The Montreal luthier makes his instruments from wooden boards from old stables, logs from riverbeds and even old window frames from a 1930s apartment.
“Recycling wood is part of a guitar’s DNA,” says Mr. Delisle. The history of the instrument is richer as a result.”
He remembers rescuing old fir and pine boards from a barn in a Mennonite area of Ontario and from a stable in upstate New York, using logs found in a canal and pieces of maple flooring from the former Boston Symphony Orchestra concert hall.
“You can see all the layers of varnish, traces of cello pencils and things like that,” Mr. Delisle says of the wood recovered from the concert hall.
The luthier, whose workshop is located in the Mile's End district, has several ways to identify the material from which a guitar is made. One of his diving friends found wood at the bottom of a river. He himself collects boards near buildings that are being demolished. He purchased wood from Panama from a British Columbia company. He also uses the Internet.
“Sometimes I have a friend who knows someone who knows someone who saved pews from a church that was being torn down. I’m lucky that I’ve never had to do extensive research.”
He says old wood requires more work but is often better quality. It gives each instrument a unique sound and look.
Homemade guitars are not uncommon. Mr. Delisle says he uses fewer machines than other electric guitar makers. Instead of using a computer-controlled machine, he prefers to sand the wood and assemble the elements himself.
Mr. Delisle makes 16 to 20 guitars a year. The price of each instrument ranges from about $4,000 to about $16,000.
Mr. Delisle's guitars are used by musicians from all over the world, but especially from the “jazzosphere”. He sold them to German, Portuguese, Japanese, Australian, American and even Thai guitarists.
For the luthier, guitars are works of art in their own right. He compares buying a guitar to buying a painting by his favorite painter.
“There is a personal connection between an artisan and a musician, a buyer or a collector. This link is not the same when you buy a guitar in a music store,” he points out.