Official Luthiers Forum!

Pepe,

I'm new here and just a hobby builder, but welcome. It's great to see another Southern California builder on OLF!

- Flori

Actually, my parents originally were from California (Salinas/Watsonville area — farmers), but moved to Michigan after getting out of the camps in WWII. My brother, sister, and I were all born in Michigan, but we all moved back to California in 1956. I was five when we left, so I don't really remember much; all I know of our time there is from photographs.... In Ann Arbor, we lived in a big house with a few apartments, and my parents' closest friends there were a husband and wife who were both professors of English & Linguistics at a couple of colleges there....

Oh, and thanks, Hesh and Pat, for the warm welcome!!!

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Kathy Matsushita
San Jose, CA USA
http://theamateurluthier.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.matsushita

I'm Mark Lowe. Happily married & have my dream job! I'm a pilot for a private charter company based in Akron, OH. I have a 16 yr old son (yikes!) from a previous marriage. I built my first Ukulele from a kit from Stew-mac, and just getting ready to start building my first uke from scratch. It will be curly koa on the back and sides, and red cedar on the top.

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Mark Lowe
Stanley, NC

Hi Mark, glad to see you dropped by. I was afraid I should have written it down for you. If you hang here some, you'll find a really friendly and interesting bunch of people who really care about each other and about building instruments. I'll make this an official OLF welcome. Get in here and ask your questions. Another thing you might do is check the archives for bending Koa. You might find some previous threads. Glad I caught your post.

I will make one recommendation, and that is to set up a signature in your profile, so others can address you by name. It helps keep things at a personal level.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Pretty cool list going here.....

Hi OLF members
Nehemiah Covey, 36, most call me Nick, live in Eastern Washington with my wife of 15 years and 4 beautiful children. Been a custom cabinet builder and wood craftsman all my (adult) life. In my spare time I started making acoustics and one thing led to another and now I am commissioned often enough to build full-time . working on #10 since my website published around the 1st of the year . I can't think of a better way to spend time than at home in the shop making something that brings so much joy to so many. Not too good at posting and adding links etc.. so here's my site.( www.coveysacoustics.com.)
Regards----N.C.

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Nehemiah Covey
www.coveysacoustics.com

Hi there Nick! I am brand new to this forum, and to building instruments. But everyone here seems to be very nice and extremely helpful! Not to mention full of knowledge! So, welcome to OLF!

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Mark Lowe
Stanley, NC

I have been hobby building mostly Dreds since 2001. My name is Chris Rothrock married with 2 children, play bluegrass.

I'm Mike Collins;
I started playing guitar in 1968!!!
Electric bass became my main instrument!
I was into Cream -Hendrix etc...
I got a bass gig with Frank Wakefield the bluegrass mandolin player in 1976 and traveled around the country with him warming up for the
New Riders of the Purple Sage -and doing concerts with Peter Roland (I may have forgot his name)
many of the Greatful Dead guys !
Lots of bluegrass players etc. !


I got tired of the travel & SMOKE and all That stuff!!!!!!
I started working in a music store teaching bass in Saratoga New York !
This guy comes in with a GUITAR he MADE!!!!!!!
The light bulb went off in my head-I want to do this -Make a guitar!!
Charles Fox had his school in Vermont at that time-I went to see him and had to wait a year for my class!
He was already full of students!
After the class with him & George Morris there was nothing I'd rather
do then build guitars!
So over 30 years later I still follow that dream!
I'm short on the tech. stuff -but full of experience with the woods !

Mike

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Mike Collins

Hey, Mike,

You sound pretty upbeat about guitars and music after all those years!

Maybe you meant Peter Rowan of Seatrain?

Pat

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

My name is Rod Neep
I live in the UK, and have been playing guitar since the 1950s. I have now retired (just) and I am spending some of my time starting to learn how to build ukuleles. (When I grow up, I might try to build a guitar too). I am finding the learning experiences absolutely fascinating, and thoroughly enjoyable! I still have an awful lot to learn.... and lots of questions to ask!

This was my first one, finished a few weeks ago.



And the second and third are now well under way too...


Rod

Welcome to the fold, Rod. Looks like you're off to a really good start!

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

Hi Pepe,

Was Jim Long still teaching the guitarmaking class at Orange Coast College when you went there? I took that class for a couple of semesters, must have been about 1980. When were you there?

Anyway, welcome to the OLF!

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Hello to you all. I have just joined this forum. I have been building acoustic steel strings for 13 years. I have built over 20 instruments including a full size stand up bass, an acoustic bass, a hand carved archtop, 2 ukuleles, one classical, one nylon string hybrid, a couple electric throw together kits, as well as one solid body from scratch.

I am married to an amazing woman, Adrienne. We have a 23 year old son who has been on his own since he was 18...we are very proud of him...he has just purchased his 2nd house in Red Deer, Alberta.

2 years ago we moved to Camrose. We purchased a heritage house that was built in 1917. I converted the old garage into a cozy little shop. I am just finishing up my 3rd instrument in this shop.

I am looking forward to being a part of the forum!
Cheers
David Gilmore

And a BIG OLF welcome to ya Dave!!!!!!

Lets see some pics of the shop and instruments, please.

Good to have you here.

