Official Luthiers Forum!

I thought I would get this started but will have to add more details later as I have to run over to my aunt's this afternoon. The get-together was great, we started about 1 and didn't completely finish till 9:30. I really appreciate everyone who took the time to come over, especially Ken and James who traveled from North Carolina and had to deal with construction delays and a trip over the mountains to get here.

We ended up with 12 folks total and had a chance to look at and play everyones completed instruments including guitars, mandolins, and an upright bass with a removable neck. Plus there were guitars-in-work to look at and discuss, and cookies to eat, a great jam session, and just an all around good time. Finally, we had a lot of wood to look at and trade - I know I ended up with a whole new pile of wood to drool over; my WAS is satisfied for at least a week.

I'll be back later with more details and photos. I expect some of the others might chime in with their own thoughts and photos.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I hate that I missed it but I got back in from vacation later last night. I think we should make it an annual event. I think Greg said he would host and I would be willing as well.

Hats off to Steve and the Mrs. for hosting, and feeding the crowd. I had to bail about 7:00, wife and daughter are out of town and I had critters to feed. The time just flew by.

Really enjoyed meeting everyone and looking at all the finished and unfinished instruments. Apologies to James Condino for the strange sounds coming out of his killer bass.

I think meeting twice a year would be manageable. I'm willing to host the next.

Here's an album of pictures! Thanks again Steve for hosting!



Here's some of the picking (James Condino on his mando, John Arnold on Guitar, and clinchriver's brave debut on bass):

What a blast that was! Many thanks to Steve and Peggy for putting up with us, I do believe a good time was had by all. I came away with some great new shop improvement ideas (thanks, Steve!), a bunch of new friends, some tasty new tonewood (thanks John and Nathan), and most of all, some great memories. It was well worth the drive over, as I believe strongly that we luthiers need to take every opportunity to reach out to the larger community and forge new friendships and contacts. Instrument building is oftentimes such a solitary activity, we owe it to ourselves to crawl out of our caves every once in a while and socialize. Thanks again to all involved!

Ken

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Guys, it was our pleasure. My wife had never met any luthier types, she was positively impressed and she had a good time.

Lots of good stories were told, John Arnold talked about going out with Ted Davis to find red spruces all over Appalachia and, after some prodding, told us about building a copy of Jimmie Rodger's Weymann guitar for Doc Watson after Doc played it at the Country Music Hall of Fame. James Condino kept a running conversation going while he was assembling his very cool upright bass with a removable neck, he was talking about building and playing mandolins and basses along with some insight into his earlier years working with Benedetto and hanging out with some of the big name luthiers in Portland before they became big names. All during this time everyone was passing their instruments around for us to look at and play. I meant to take a ton of pictures but got so involved in talking/listening/playing I only took 5.







We went down to the shop and checked that out. Lots of good discussions were going on around the shop. We looked at my untested mini spray booth, got some good ideas on how to seal off the open end of my mini spray booth (I have to have something movable cause the bandsaw usually lives in that spot). Then I got some good advice on whether or not to retop the '49 Gibson I'm trying to resurrect (John said leave it) and also found out that I do need to reset the neck on a '68 0-15NY Martin I'm refretting. I thought I did but it was sure nice to have someone who really knows what they're doing tell me that.





After all of that we got down to some wood trading as everyone brought out what they had. We had to go outside to Jame's truck cause he and Ken had brought a truck load from North Carolina. ClinchRiver brought some black locust bridge plates and passed then out for all to try and also gave out some persimmon we could try for fretboards - thanks!!! I passed out some fretboards and bridge blanks of Bastogne walnut to a few folks who were interested in trying it out. After swapping some of my wood (and a workbench) I ended up with a bunch of mahogany, some killer maple and a set of BRW. On the way out Nathan handed me two billets of Spanish Cedar and asked me if I wanted that - sure! Thanks Nathan! I love the smell of Spanish cedar but Nathan says he doesn't like it quite as much after sawing up some hundreds of board feet. The best WAS day I've ever had

It was great to meet some fellow OLF'rs. If you haven't had a chance to do it then you need to the first chance you get.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I have to second this. Many thanks to Steve and Peggy for opening up their home to all of us. I had a great time and I hope we can all get together again sometime soon. I had forgotten what it was like to have a conversation about luthiery with people who actually know/care what I am talking about LOL. It was a great time and it has given me lots to think about. Looking forward to the next one!

Thanks for all the hospitality and great time at the dork fest! 'Not my finest moment in that video of Minor Swing, but then again, I usually gig on the double bass or guitar- maybee 100 times for every one session I'm on the mandolin.

Ken and I enjoyed ourselves and talked about hosting one up in Asheville- perhaps in the fall when the colors are out.

It was pretty obvious that there was plenty of wood overload by the end of the day when I offered up 25+ oversized Honduras mahogany neck blanks that have been air dried for 20 years at a " I need gas money to get back up to the mountains " price of $25 cash each and not a single person bought one! (That was a one time only offer, but I still have them available)

BTW, I never worked for Bob Bennedetto, but I like the idea of adding that to the mythology. I did work for Kim Breedlove for about a year around 2000-2001, but I got fired because I didn't like doing two full neck sets, two full fret jobs, two full bridges, and the final full nut/ saddle / setup / electronics install on two more guitars every day all the while getting yelled at for being a slacker and not keeping the pace up on the production line!

j.
http://www.condino.com
http://www.kaybassrepair.com

Bennedetto <> Breedlove At least they both start with a B. At my age I'm lucky I got that close. I got two of those neck blanks but did that in our trade. Thanks for that!! If you and Ken host a geekfest in Asheville I'll be there for sure.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Me too.

Me three.

Don't know if everyone realized my photo of John, above, clicks through to my photos...in which there is a photo of your bag of neck blanks! Shoulda bought one!

Looks like this was an unqualified success.

Do we want to do another say at my place January/February?

Or if the NC guys want to host in Asheville thats fine with me.

Wherever we do it, I'm in

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Asheville in the fall would be beautiful with the leaves changing. I would probably make a weekend out of it and bring the fam.