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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.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Thanks, Todd. Very interesting. I've learned from American Lutherie magazine that Fox is definitely a jigmeister. He has an incredibly creative mind. Did he give you an inside look at his Ergo design as well as more conventional methods?

Oh, and I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who's had to discipline his blue tape!

[QUOTE=CarltonM] Did he give you an inside look at his Ergo design as well as more conventional methods?
[/QUOTE]

Yes, indeed. He was in the midst of building an Ergo that incorporates some of his latest design innovations, so we got a thorough discussion of all of that with the guitar-in-progress in hand. He did a couple of steps in the building of that guitar to demonstrate his methods. He also has an assistant working for him, and that guy (Toby is his name) was working on that guitar as well as doing some finishing work on another one during the course of the class. Toby also did some demos as he came to certain steps in the process of his work, e.g. gluing up a Nomex sandwich double-top. It was all very informative, thought-provoking, and inspiring.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

That was FUNNY!

Thanks for the laughs

DavidO

Thanks Todd!
I would love to take CF's corse.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Thanks Todd. I'll be moving to the Portland area next month and have be thinking about taking this class. Just learning to control my blue masking tape is worth the price of admission.

Excellent post Todd! Thanks for sharing. I met Charles at Newport, and he is definitely one who inspires.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice