Creating sound with a purpose

Murphy –  Mike Conner has always had a passion for music, playing classical guitar since he was 12 years old. Today, the retired engineer from South Carolina has made his home here to be closer to his wife’s family, and he is returning to his love of music by creating custom instruments with a purpose.
Conner said he always believed a person should retire to something, rather than retire from something. So when the time arose, he found that the art of lutherie was a
perfect marriage of things he loved.
Throughout his adult life, he always had an interest in a number of instruments as he loved bluegrass and traditional music. He played at church for several years, plus participated in jam sessions and bluegrass parties.
“Any bluegrass session I went to there was always banjos and guitars, but rarely a Dobro,” Conner said. “It’s a challenging instrument to play. It sounds different with the
same range as a guitar with a sliding effect.”
In 2008, Conner bought a commercial Dobro. In 2009, he had a custom Dobro made for him.
“I was looking at the Dobro and said, ‘I could do as good as this, and I probably should,’ ” he said. “My quirky
engineer nature really liked the different way of working. It intrigued me.”
Learned from his grandfather
According to guitarcenter.com, what gives a Dobro guitar its unique sound is the resonator that serves as the instrument’s amplifier. The combination of metal strings played against a metal plate gives a Dobro very distinct, almost banjo-like sound.Conner learned woodworking from his grandfather, who he visited and watched from a young age. He acquired his grandfather’s bench planes, which have been in operation for more than 100 years, and uses them on everything he builds.
Conner has built several pieces of furniture over the years, building for either a purpose or a gift. Before he retired, he decided to see if marrying his two passions together would be a successful venture.
In 2012, he decided to build a guitar to see if it would be a viable venture for the future. He acquired books, joined the Musical Instrument Maker Forum and found resources online to help him learn what he needed to do.
“I started thinking about the tools I would need and what the process would be like,” Conner said. “It’s a narrow field, there are some really famous guitar makers and there are others that aren’t very good, and I tried to land somewhere in the middle.”
‘This doesn’t stink’
In 2013, Conner built his first prototype. That turned into two, as he built an octave mandolin and an arch-top guitar side by side at the same time.
“It took about 150 hours to build them from start to finish,” he said. “I used maple that I had cut down from my front yard and some lumber from the Home Depot to keep it pretty cheap.”
Conner finished his prototypes and found they sounded pretty good for a first try.
“At that point I thought, ‘This doesn’t stink,’ and this is something I could do and enjoy in my free time,” he said. “There were still things I could improve on.” The process for making an instrument begins with a large wooden board and processing the wood. The next step is to create a plan. Conner enjoys the freedom of free thought with his
creations.
“There is no hard and fast standard on how it is meant to be built, so from the plan I can make a template,” he said. “After that I need a mold for the body, which is a bunch of plywood glued together. After the mold, there is the lengthy process of taking a pile of wood and cutting away anything that doesn’t look like a guitar.”
When Conner builds the body of a guitar or similar instruments, like an octave mandolin or Dobro, he bends the wood over a hot pipe and curving the wood.
From there, he tests the sounds of the instrument by knocking against the wood.
The average time frame to from start to finish is about 100 hours. Most of the time is in the details, making sure the alignments are just right and the instrument is smooth, eliminating any flaws while he is sanding and curing the instrument.
Over the years, Conner has built eight instruments, three for other musicians in his family and friends. He is working on his ninth, a custom Dobro to play at Murphy Second Baptist Church.
‘Consider it a blessing’
The challenge is in choosing to build instruments that aren’t well established, how-to books and diagramsare not available. Each time he builds an instrument, he evaluates what happens and how to make them better.
“Applying the engineer mindset, I get a pretty good idea if something will work or not,” Conner said. “You can make an instrument that sounds amazing but falls apart in a few months or you can build one that will sound like a cardboard box and never fall apart. It’s that middle ground that’s the solution.”
The main reasons why Conner makes these instruments is to either show respect and gratitude to another person in his life as well as to add to the worship
of the Lord.
“I consider it a blessing to have these tools, and be able to use them and use them well,” he said. “I’m not doing this for a business, I’m doing it because I enjoy it, and it
pours into other people or it supports the worship in the church.”
He added that he and his wife take to heart what the Bible says in Matthew 6:3: “Give your alms in secret.”
“We do things we never talk about or share,” he said.
“That’s our motivation, and we will always serve those needs first. If everyone had an aspect of that in their lives, this world wouldn’t be nearly as crazy as it seems to be these days.”