# Weir Poorboy build



## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

I ordered a Weir Poorboy four weeks ago. He said his typical build time is six to eight weeks. I sent him an email today asking how it was going. He sent this:

_No worries. I know how it is._
_It's going well. We had a little set back with a machine that we had to re-calibrate that cost a few days but I think we are back on track.
All the wood working is done, and frets are in. The Neck is Awesome!
We will finish it up with tuners and truss rod and string guide tomorrow.
Pickup is done. I think we still need to radius the bridge.
The body is ready for finish. It's water based and dries fast so probably wrap it up over the week end.
Then assembly and I like to have it a few days and make sure everything is stable and then final set up.
So maybe another week on the outside. It really just depends how the finish co-operates.

Attached is a quick Iphone picture. _
_Dave_

I love the grain on the neck and the body. The body will be dark brown with the grain showing through.


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## Ti-Ron (Mar 21, 2007)

Nice wood grain!
Can't wait to see it fully assembled!


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

Got an email from Dave Weir last night. Poorboy #157 is finished. He is going to do a final setup today and ship it tomorrow. I love how it turned out. Cant't wait to play it. Korina body with a merbau neck.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Wow, that's an unusual design.

Zero fret and a retainer, but no nut?

Very interesting. A simple minimalist design.

Where are the controls?

Edit:

Found the answer on their site.

"
The pickup is wired directly to the end pin output jack. There is no volume or tone control. For me, these things were always somewhere between a distraction and an annoyance. Once I started building my own guitars, they were the first thing to go.

The pickups we are currently offering are my own design, called the Blueprint. Electrically, they are a mini humbucker. Instead of traditional heavy Backplate and cover, they are shielded with copper foil using the principles developed by Ray Butts for the Filtertron. With the much thinner foil, and a very particular overlapping pattern, they are bright and articulate with no capacitance issues or eddy currents. They are packed into an ABS shell and encapsulated in urethane. They are dead quiet even with lots of gain and hands off the strings. String grounds are standard on most models but are not necessary.

The pickups are pressed into the body route with a fair amount of force and are extremely solid. This way the pickup senses the movement of the strings, and the vibration of the body relative to the strings. It’s one part of the rock-solid design and a big part of our signature sound. There are a couple of set screws installed from the back which sit under the pickup and allow you to set and change the closeness to the strings."


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Looks absolutely beautiful! 

How is the saddle height adjusted?
What is the distance across the widest part of the body?

ENJOY!


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

Milkman said:


> Wow, that's an unusual design.
> 
> Zero fret and a retainer, but no nut?
> 
> ...


No controls. The pickup is wired directly to the jack in the back strap button. It is very minimalist. For live use some people use a volume pedal. Dave's philosophy is nothing should get in the way of the signal. He will put a volume control in if you insist but he discourages it. He makes his own pickups and says they sound best wired straight to the jack. He says with the one piece body and neck the guitar is extremely resonant and with the pickup wired straight through there is no noise at all. I will find out when I play it


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

greco said:


> Looks absolutely beautiful!
> 
> How is the saddle height adjusted?
> What is the distance across the widest part of the body?
> ...


The block of wood under the saddle is a wedge and movable. The saddle is also reversible in case you want a wound G. Not sure of the exact body size but in videos I've seen it looks about the same size as a Les Paul. Here is Dave's explanation of how he builds them.






Our Story — Weir Guitars







www.weirguitars.com


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Kerry Brown said:


> Our Story — Weir Guitars
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks...very interesting read!


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## markxander (Oct 24, 2009)

I saw it on his instagram yesterday and wondered if it was yours! Can't wait to hear some clips, I've wanted one of these for a while.


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## sillyak (Oct 22, 2016)

I love it! It's so minimalistic, but so focused on what counts. What an awesome design. I've never heard of the builder before. How much was shipping ect.?


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

Very interesting


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

sillyak said:


> I love it! It's so minimalistic, but so focused on what counts. What an awesome design. I've never heard of the builder before. How much was shipping ect.?


