I took Charles Fox's 5-day "Contemporary Guitar Making" class in March, and I know some of you have been waiting for a report. Well, it was great. That's about all I have to say. Seriously, though, we covered so much material that I don't even know where to begin, and it would take me hours to even scratch the surface. When I think about what key things I got out of it, these are what come to mind (in no particlular order):
1. Meeting his lovely wife
2. Getting many of my questions answered; filling in a bunch of the gaps in my knowledge and understanding
3. Seeing many of his jigs, absorbing his way of thinking about building, and getting a lot of great ideas
4. Taking in his advice, pearls of wisdom, and reflections on lutherie... the big picture
5. Being inspired by his design ideas
6. Being greatly encouraged by his observations of me and my work (I brought one of my guitars to class); I felt that he gave me, in his typically generous way, a sincere affirmation of my commitment to pursue a career in lutherie... that I'm doing the right thing
7. Being informed that, as a former student, I am always welcome to call him with questions
Now, here are a few pics (captions below each shot):
Charles demonstrates the playing technique for a deceptively simple new instrument he's designed that uses green masking tape for frets.
Here he demonstrates a contemporary fingerstyle approach to playing yet another of his newly designed guitars, a neckless "ultralite" model.
Among Charles' innovations in tooling is an experimental program in administering steroids to router bits.
Here Charles is staring down an insubordinate roll of blue masking tape.
And, finally, here he is with one of his fantastic guitars.
Sorry to disappoint, but I don't feel it's my place to post pics that show his jigs, latest designs, and stuff like that. There are several excellent articles in American Lutherie that show you plenty of that sort of thing to sink your teeth into. Charles also does presentations at just about every GAL convention. And he's offering courses regularly at his shop in Portland, OR, these days.
That's all, folks.
