Official Luthiers Forum!

Finally got the word that my company is finally sending me to Silicone Valley next Monday (7 July). I'll be based in Mountain Veiw CA for a week and wouldn't mind meeting up with any luthiers in the area, wouldn't mind that a bit!

PM me and let me know if your in the area and wouldn't mind a visitor.

Yeah, ok, this should have gone in the off topics section, but I'll get more views in this section, and it is short notice. Lance or Brock can move it if they want (just leave it here a day or two, please?).

Cheers,

Paul

Not New England eh? Oh well....

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Sounds like fun Paul.

A couple of things that might be fun for you. If you drive north on the 101 you will cross the Golden Gate bridge and pass near Muir Woods. Muir Woods is open to the public and contains many very cool Redwoods. Continue north and you can visit LMI which does have a customer counter and if you ask in advance Chris will probably give you a tour as well. Allied is in that area too and it's about a 1.5 hour drive from the Valley depending on the time of the day.

With some prior arrangement you could probably also visit Ervin Somogyi's shop in Oakland.

For a more rugged experience head west from Mt. View and find the "Alpine Road" in the mountains near the coast. This is an old logging road and this area can be impassable or only one lane road at times. There are a few national groves of Redwoods in this area and very few people. The last time I was hiking around there a couple of rangers stopped and when i asked what I did they said nothing - they just never see anyone up there.

I recently got a letter from LMI saying that they were closing (closed? I don't remember any dates) their customer counter. I can understand how it didn't make any sense the way they were running it where you could drop in any time but the way they ran it back in the day where there was a short window during the week where they supported walk ins would be nice.

Now that you mention it John I remember something about closing the customer counter too.

I suspect that If Paul contacted Chris at LMI in advance that Chris would be very happy to show him around on an appointment basis.

There's always Gryphon in Palo Alto, a bit north of Mt. View on 101, if you want to play fine guitars. Schoenburg's is in Tiburon, just north of San Francisco, more fine guitars. Sounds like fun. I'd like business trip like that myself.

Hesh, you seem to know the Bay Area pretty well.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Hesh used to live in the Bay area and the majority of my business dealings for 20 years were in the Bay area - I love the place!

Actually, Mountain View is in the Silicon valley. The Silicone valley is on Broadway around Columbus in SF's North Beach.

Muir Woods is about the best half-day trip from SF (you will be about 40 minutes south of SF), but in the summer its parking lot can fill and cars get turned away. There are several state parks with beautiful redwoods to the south of Mtn View, in the mountains north of Santa Cruz, which will be closer to you. If you continue on to Santa Cruz, there's a guitar company located there.

Gryphon will be near you, so that's a no-brainer, and if you go north across the Golden Gate about a half hour drive from SF will get you to Schoenberg's in Tiburon. There will be a guitar or two there by that Klepper guy, as well as some prewar stuff by that outfit in Nazareth..

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Thanks guys.

Howard, in Australia we use silicone where you guys use silicon. Much like the way you lot call Aluminium, Aluminum. But, when in Rome...Hey, I'm a foreigner, we don't know any better.

[quoteMuir Woods is about the best half-day trip from SF (you will be about 40 minutes south of SF), but in the summer its parking lot can fill and cars get turned away.][/quote]

If you're up visiting LMI and Allied another spot to see the redwoods is Armstrong Redwood Park. I've never seen it have the parking issues that Muir Woods can have and while I prefer Muir, it's pretty good. Armstrong is where the Star Wars scooter chase through the redwoods was filmed.

I imagine you could also find a glass or two of wine to drink around there, if you're so inclined.

If you're just "Kleined" you can vist Stephen's shop in the town of Sonoma. A bit of a drive but a lot of good wine along the way to ease the trip.