Official Luthiers Forum!

Just uploaded tons of pics, enjoy!


First of all, a holy hush came over the room when the Mermaid guitar arrived...







It was obviously displayed on Andy Manson's table, opposite Dave White's table Click here for more pics, and I thought it detracted from Andy Manson's other creations- should have been displayed on it's own, in my opinion.

The craftsmanship is stunning to me, as a woodcarver, but overall it seems rather macabre.....

In the same room were Maton's table...





One of Patrick Eggle's creations...

Mark Bailey giving a guitar building demonstration to the general public..



Tommy Emmanuel protege Gareth Pearson plays a Sobell-trained NK Forster all mahogany affair..Gareth was absolutely AMAZING. For a $10 ticket, it's HIGHLY unlikely we'll see this guy play in a coffee shop in a couple of years' time.....Gareth is going UP!!!

Here is Gareth with Tommy- this guy has only been playing since he was 14 and he is now 18!!!!



Established guitarmakers/companies were represented..

Moon.


Lowden, courtesy of Sheehans...



Breedlove

Luna







Dean





Yamaha



Babicz

NO MORE FACTORY BUILTS!!!

I was impressed with Brook guitar's extemely light bracing.



My pal Fliss playing a Brook parlour



Great display of Brook's range, unfortunately there was a lot of noise in this large hall that prevented me from playing any of these guitars.



Bob showing one of his wonderful creations, a larger bodied Tavy...

John Marlow's exact copy of Elizabethan 9 Course Orpharion...sorry these pics aren't centred- I wanted to explore these instruments more, but there were other people milling around, so I had to be quick! I am disappointed I didn't get any closeups of the detailed rosettes, although Colin Symmond's beautiful carvings were MUCH cleaner...

Finally, I had a great time meeting up with Dave White. REALLY inspiring, articulate and interesting man who was brilliant to talk to; I felt I had learned a lot today from our conversation. Thanks Dave!



Altogether it was an inspiring day from chatting with all the Luthiers who were willing to talk about thier passion- guitar building. It has given me a really good perspective on what is still very much a hobby of mine.

I'm off for some well deserved rest!

Thanks for sharing, Sam.  Looks like you had a fun day!  

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Great pic's Sam. Thanks for posting them.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Superb picies Sam...many thanks for sharing!

Dave looks deservedly chuffed as do you!

Great pics Sam, Thanks!!

I'm delighted you got to hear Gareth Pearson play

He was supporting Tommy E last year when I saw him and he was STUNNING

during TE's encore they duetted with TE fretting GP's guitar while picking his own, and GP fertting TE's guitar while picking his!!

All at TE speed!!

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

_________________
My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

Thanks for the pictures Sam, almost like being there. Some realy interesting stuff and the Maton display looks cool but nothing is near as impressive as that last image. You and Dave look the perfect picture of a right happy pair of kind hearted people if I ever saw one

Cheers

Kim

Thanks so much for the great pictorial, Sam. Looks like a great event as well as a terrific learning experience.

Any luck in finding any lefty guitars to play?

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

JJ,

Alas, no.

I met a Welsh Guy from Bristol there who bought his lefty handbuilt, and during the day he would come up to me and report where the lefties are. There were a couple in the Mark Bailey section, but I couldn't get to them, because his luthier demonstrations were drawing large crowds.

I was annoyed, because Brook Guitar NEARLY bought a lefty- in fact he was about to load one onto the van and then changed his mind....

Also, which was more gutting was that Sheehans guitar store was also approaching their van with a lefty Avalon 032 (Lowden days) and then decided not to bring it!!

I guess it was Divine help...LOL, my bloke would have blown his top if I pulled the trigger on one of these $3000 guitars!!!

Honestly, if I knew at the age of 11 that being a rightie was easier, I would have learned that way!!!

In the end, I played a few guitars, obviously with the restictions I had, but I attended the show as a hobby guitar builder wanting to learn. And boy, did I learn.

[QUOTE=martinedwards] Great pics Sam, Thanks!!

I'm delighted you got to hear Gareth Pearson play

He was supporting Tommy E last year when I saw him and he was STUNNING

during TE's encore they duetted with TE fretting GP's guitar while picking his own, and GP fertting TE's guitar while picking his!!

All at TE speed!!

UNBELIEVABLE!!!![/QUOTE]

Martin,

Yes, Our Welsh Gareth was amazing- playing a genre I didn't care much for, but his enthusiasm, stage presence and innate talent really blew me away.

The Welsh guy I met apparently knew Gareth well as a friend- he has profound dyslexia- and an ex-teacher pal of mine who is also dyslexic has often commented that people with this learning disability are often Savants.

It kinda explained a few things, as I was told Gareth has only been playing for four years!!!

Gareth showcased a couple of NK Forster's (Sobell trained) guitars- which I thought were a little "tight", lacking presence......but in Gareth's hands, he REALLY coaxed the tone out of them!! I'm sure if he played a $40 beater, he's still get it to sing!!!

I cherished the gig, knowing that Gareth would soon be too high a profile to be playing at a festival that only wanted $10 per head.

Great photos! I can never decide if listening guys like Tommy Emmanuel or
Garteth Pearson is inspirational or make me want to hang up my guitars.   
Maybe I just need to free up a little more playing time.

Well done, Sam. Looks like a good time with lots of eye candy! Great photos, too!

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