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Lets do a rool call!
Im home!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Im home... still groggy, going to need a nap here.

I have been trying to think about just how to comment on my experience down there with all of you guys.

I think I can sum it up in one word actually,

PRICELESS.

Thank you all so much.

Im home too! Got up at 5am and made it to Denver by 10:30am. This was a great trip and worth every penny. The highlight was meeting the OLF members. It really is fun to see each others personality in person. Many people are different than their written word. Everyone was as nice as they were on the forum, so it really adds a new dimension to this forum. I don't have many pics, but I'll post them in the next few days. Thanks everyone!
Tracy

Is that DROOL call Lance?

What a great time with all the OLFers. I spent all day Thursday and half of Saturday buying wood and talking with vendors. I flexed several dozen pieces of Carpathian spruce while Steve and Emily Roberson (Colonial Tonewoods) gave me insight on wood, building, etc. Gracious folks. Got a few set of tops, coupla sets of Koa from them too.

Bob and Marianne Cefalu were also gracious hosts as I spent a lot of time with them too. (they really enjoyed meeting the OLF gang) I bought some spalted Makore, walnut, and figured Sapele back and side sets, as well as headplates, rosettes, binding etc. Hope the summer get together at their cottage works out for the OLF gang.

As I went back Saturday for round 2 to pick up extra stuff I forgot Thursday I did get to meet Brad Goodman and buy an assotment of headplate stock/cutoffs. I really wish I was able to spend equal time and money there too. He has great stuff. I just ran out of money ($1,200 or so)

I didn't get half of what I wanted. But Don Williams is saving me a special redwood top that rings like crazy. You are saving me that top aren't you?

Having all that wood to get your hand and ears next was great. Having all the OLFers and other builders and vendors to talk to was even better. The two together mad my limited time invaluable. I REALLy wanted to talk more with the guys I met, but they were in classes (I was not registered, just commuted to meet and buy from vendors)

Guys I met were: John Hall, Tracy Lavesque, Robbie O'brien and family, Bob & Marianne Cefalu, Steve & Emily Roberson, Tom Harbin, Lance Kragenbrink, Brad Goodman, the prankster extraodinaire, Don Williams, Brock Polling, Tom Dowey, John How, John Osthoff and a coupla more I saw but didn't get to talk with. Thanks for all your time. Outside my regular activities, this was the best investment of time I have made in a long time.

   I to am home . I hit the wall saturday. I had about 12 hours of sleep since I got there. Totally spent but what a great time. I to learned alot about building and a few new ideas.
    All the time I can't help but think how lucky I am. To all of you that help us Thanks again. And yes I spend more than I sold . LMAO   dang you guys and that ZOOT.
john hall

Ok, so let's hear if anyone got any commissions! I sure wish I could've gone this time, but maybe next year. Also by then, maybe I'll have a guitar worthy of putting next to the ones I see on this forum!

Larry

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

I am home also. I dropped Don Williams off around 1:30. What a great time!!! Enjoyed meeting all the OLF'ers.

Made it home this morning after an early flight. What a great experience. I enjoyed meeting everyone!!! Thanks for the inspiration.

I arrived home very late last night; made the decision to leave around noon on Saturday, sure hated to miss that auction, but ran out of money thanks to all the great vendors there! It was great to meet fellow OLFers there, wish I could have met more of you. This was my first symposium and the long drive and long days were more than worth it. Thanks to all who put it together and can't wait for another. Thanks for all the hospitality! Tom Harbin

We made it back late last night from a short Saturday visit. I didn't buy as much wood as I considered, but wow there was nice wood and our sponsors had some of the best available. It was a pleasure to meet the other folks here on the OLF and all of the sponsors. They are ever bit as nice in person as they are on the forum. Only wish I could have had a chance to visit with some of them longer than was possible.

Highlights: Craig Lavin's inlays (and the Kinnaird guitar), Lance's guitars (what a sound), Don Williams ukelele , meeting John Hall (the cause of my building addiction), and dinner with Bob "the zootman" Cefalu.

Regrets: Missed meeting Brad Goodman, David Bland, Matt Gage, and Alan Carruth. Also regret not staying around to bid against Don Williams and Shawn Carlson in the auction. Ya'll will have to let me know who won the tuners .

For those who couldn't make it, be sure and put the next one on your calendar. It was as much about the comraderie as the information exchange. I will definitely make the full symposium in 2007 wherever it is scheduled.    

Almost forgot, my wife really enjoyed herself as well.Don A38522.744837963

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Were home too. We left around seven this morning and arrived home around 3:30 this afternoon. I helped my wife bring in the suitcase and went to bed and had a 2 hr. nap. We had a fantastic time and a very successful first symposium. I had to leave before the auction ended due to exhaustion so I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to a bunch of great guys. Don W., Tom D., John O., Jerry H., John Hall, John How and anyone I missed sorry for not saying good-bye. Each and everyone of you were fantastic and left me with a very warm feeling of camaraderie. Thanks to each and everyone of you and every OLF member I met.
Lance and I had a chance to exchange good-byes.
Thanks pal.
A bunch of us went to diner on Sat. and had a great time. My wife and I sat with Don Atwood and his wife. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I finally got to meet Don Atwood and his lovely wife too.
I'll try to post some pic's when I wake up.

