Official Luthiers Forum!

A customer of mine has liver cancer and asked to convert his HD28 to a rightie. He came to the shop yesterday for a saddle, nut . pick guard swap . He brought the pick guard material.
when he came in , he told me he is giving the guitar to his grandson. He is a rightie so when he told me he was doing chemo , I asked what for. He said Liver cancer, he had colon cancer a few years ago , so I told him if he got an hour or two I will do this as he waited. We had a wonderful time together , talking music , guitars people we know and upcoming Nazfest. He was looking at my conversion I am finishing up and an Loo my son and I made. He was enjoying the shop and my inlay bench.
So I started with filling in the bridge and pulling the nut. Recut the slot and made the new picguard.
for 2 hrs we chatted and shared a few hours. He has been a customer for years and lives about 2 hr away. I just got a text his grandson , the only one of 6 that plays , was blown away .
When I made the pick guard I mated it to the left handed one. Spent about 15 min polished it to look new. I will be getting a pic today which I will share.

For those that do this kind of work, these are memories that stay with you. I am happy to say most of my customers are like friends. I hope he makes a full recovery , he knows it is a hard road. I also know he is a lefty and he is gifting another friend one of his guitars. Please keep my friend in your thoughts , stay well.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I totally get it, John. Some of my clients have been with me since the late 70's, and are some of my best friends. I've lost more than my share over the years, too. Good people, decent folks who are truly the salt of the earth. I've learned to spend time with them whenever I can, because we never know how much time The Almighty gives us.

RIP to Roy, Flynn, Louis, George, Don, and Frank. They live as long as I remember them.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

That's great John. It's nice to have experiences like that. There really is a big social element to the work we do. We meet people from all over the world and musicians are definitely some of the most interesting people out there.

John you are a very good person/man and I'm sure that your customer had as good a time or better than you did too.

This is why I still repair guitars too for the people I meet and the guitars I meet too.

John thanks for leaving the world a little better than you find it likely every day.

You can tell John who deals with the public here and who doesn't because it's the people that you and I and others who work in the trade get to meet that make this all worth while to me now. I met a new friend last week who is going to be my next dentist. Before that I met another new friend who is also a collector like I am and we party at each other's homes now and never have to bring a guitar since he has as many as me...

Some of my clients if they are in a bind may come to my condo and I'll help them from my home shop and enjoy seeing them too.

It's a lot of fun to be a working in the trade Luthier and even though I am supposed to be retired I think I will work until I drop I enjoy it so much.

Beautiful story John. It’s all about the people. Because as anyone who does it for a living can tell you, it sure ain’t about the money

Earlier this year I helped a customer by finishing off an 90% completed instrument, which his teenage son was in the process of building when he suddenly and unexpectedly passed. A very moving job and I felt honoured that trust had been placed in me to help preserve the young man’s legacy for his family.

It's stories like this that helps to put life in prospective.