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

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

While Les Paul is known to have created "the log" - one of the first solid-body electric guitars ever made - in 1941, Leo Fender's Broadcaster 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 the unversed, Gibson and Fender are among the leading guitar manufacturers in the world today. Several other electric guitar manufacturers, too, have gained prominence, and among them, PRS deserves a mention.

The brand PRS was started by American luthier Paul Reed Smith, who is known to have hand made the 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 the PRS. 

Devoid of Smith's skill as a luthier or Les Paul's legend, a man in the green hills of Darjeeling, with a love for the 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 had been confined to the tea garden he grew up in, would see his friends play the six-string; sometimes, listen to the electrifying sound of the stringed vibrations displacing the quiet of the village that would otherwise 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 the municipal town of Mirik in West Bengal, could not pursue an education beyond the ninth standard, he developed his skill as a carpenter, learning the trade from his father. 

However, unlike his father, 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 the 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 the internet.

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

"The first time I made a guitar. I thought I'll just carve the wood. But then I used Google and YouTube. And I realised there was a lot to do," he said, looking at his work-station, made 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 mother occasionally works in the tea garden, he informed. 

Constructing an electric guitar is a complex and difficult task. Apart from the 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 the neck (the longer extension with frets where strings are pressed using fingers to change notes) and the body (which essentially holds the electrical instruments in place).

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

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

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

The 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 had the closest access to.  

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

For the measurements of the neck and the fretboard, which need to be in perfect ratio, with the 12th fret placed exactly halfway from the two points where the 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 the measurements. And based on that I built my first guitar," Baraily informed. However, the proportions weren't correct and the guitar had an intonation problem. That was when Baraily decided to revisit his teacher and friend, the internet, and took some time to study the math behind the 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, the guitar was finally ready. 

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

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

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

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

A dream to build a brand

After success on his second attempt, with his guitar being played at a music event in the 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 the 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 the product and the buyer was fairly impressed.

"He has studied a great deal through social media and stuff. And he travelled to the city to collect the 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 had ordered the esraj. 

Talking about the effort to build an instrument that he hadn'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 the expenses and difficulties he has to face as part of his everyday struggles.