Bobc38523.0725925926

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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

Maybe we should think about a pre symposium meeting and meet the day before. That way we can rememeber what we did when we got together LOL. To all thanks for such a great memory.
   Hey Don , ya gotta bring the wife up when you visit. Any OLFer when you come out to PA let me know , shop is allways open when I am home
john

Finally...never flying Delta Again! You guys are all great!

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

This is my first OLF post and kinda neat to do after having met - John How, Craig Lavin, John Hall, Tracey Levesque and Brock Polling. If I missed any of you (or incorrectly spelt your names) my sincerest apologies. It was great meeting all of you. ASIA was a blast!

My next post will include some pictures (once I figure out how) and am discharged from the Betty Ford Clinic.

Anthony,
It was great meeting you too, and all the OLF'rs. I was extremely bummed when I was reviewing some of the recordings I got from the sessions. Frank Fords famous fretting class, the first hour and 10 mins is totally blank. I know I hit the record button, but something malfunctioned. I have the last hour recorded though. I also got most of the beginning inlay class by Amy Hopkins recorded, and all of Ervin Somogyi's voicing class. I'll get these recorded to CD and sent to ASIA to do as they wish with them. I wanted to also record Ron Fernandez's french polish class, but he wouldn't let me record it since he was selling DVD's. Oh well. Take care guys!
Tracy

Sometime after the auction I got to my room (around 12:30am) and set the alarm for 3 am so Andy Depaule and I could get up and catch a cab to the airport, yes I had a long day too, but it was well worth it and I'd turn around and do it again right now, err maybe next month I did have a great time and met many new friends as well as some that I already had. One of the people I met was Anthony Z from Toronto. Anthony builds archtop guitars and will soon be building some flat tops as well. Anthony, it was great hanging out and talking guitars. I hope to see you around here more.
I didn't get many pictures but I will post what I got as soon as I find my camera.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

After a long drive home.... I am finally here.

It was a ton of fun. I can't wait until the next time.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Hi guys,

just got through catching up at home long enough to say hi. Meeting all the OLFers was a treat I can't do justice to. I'm sure to forget a name and I hope I met you all. The members guitars look better in the wood than the photos and the sound of all of them matches the looks.

I was even more impressed by the members as people, the builders, vendors, experienced full-timers and beginners. Everyone was treated with mutual respect genuine cameraderie. It was better than I could have hoped for.

I am fortunate that i lived near this year's symposium and it would be tough for me to get away if I had to travel as far as a lot of OLFers did. I am going to put a small expense stash away to get to the next one as soon as I recover from my wood excesses.

If you have never attended, you can't imagine the pleasure of learning from the best. And the seminars are not even the best of it. Lunch with Sylvan was a great and pleasurable education. Lunch with Judy Threet and Linda Manzer would have been intimidating, except that they were gracious, warm and extremely funny besides sharing completely of their expertise. I will see Craig Lavin walking across the campus talking with Erwin Symogyi in my head for a long time.

The forum is a great place to exchange tips and knowledge, but I will not view a post quite the same now that know the face and the marvelous people behind them. Do ASIA in the future if you possibly can. Noone can tell you how cool it is, or how cool the people on this forum are.

Thank you, Lance, for setting up this forum, Thank you, everyone that I met there. I hope to know you all better, and for a long time.

--Mark

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Mark Joy

mjoy Guitars

Hi all,
back home here.
I am new here, but I met a few of you at the Symposium.Bob C. had a nice inventory.Thanks for some great wood and nice to meet you..and you have a new customer....Anthony Z. It was great meeting you,(can I bum another smoke?)Wow was it hard to get up this morning.
Tim D.

Welcome home y'all, we missed you!

Jeff

It was a real pleasure meeting all of you fellow OLF'ers at the ASIA symposium and wish everyone could have made it. I think it really added another unique dimension to the Symposium.

The symposium was a unique event in that a beginner luthier could meet and talk to a master builder or even things as simple as sitting 10 feet away from Julian Borges (a great player in addition to being a great luthier) trying a new Galloup guitar become magical memories.

One funny anecdote...a bunch of us went out to dinner on Saturday night prior to the talent show and auction and went to a Steakhouse. In our group there was Bob C and his wife, Don Atwood and his wife, Don Williams, Lance, John Osthoff, Tom Dowey and me. The two couples were in one booth and the rest of us were across the aisle in another booth. When the waitress came over and saw that there were 5 guys at the same booth, she asked if we had all gone out for fathers day together or something. At that point we told her that we were from all over the country, that we just met but that were all buddies and best friends...at that point she was truly confused. We told her of the Guitarbuilders conference at the college but by then I think she had decided that she probably wouldnt figure it out...