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

Hi everyone: Thank you for the warm welcome. Dennis, I am glad to have here someone who acknowledges attending the program. I met Jim, but he was gone already. Eric was teaching the class with some graduate students. The class was mostly into acoustic steel string guitars. I chose to move to the Spanish style, which goes better with my heritage and taste. However, I am thinking in going back to making steel strings. I do like the sound of it, specially when accompanying folk or country music.

Hello All, Danny Vincent from the beautiful Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. I just finished one of my day jobs. 2 months of commercial prawn fishing. I have a pretty cool office and get to go home to see my wife and 9 and 12 year old daughters daily. I keep the prawns alive on board and deliver them at the end of the day to a plant in Lund (northern end of hiway 101 which starts in California I think) where they are frozen and sent to Japan.
Long time player and woodworker. Being a fan of Chet and Lenny Breau I figured a nylon string guitar would be a good start. It's been over a year since I built it with the help of the Coach (I love playing it). It was the boot in the butt I needed to build a new shop. I've got it to the point where I can start doing some serious woodworking. 1400 sq. ft. of manly . New Oneida Dust Gorilla, Laguna table saw, General drum sander and a bunch of small stuff as well as a pile of old tools. I still need a couple of band saws. I built in a 10'x16' spray room with a big fan that I have become a big fan of. I think the first instrument I start will be a parlour style 12 fretter. My plan is to build jigs and tools as I need them in the process. I don't know if building instruments will ever be more than a hobby but I do want to carve some arch tops, mandos and violins as well as a few more steel string and classicals.
My fantasy is to win a lottery so I could get all the friendly and incredibly talented people that hang out here together in one place for a BIG hoe-down. Maybe one day I'll buy a ticket.
Big thanks to all who are involved in the administration of OLF. Such a great place!

The jumping happy face seems to want to take the place of the word "bliss" all on it's own.

I'm Nick Fullerton and I'm 46. I live in The Rockridge area of Oakland California and have been in the Bay Area since graduating from high school in Vermont in 1979. I'm a college drop out and have worked mostly in the trades my adult life, as a house painter, carpenter, maintenance man, and handyman. I've played guitar since I was 16 and have been in a few local bands in San Francisco over the years, after attending the Blue Bear school of music, S.F. State, and UC Santa Cruz. I've completed the Carpenter's union apprenticeship program, a computer programming certification course at CDI college (which is supposed to be an equivalent to an associates degree), and was a wood shop intern at the Crucible in Oakland under the leadership of Stu Port (who builds fine guitars). I am recently married with no kids, like to play around with my recording equipment, listen to music, and occasionally surf. Some of my own stuff is on Garageband.com under the band name "Viewers like you". I also recently got into digital photography. My current day job is in maintenance for a low income housing property management company in Hayward Ca. I've done a lot of woodworking in my garage since moving to Oakland from San Francisco in 2003 and plan to finish my 3rd steel string acoustic soon I hope, though have been too busy to do much lately. I started Name Brand Guitars last year, which has sold no inventory as of yet. Hopefully I won't quit before the miracle happens, even though it already has: I actually built my first guitar!

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Howdy! I love saying that being a New Englander. I'm Jane Hamel and I just joined in today. My home shop is in Northampton, MA and at 58 years old I consider myself semi-retired just to take the pressure off. My luthier career started in 1973 as an apprentice guitar-maker and I'm still making and restoring instruments thirty five years later. some people never learn!


Cheers to all!http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&f=10101&sid=df30cac105f07647b443b2fd885a9d08&t=17364#

Jane

Hi Jane,

Welcome to OLF! I hope you're enjoying Northampton. I spent 4 years in Amherst for college and will probably always miss the beauty of the Berkshires (though not the winters). Speaking of beauty, that's a gorgeous instrument!

- Flori

Jane rocks!!!! Thanks for the wiring help this morning!!!

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- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

Hi my name's Bear Acker and I live in Amherst, MA. I retired from full time education about two years ago and into the Executive Directorship of ASIA the first of this year. I'm also Editor of Guitarmaker, ASIA's quarterly magazine. I've been building stringed instruments for a number of years, first for myself, and then for others. In the warm months I play bluegrass festivals and concerts the rest of the time. You can check out my band at www.acousticblueonline.com and see what's happening there. Nice to be here (at 66+ I'm glad to be anywhere).

Bear Acker

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Bear Acker
Amherst, Massachusetts






"If you knew what you needed to know, you'd know, ya know"

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Bear Acker
Amherst, Massachusetts






"If you knew what you needed to know, you'd know, ya know"

HI Bear and welcome to the OLF!

Well, I guess it's about time I introduce myself!

My name is Alain Moisan and I live in Montreal, Canada. I been doing guitar making/reparing for almost 20 years now, but only a year and a half as a pro. Well I guess technically I'm a pro, since I'm doing this as a full time job, but I still have a a hole dang lot to learn, I know that! I am very greatfull to everyone around here who have helped me. Although I learned guitar making at school from a master, I honestly wouldn't be doing this job if it weren't for forums like this.

For now I feel I'm asking questions on the forum more than answering others, but hopefully that will change in time, once I'll have more millage up my counter! So thanks to all who take the time to answer! I appreciate it!

See you around!

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)