Josef Kanak Luthiery

04/28/2026

Just a fun insight into what goes into even the small stuff

01/13/2026

Setting up and testing a violin after making a new bridge and closing seams is a great 11pm activity after being in the office all day.

01/01/2026

My most recent build!

09/01/2025

This was quite an interesting modification!

03/31/2025

And the official photos of the piece titled "space bass" this one was all very experimental and many aspects of the build were a real challenge. I am definitely happy with the results though!!! This has been delivered to the customer.

Scale length: 30"

Body: Ash

Neck: Padauk/wenge

Fretboard: wenge

24 frets

Dual p bass pickups

Controls: dual tone, master volume, selector switch

The fabric is glued to the body underneath the lacquer finish. We went with LaBella black tapewound strings on this one.

09/12/2024

So these are the official pictures Summer took of the electric tenor guitar. These instruments are not well known in modern music so I was excited to build one.

Warren Ellis from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is one very notable modern player. Acoustic tenor guitars were common in the early 20th century. They were often played with tenor banjo, mandola and baritone ukulele as they could all be tuned the same way.

Some specs:

Scale length is 23"

Body is pine from an old barn

Neck is mahogany from an old piece of furniture

Pickup is a 7.5k hot rail humbucker with a 51' p bass control plate

Finish is hand rubbed tru oil over an acrylic base coat

I used some grover tuners.

The fretboard dots are all resin printed and the ferrules are printed as well.

09/11/2024

I am not a big believer in "tone (material)". However swapping out a nylon nut, saddle and bridge pins for bone, micarta, some resins or brass, will almost always result in an improvement in brightness and sustain. I swap them out for customers often along with my other setup and repair work!

Most players already know this but I think it's worth mentioning occasionally. Especially those more modern materials. I have been making nuts and saddles with UV resin for a while with excellent results. Bone is always a great choice though.

08/18/2024

Another build done! This one has some very unique features.

This one features:
an ash body

walnut neck

offset markers and a rosewood fretboard

noiseless p 90's

Dual volume and a master tone

Now the unique part:

This guitar features a built in effect called a which simulates a Leslie speaker by alternating between the neck and bridge pickup. The speed is controllable and it can send in mono or stereo.

The guitar also features a single coil surface mount pickup under the afterlength allowing it to be played like a harp as requested by the customer.

This was a very long but rewarding build.

06/20/2024

05/06/2024

When I finish the two builds I am doing for paying customers I will focus on this: my personal bass in the design I have been using since 2020.

Yes, my builds take a long time compared to a lot of makers on Instagram and TikTok etc. Most of them use CNC machines while I'm doing this the old way. As soon as I can buy a CNC I will and it will massively speed up my process. It will also give my builds that factory appearance.

There is a romantic image of doing it all by hand, however I'd like to save that for the fine details and not the raw lumber processing. Remember I build ALL of my instruments from scratch. Processing slabs into body and neck blanks takes my limited time away from honing design elements and building my brand.

I am also going to focus on my own designs, specifically the body style pictured. I've done a few of these and I like them. I'm not saying I won't do one off customs anymore, I will literally build you anything (even a strat), but starting from ground zero every time adds months to the process.

I have a demanding full time job in addition to my builds and repairs. For that reason I want to focus on polishing my favorite design going forward. All of this is a big part of why I am moving at the end of this month.

I cannot do what I need to in the spaces I have access to. When I worked as a luthier full time in a shop I still couldn't dedicate enough space to this stuff. Something always got in the way. I need my own space where I can make lots of noise and make messes.