Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello to everyone!
I am located in Minnesota just north of the twin cities. been reading this forum for some time and decided to join up! GREAT info here! I run a Repair and Restoration business for stringed instruments. I have built 2 guitars from raw materials, 1 electric and 1 acoustic at school. I just thought I'd say hi and look forward to learning more and hopefully share some techniques or ideas of my own!

-Rick

Hi Rick and a big welcome to ya to the OLF my friend!!!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Thank You Hesh!
There seems to be many of you guys from Michigan !! not many of us here from Minnesota, acually it seems to be a pretty "quiet" trade here. I wish there were some (or even 1) guitar show,Luthier meet or similar in this location! Is Jim Olson from Olson guitars on this forum? I live about 10 miles from him, he is about the only recognizable luthier from Minnesota that I have heard of!

Anyway, Thanks again

_rick

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome aboard Rick !
How about some pics. of your guitars?

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Welcome, Rick. Always great to have another Repair Expert here, as well as another builder. One more opinion and another angle on getting it done. Hope you like it here.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

A welcome from me too.

Don't forget Charles Hoffman! also from your neck of the woods.

Not everyone identifies their location, so there may be more forum members close to you than you realize. I just found one near me, about a 25 minute drive.

I know that at least one member here is from Duluth.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Rick Jim O is not on the OLF but he is a very nice guy. One of our members contacted him, had lunch with him and then a shop tour. You might want to contact Jim and introduce yourself and invite him to lunch or invite yourself for a visit. I would.....

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Welcome...and I look forward to reading your posts.

Bill

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Rick,

Welcome on board, Glad to have you with us

Hi Rick, and welcome. I'm from Duluth, but I'm only a beginner luthier-in-training (one guitar finished.) There's another beginning luthier, Mark Anderson, that lives at White Bear Lake. Duluth recently lost a superb archtop luthier, Ed Schaefer, who hightailed it back down to north Texas. Dan Larson is a lute maker (funny how that somehow seems to need to be called out specifically, rather than just saying "luthier") here in Duluth. I'm sure there must be a boatload of luthiers in Minnesota, some of whom may specialize in Scandinavian stringed instruments.

Grant Goltz is a member here (using his name) and at the Luthierforum, using the handle "whitespruce". Grant lives between Hackensack and Longville, MN (about 180 miles from St. Paul.)

Grant is a luthier, and does instrument repair and restoration as well. (Such as the rare, $125,000 Martin I'm holding in my avatar photo.) He also harvests and processes Minnesota White Spruce into tonewood, so if you would ever get the hankering to build a truly "local" guitar, now you know where to get some wood. You'd probably have fun scratching and sniffing your way through Grant's other tonewoods as well.

You also might be interested in a Gathering that we're having at Grant's place the weekend of July 18-20. Probably a couple dozen luthiers plus spouses from around the US (maybe a couple from Canada.) [Of course, all OLF members are invited, too!] It will be pretty informal gathering to check out instruments completed and in progress, play and listen to some tunes, examine (touch, play, trace and reverse engineer) a collection of rare instruments, laugh and joke, and a few folks might drink a beer or two, too. Specific to what you're doing, we're trying to organize a few structured sessions, one of which may be French polishing techniques taught by a guy that works for the Smithsonian.

So, welcome, and we look forward to seeing some of your work.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Welcome Rick, you will really love it here. I am a native from the great white north myself, but fate (and u-haul) brought me to Tennessee. I miss the spring and summer there greatly. Winter - not so much. I grew up in Hopkins and lived up north at Ham Lake for a while. If I ever get up to visit family, I'll have to look you up. Where abouts are you?
Donovan

Rick,
Hello and welcome from Lindstrom.

We should get together sometime and swap ideas, or just jam.

Dave

Welcome Rick,
I'm in Alexandria MN.
Terry
http://www.kennedyguitars.com

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

How's it Rich!!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Hi Dave!

You are about 10 minutes from Me. I am in Stacy ! My sister lives in Lindstrom. Small world hey?

I'll be home all weekend (had to cancel a gig because our drummer got really sick..) Maybe we can hook up?

Drop me a line

rickjohnsongtr@gmail.com

Rick:

I'm from Minnesota -- actually a close neighbor of yours in East Bethel.

I'm building ukuleles for the fun of it right now, but plan to return to building classical guitars for my own pleasure in the near future.

Konala