfling in between the cuts to create this look. We had to limit our amounts of “cuts” on the bandsaw to less the 7, which impacted the way this was designed.

Building Progress Photos

Back Braces Being Carved

Pieces of spruce were glued to the back of the guitar body (Michigan Maple) and carved. This gives the guitar structure. The thickness and shape of the braces play in to how the guitar sounds and the amount of resonance it has.
Sides Being Bent

Sides of maple were sprayed with water, wrapped in tin foil and sandwiched between heating pads and then strapped down to a jig and bent to create the sides of the guitar.
Top with sound hold cut out

Cut on the drill press with a fly cutter. Then another channel was cut with a different fly cutter and purfling was inserted (to create these black and white lines around the sound hole.
Top Braces

This is when the top of the guitar braces were finished being carved.
Preparing guitar for boxing up

Kurf cut wood being glued to the side of the guitar to act as a gluing surface for the top and back of the guitar body.
Guitar Boxed up

The guitar has been glued together and the binding has been installed on the sides.
Neck Cut out

The guitar neck and truss rod slot have been cut out.
Neck Shaped and Fretboard Glued on

The truss rod has been installed, the fretboard has been glued to the neck, and the neck has been shaped using a series of files, chisels and sand paper.