He charged me $40. No idea what UPS will add on. I’ll probably have to PST and GST at a minimum.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

UPS tacked on $106 customs brokerage. Also had to pay GST and PST. I was expecting the taxes but the UPS fee was much higher than I was expecting. They have you over a barrel. You have to state the value for insurance and they charge a percentage of the value brokerage fee. My wife used to work at a place that had their own customs broker so I could get stuff shipped to her for very little brokerage fees. She lost her job at the start of the pandemic.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Kerry Brown said:


> UPS tacked on $106 customs brokerage. Also had to pay GST and PST. I was expecting the taxes but the UPS fee was much higher than I was expecting. They have you over a barrel. You have to state the value for insurance and they charge a percentage of the value brokerage fee. My wife used to work at a place that had their own customs broker so I could get stuff shipped to her for very little brokerage fees. She lost her job at the start of the pandemic.


Ouch, buggers.

We expect at least a little cell phone vid


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Kerry Brown said:


> UPS tacked on $106 customs brokerage. Also had to pay GST and PST. I was expecting the taxes but the UPS fee was much higher than I was expecting. They have you over a barrel. You have to state the value for insurance and they charge a percentage of the value brokerage fee. My wife used to work at a place that had their own customs broker so I could get stuff shipped to her for very little brokerage fees. She lost her job at the start of the pandemic.


I know Alex has posted a few times on how to get a great rate, might be worth looking up?

Either way, the woods here are gorgeous. Is it a flat-top?


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## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

Beautiful colour in that wood...very nice.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

Budda said:


> I know Alex has posted a few times on how to get a great rate, might be worth looking up?
> 
> Either way, the woods here are gorgeous. Is it a flat-top?


Yes, one piece of korina. UPS was very confusing and they lie. They told Dave I would get around a $40 charge which I thought was reasonable.


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## hatspin (Aug 19, 2019)

Where is the other strap button?

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk


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## tdotrob (Feb 24, 2019)

That is a super cool looking guitar. Can’t wait to hear how it sounds. GAS inducing for sure.


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## mawmow (Nov 14, 2017)

Should I be playing electrics... ;-)


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

hatspin said:


> Where is the other strap button?


Don't see one. On a YouTube video I watched the guy had one on the upper bout.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

Received the guitar today. It looks nicer in person than the pictures. Played it for just over an hour so far. It is the first guitar I’ve bought where the intonation was spot on out of the box. It is the most responsive guitar I’ve ever played. You can use pick attack like you would normally use a volume control. It is my lightest guitar at 7.05 lbs. The neck is to die for. I don’t like really thick necks. This one is very similar to my SG, somewhere between 50’s and 60’s thickness. The feel of the merbau is very nice. It has a gun oil finish on the neck. The body has a brown stain with an acrylic finish. You can feel the grain which is what I was hoping for. Dave told me the finish is very durable and just needs cleaning with a soft cloth. Merbau is quite dense and has natural oils. He said don’t oil it unless it seems really dry. That’s unlikely here on the west coast. I’m very satisfied with the builder and the guitar. It was an easy process and every time I emailed him he got back to me that evening.


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## nbs2005 (Mar 21, 2018)

I think this will be my next guitar purchase. Enjoy.

Jeff


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## bigboki (Apr 16, 2015)

Great to hear that it arrived safe and sound, and that first impressions are very positive. 
Really happy for you! Enjoy it to the fullest!


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

A couple of quick demos. Sorry about the sludge on the second one. I was trying to get as far from the clean one as I could. That is not a genre I normally play. I was quite impressed with the wide range of tones I could get with a minimalist guitar. Recorded in Reaper on a PC with various amp sims.






Weir Poorboy Clean Demo


A demo of my Weir Poorboy guitar. Recorded in Reaper With a '65 Fender Deluxe Reverb amp sim and a Marshall 4x12 cab sim. No pedals




soundcloud.app.goo.gl










Weir Poorboy Dirty Demo


Demo of the Weir Poorboy guitar




soundcloud.app.goo.gl


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

I’ve had this guitar for three weeks now. I hardly play my other guitars. I’ve sold three and have two more for sale. I’m pretty sure this will be the last electric I will buy. The esthetic suits me. I love the tone. The craftsmanship is outstanding. If you like simple, functional things built by a craftsman you owe it to yourself to look seriously at Weir Guitars.


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## dbouchard (Nov 29, 2015)

What a cool guitar. Thanks for sharing the process of ordering it. 

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk


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