The sound of Magnolia: How a man from WB is crafting guitars with internet as his guide

Between years 1947 and 1953, three-time Grammy winner Lester William Polsfuss, popularly known as Les Paul, and American inventor Leo Fender introduced to world an instrument that would transform pop music and make way for bands like Beatles, Led Zepplin and Queen. 

While Les Paul is known to have created " log" - one of first solid-body electric guitars ever me - in 1941, Leo Fender's Brocaster electric guitars went into mass production in 1948. Four years later, in 1952, Gibson Guitars would take Les Paul's design to begin mass-producing as well.

For unversed, Gibson and Fender are among leing guitar manufacturers in world today. Several or electric guitar manufacturers, too, have gained prominence, and among m, PRS deserves a mention.

brand PRS was started by American luthier Paul Reed Smith, who is known to have hand me guitars and began his journey by transforming his truck into a shop to sell his product. Today guitar greats such as Carlos Santana and John Mayer can be seen performing on PRS. 

Devoid of Smith's skill as a luthier or Les Paul's legend, a man in green hills of Darjeeling, with a love for guitar and a desire to create something different, decided to venture into crafting his own electric guitar. 

Constructing a guitar without power tools: Challenges faced

Pranesh Baraily, whose access to both music and education h been confined to tea garden he grew up in, would see his friends play six-string; sometimes, listen to electrifying sound of stringed vibrations displacing quiet of village that would orwise remain dull. From friends, he would learn to play a few chords, but owning that electric guitar would still remain a distant dream.

While Baraily, who resides in Gopal Dhara, a few kilometres away from municipal town of Mirik in West Bengal, could not pursue an education beyond ninth standard, he developed his skill as a carpenter, learning tre from his far. 

However, unlike his far, his interests were not confined to using his skills just to earn a livelihood. He was interested in more and after carving small showpiece items, he would turn towards his passion project: building an electric guitar from scratch. His raw material would be wood from Magnolia tree and his tools would be as basic as an inch-tape, a saw, a chisel, a wood file and a wood plane. His friend, guide, and teacher would be internet.

"I always liked guitar and one day decided to build one myself," Baraily narrated as he recalled difficulties he h to overcome to build his first electric guitar.

" first time I me a guitar. I thought I'll just carve wood. But n I used Google and YouTube. And I realised re was a lot to do," he said, looking at his work-station, me up of a garden with a plastic table and tools kept in a nonsymmetrical manner, surrounded by round hills, painted green by tea shrubs, cut by narrow brown paths. 

His mor occasionally works in tea garden, he informed. 

Constructing an electric guitar is a complex and difficult task. Apart from pieces of wood that need to be carved, shaped and fit in like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, knowledge of electronics and basic electrical engineering skills are necessary. Two primary pieces constitute neck ( longer extension with frets where strings are pressed using fingers to change notes) and body (which essentially holds electrical instruments in place).

electronic equipment are me up of pickups (magnets that capture vibration from strings to turn it into electrical energy), a tone knob (that, in basic terms, determines thickness of tone or quality of sound), a volume knob (which as name suggests changes volume) and a lever to switch between pickups.

Depending on model, a basic electric guitar can have a three-way or a five-way switch based on number of pickups: two for former and three for latter. purpose of this lever is to switch between pickups or turn all of it on toger creating a difference in tone depending on which part of body pickups are placed.

Apart from quality of pickups, which in Baraily's case, he ordered online, an important factor in tone of a guitar is wood it is me up of. 

sound of Magnolia         

While brands like PRS, Fender and Gibson use a range of tonewood that includes Maple, Rosewood, Alder, and Mahogany, Baraily chose what he h closest access to.  

"I used chanp", Baraliy said referring to Magnolia tree by its local name. Magnolia, in several varieties, is fairly common in Darjeeling hills where Gopal Dhara is located.

For measurements of neck and fretboard, which need to be in perfect ratio, with 12th fret placed exactly halfway from two points where strings are locked in, he used a tape and an old broken guitar for reference.  

"I used a broken guitar that I borrowed from a friend to understand measurements. And based on that I built my first guitar," Baraily informed. However, proportions weren't correct and guitar h an intonation problem. That was when Baraily decided to revisit his teacher and friend, internet, and took some time to study math behind music. 

He started rebuilding a second guitar, this time with a jazzier design and more determination. After about a month and a half of arduous labour, guitar was finally rey. 

Darjeeling-based guitarist, Vedanta, who apart from providing music lessons is le guitarist for Indian rock band, Gingerfeet, said that guitar's build and tone would be lovely for Blues music which is considered base for pop-rock.     

Baraily's design is sharp on its edges. neck is slightly thick, a feature that a lot of Blues rhythm guitarists would like having due to grip factor.

Magnolia as a tonewood has a thicker resonance and with right pickups can create a sound suitable for Soul Blues. 

(Pranesh Baraily poses with his hand-me Magnolia guitar)

A dream to build a brand

After success on his second attempt, with his guitar being played at a music event in neighbouring state of Sikkim, Baraily now wants to make a profession out of his passion. While he still works to paint houses to earn his living, on side, he continues ideating and working towards building more guitars, hoping to eventually become a master luthier himself. His desire to build instruments is not limited to guitars.

Recently, he received an order to build an electric esraj out of Magnolia wood. He delivered product and buyer was fairly impressed.

"He has studied a great deal through social media and stuff. And he travelled to city to collect parts of an esraj. He has fit it all into a wood frame and attached electric guitar pickups. And it has come out well," said Ajnish Rai, a Darjeeling-based music professional and studio owner, who h ordered esraj. 

Talking about effort to build an instrument that he hn't heard of before, Rai said that Baraily's work was certainly laudable. 

"I wish to continue doing this. I wish to have a band someday. I will call it Darjeeling guitars," Baraily said explaining what drives him despite expenses and difficulties he has to face as part of his everyday struggles.