My most memorable moment from the symposium is a one hour one on one conversation I was able to have with Thomas (Tom) Humphrey about classical guitar construction and the current state of my guitars. I have long admired his guitars and had wanted to talk to him about some of my thinking on things I have been working on with my guitars.

I build almost exclusively classical guitars and almost all of my guitars are Brazilian Rosewood or Spanish Cypress (flamenco) with vintage German or Italian Spruce tops. Tom was very gracious with his time and opinions and encouraged me to not worry about traditional materials as much as traditional construction techniques. His point was the only way to see a radical advance in level of guitar is to not be afraid to try something radical as long as your technique and standard of quality are well grounded. That was just the encouragement I needed.

My most memorable OLF related memory was being a part of a conversation where Al Carruth, Don Williams and I were chatting. As most have seen Don did a very cool Ukulele that was a smiley face with oval soundholes for eyes. Al encouraged Don that in the same way that Don was able to express his unique sense of humor and vision while still building an excellent instrument in the smiling uke, the key to succeeding commercially as a luthier is figuring out what is your unique value that you offer that would position you above others in the market segment you are targeting.

The thing that struck me is that here is Al who has built hundreds of instruments (he has built at least one of everything with strings..) was thinking and sharing with Don things that Don should consider about evolution of his career as a luthier.

I consider this a quintessential ASIA/OLF moment as I knew Don through OLF online but hadnt met at the symposium. I met Al at the last symposium and some of the things I learned from him have helped me to improve my craft so to be there to here Al encourage Don is what ASIA and by association OLF are all about. When you take this conversation and combine it with the saying we have on the entry banner of OLF, Michael Payne's "The true measure of the craftsman's soul is the sum of all he has learned multiplied by all he has taught."...I really sums it all up.

We have a great group online via OLF, with ASIA we had a venure in which we could all meet, eat together, play guitars together, and bid on the same items in the auction. All of us are the richer for being part of both of these.

I got back about 1:30. The seminars were great but I often think I learn more when I examine other builders instruments and talk to them about building and design. I learned two things that I already knew.

1. I still have a lot of work to do on improving my instruments.

2. There are a alot of good players out there.

I also learned a few things that I didn't know.

1. Judy Threet might have the best artistic eye I've ever seen.

2. Classical builders have a completely different view of the world from steel string builders. Whereas steel string builders look at other design approaches and say that they probably work as well, classical builders seem more inclined to say that the other techniques are wrong.

I had a similar converstaion with Al Carruth right before he spoke to Don and Shawn. We were discussing some of the builders who were making fine instruments but had already sold one to all of their friends and needed to make the jump to the next level. A builder needs to do something that makes them different from all the other fine instruments. Sometimes doesn't have to be very much. For example, John Osthoff made a few guitars with a dovetail detail in the cut away. This give people a handle to remember the instrument. "Did you see that neet dovetail design?" is enough to get other people talking about those instruments. Of cousre, you have to deliver on the rest of the instrument which John does very nicely.

I also shared a plane ride home with Rolf Gerhard of Phoenix Mandolins. We talked about manufacturing techniques and finishing. Talk about a short plane ride. We got on the plane chatted a bit, and suddenly we were landing.

I had so much stuff to cart I snagged a couple of the NEL guys and we drove down together. Had to leave at 9 on Sunday, and missed the business meeting (drat!), but as it was I didn't get home until almost eight last evening, and we didn't stop much. The irony was that we spent over eight hours going from Rte. 140 in Westminster (Md.) to Rte. 140 in Westminster (Ma.). Then I had a couple of hours drive home.

It's always great to meet people I 'know' from on line, and see all the old friends who only seem able to get together at meetings. I agree with Mike about Judy's inlays: what gorgeous stuff! It's always inspiring to see things like that, and there's so much work on that level at these meetings, often enough from poeple I've barely heard of. I always come home fired up.

As usual, I learned some stuff, snagged some great wood, wished I could have bought a lot more, and enjoyed all the talks, be they formal classes or just over dinner or on into the night. Everybody seems to know something I wish I knew: one fellow at lunch ( or was it breakfast?)worked for the Dept. of Commerce, encouraging exports, and he said he'd work up an article on the mysteries of that aspect of the craft for the rest of us. There's so much to learn!

So I had a day to catch up on e-mail (and needed it!), mow the lawn, and allow my brain to finish the trip. Tomorrow I sort out all the wood, put everything away, and get back to the bench. Cool!

It was about 4:30 pm on Monday when I lost site of Steve S’s License Plate somewhere on and Interstate in NJ. I think he was on his way to NY. I got in (to Western MA) about 8:45. Steve and I stayed for the ASIA member’s meeting on Sunday, hooking back up on Monday and had a pretty incredible day in Nazareth PA.

The symposium was great. I learned a lot but more importantly got to meet lots of people. What a blast!

Tell your friends, ASIA is a lot more than a magazine!

I unfortunately did not take too many photos (at the symposium) but I will post some stuff later on.

It was great to see and meet you all.

John O