Official Luthiers Forum!

Being new to OLF, it was especially great to meet everyone and put faces on the forum posters. I told several of you I was considering retiring from Lutherie when my stash was used up, but this exchange of ideas was really motivating to me and a great time. Thanks for hosting, Ray. The Lasagna was excellent and your family was wonderful.

Kent

Thanks, Ray. Now that I'm assurred of names and faces let me take a stab at my impressions of the builders and their guitars.

...Steve Cartwright (Wearing cap, sitting on floor)...on the verge of stringing up his first guitar! While I was holding it and admiring its beauty, and while Doug Mills was playing about 6 feet away, this guitar was vibrating in my hands just screaming to be born. Good luck Steve...this effort will be like mainlining heroin...you'll be back fo more! Be sure to keep us posted as to the christening. And by the way, I am serious about you creating the legal crisis so you can visit Warsaw!

Doug Mills (Green Jacket)...He showed a beautiful example of FP on a really zooty figured sapele guitar. I was particularly impressed with the finish and now know that I have more work to do to get such results. He was an excellent fingerstylist much in the vein of a Leo Kottke.

Kevin Mason (plaid shirt holding Ray's beautiful archtop) Building since 1970 long before one could get "lifeline help" from forums and such. A real pioneer with 13 guitars under his belt. Currently working on restoring a violin.

Kent Fishburn (plaid shirt holding the resonator guitar)...excellent player who performs weekly at open mic venues. His resonator guitar was stunning. Kent has a wealth of information from many years of building as well as attending guitar conferences.

Dale Kirby (black shirt, red beard) Had a great sounding OM which was the favorite of the designated evaluator (Corey Willis, guitar teacher and wonderful player of many styles).

Karl Dahlman (blue tee shirt) Very prolific builder who brought 6 of his guitars that included a killer Les Paul (the one Ray is holding). His guitars are nitro finished as well as I've ever seen. I really like the design and profile of his necks and learned a lot just playing his terrific dreds.

Ray Lee (white shirt, holding the Les Paul) Our host has a very tidy and efficient shop. Many of his guitars are classicals that are played by his very talented daughters and soon his youngest son. These kids were very impressive and engaging, mature and polite beyond their years. His latest effort (archtop) really showed off his building skills.

Turbo411 (Josh, not pictured) Josh brought a killer solid body electric that he restored.Unfortunately, I never got around to checking it out in detail before he left. Keep up the good work, Josh!

Hopefully others will add their impressions as well. Looks like the Windy City Luthiers' group got off to a great start!

JJ (Salmon shirt)

P.S. Ray, I'm glad you didn't call it pink...Hesh and Billy would run roughshod over me!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

OOPS...I just read Steve's correction post. Well, you all get the idea...just apply my comments to shirt colors!

Hesh... you fatherless child!!!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

To add onto the review by JJ:

It was great to have players like Kent, Brett, Corey and Kevin? (green jacket) - lots of different playing styles for lots of great guitars.

I was struck by the great work exhibited in many of the guitars. I never knew that I needed so many things (I think this hobby is making my "high maintenance"). To name a few of the things that I now want: A waterfall bubinga guitar (holy cow JJ! that is a beautiful guitar), a resonator guitar (I still can't figure out why you need to fret it Kent , a Les Paul (Karl does some incredible bursts in his finishes), a piano hammer for tapping on tops, hot glue pot, etc.

It was interesting to see what effect a smaller sound hole had in a dread that karl made - guitar still boomed with a great sound.

Even the simple discussions about hide glue (fish glue sounds even better) or z-pozy were great to have. I hope that we can continue these discussion live in-person in the future.

A couple of clarifications - the archtop was actually my fifth guitar built two years ago and is the one on Jason's website at CV Tonewoods. My shop was only tidy because I cleaned it up. When my wife read your post JJ, she laughed - "if only I put that effort in cleaning up into the rest of the house" she said with a wry smile!

Ray

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] [QUOTE=JJ Donohue]
P.S. Ray, I'm glad you didn't call it pink...Hesh and Billy would run roughshod over me! [/QUOTE]

But Steve did give you the sore butt award and you are never going to live that one down...... [/QUOTE]

Boy, I really want that Edit button back. Oh, well, you know what I meant!?!

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

To Ray and his WONDERFUL family!

Thank you so much for hosting. It was a wonderful time. I am so pleased to be associated with such a wonderful group of people, aka luthiers. I appreciate all of your input guys! Can't wait to get together again.

Karl

I want to add my thanks to Ray for hosting the meeting. It was a pleasure to meet everyone who attended and I was just blown away by the high quality of work. I appreciate the opportunity not only to see impecable craftsmanship, but to be able to play so many excellent instruments. I was awed and inspired and I look forward to doing it again.

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Kevin Mason
Mason Guitars and Ukuleles on Facebook
http://masonguitars.net

I'd like to thank Ray and his family for the hospitality and everyone else too for the wonderful time. I sure got a lot of inspirations! Hope to see everyone again soon. Thank you. Kris

I’d also like to than Ray for opening his home to everyone and hosting a great meeting.  It was a rare opportunity to see and play so many great instruments.  My in-progress effort should be finished and well played in by the next time we meet.

 

Speaking of the next meeting, I’ll throw my hat in the ring and offer to take the torch from Ray and host a summer/fall BBQ once final plans are confirmed.  I’ve got a big shady backyard deck and a BBQ grill that’s fired up more often than not once the last snow flies.  I’m just another 20 miles down I-88 from Ray’s house.

 

Thanks again Ray!

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Doug Mills
Chicago, Illinois