Official Luthiers Forum!

We'd love to see what you see!

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Hmmm...apparently not. Promises, promises, promises!

I wonder if this is a situation where there are warriors but no scouts.

It makes sense that those who are exhibiting/selling are 100% busy before during and after the show time when the public walks through. Trade shows are grueling, for the exhibitors. Usually, you stand on carpeted concrete for 7 hours, try to talk to prospects and lookie-loos, over the din, it's hard to get 5 minutes to choke down a "lunch", and sometimes even difficult to get away from the booth long enough to go to the bathroom. So, I'm certainly not expecting the exhibitors to document the show.

I hope there is an observer there with a camera.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

That is exactly what the deal is... you have no idea of the madness that was going on in there. Wall to wall people. Skinny aisles -- sheer madness.....

but I thought it was GREAT!!!   

I did snipe a few pics and sent them to Lance. They are not very good, and half the time they are poor quality. I missed a few of our friends (sorry about that -- too much going on, or when I stopped by your table you were mobbed and I would have only gotten the back of people's heads).

It was really a worthwhile experience though. I met a lot of great people, shook hands with some of my luthier heros, ate quite a bit of great sushi and saw a sea of great guitars.

It was a blast.

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

I had my camera at my table and never got it out of its holster.

I did have to look at Paul Woolson and Brock Poling a lot. I'll get over it.Howard Klepper38586.5497800926

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Not soon, I am sure.   

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

I should have some this week, we are still recovering and have lots of stuff to put back together but I'll work on photo's first chance I get...

I had both my wife and my son out roaming with the camera, the only shots I got where of Kathy Wingert playing the flag guitar and I think a couple of the setup day

I fortunately didn't have to look at either Woolson, Howard or Brock except when Howard was running by to take people to the 'quiet' rooms and Woolson and Poling where schlumming over my area . I never even got time to go look at howards stuff in detail, there was just SO MUCH GOOD STUFF there to look at and it was busy. Even for the builders it was just mind numbing, a couple things stood out in my mind:

1. Fred Carlson's stuff RULES...

2. Olson did not show this year but made an appearance (he actually stopped by the booth and talked to me for a little bit).

3. I think they over packed the room a bit, it was really loud and crowded, we lucked out and were off to the side so we had some room but poor Howard was right in the center and in fact thats one reason I never saw him because his aisle was always busy and crowded...

It was alot of fun and we intend on doing it next time round as well...

More to come...

-Paul-Sprockett38586.6048842593

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

That's what we like, a Sprockett as happy as Snoopy, even if he's a tired pup. Congrats to all who made it, perseverance and planning came in handy didn't it...

HEY!

I thought that was a shorter drive ;) Ya sure it's 2 hours north of SF.. It's also way way west of the I5 through the vineyards and hills.

I have some photos.. gimme a lil while to get them.. gotta find my camera.. back in 10 mins..

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

First some photos because thats all your really looking for

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

NOw the thoughts

Healdsburg WAS AWESOME. I learned A LOT. For those of you who missed the builders workshops.. Sat was double tops, super interesting. WAY easier to do than I was lead to believe. Sunday was adjustable necks with mike doolin and several others.. Also super informative and really gets you thinking. Friday was CNC in Lutherie with Gurian but I slept in and missed it.

We left Weds.. late.. we forgot some stuff and by the time we got through customs and over the border it was like 130.. We only drove to Eugene. The following day we slept in but it was an easy drive.. in total you go 781miles down the I5 without having to stop (except for water, beef jerky and gas) We were really close to the show.. The Ramada Inn in Santa Rosa.. It was kind of a dump considering it was $130/$90/$90. On the way home we stayed at a Holiday Inn for $65 and it was like a palace by comparison.

I walked into the show and was.. well.. it was like sensory overload. Soo many great guitars. Eye candy everywhere.

Of the 133 builders showing I met maybe 65 at some point or another.. The whole show was soo busy..

Have you guys realized what a nice bunch of guys you all are? I said at least "Hi" to everyone showing and of the 133, 130 were extremely friendly. An unnamed 3 were unbelievably rude for unknown reasons.. I wasn't even trying to give them a business card. I told 1 guy I liked his website after he noticed me looking at 1 of his guitars, he snapped back "everyone does" and actually turned his back to me. Ah well! 3 to 130 is still great ;)

On the wood front I didn't sell much wood. Partially because the place was locked down like a prison and partially because I could see everyone was really busy trying to sell their guitars and in general not that interested in buying wood (totally understandable)After I got a chance to look around and see what was happening we decided to just relax and enjoy the show. I handed out a lot of biz cards though so thats good.

We also saw both the concerts.. They were both great, Franko Morone is great. We got his CD and he signed it for us.

I enjoyed seeing LMIs booth. Gave me a good indication on where we stand with our product. Our product presentation isn't the same (they thickness everything down to an 8th) but our maple figure blows their out of the water. My high 3-low4 good but not eye popping is way stronger than their "Highest Flame" and its a lot cheaper.

Hmm well that pretty much covers the show. If the show was a football game I think Tim gets the game ball his booth was packed for the whole thing, he sold a guitar, he bought some great wood and his wife gave me a great new golf shirt. Honorable mentions to all the other OLFers ;) John Mayes had the "cutest" tiny guitars Paul also got some wood and John How sold a guitar as well. The Patriot Guitars Flag Guitar is unreal. Way better in real life than in photos.

To anyone who I missed Im sorry, the show was nuts, I was totally burned out before I even got there and I probably missed you in the crowds.

Oh also since I didn't sell the samples I took I'll have them on sale.. Well as of now they will be on sale ;)

50 sets of figured maple, 80/set.

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

I've got another 50-60 photos I'll show later I just need some sleep before I resize them.

Yesterday I drove from Santa Rosa to Portland, in Portland we stopped at the Regal Theater around 10pm to watch "4 Brothers" then we drove to Olympia and spent the night. Slept for 6 hours, got up early and booted home.

Home Sweet Home.

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

That guy is awesome. I know some were scared off by his Captain Crunch / Pirates of the Carribean appearance My brother and I must have talked to him for half an hour. He does all kinds of stuff with that pearl. Did you know they process 1 TON of pearl a day.. A DAY! thats a lot of fretboard dots.

They had a great display with some really neat shell I haven't seen before.Jason38586.7979861111

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

Jason,

Thanks for the photos! McKnight had a really appealing display.

Jason,

Allow me to rephrase that: I hope there is an observer with a camera, that would be willing to post photos, and would be willing to put captions under the photos for those of us that do not yet know the luthiers. (I know some of the faces, and I see that John How is using his marketing sense to help us remember him...)

Thanks for the photos! Get some sleep.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Ok. Displays from... John Mayes, Tim McKnight and his wife, I cant recall his name, Paul @ Patriot and his wife in the dark, John HOw, Paul Woolson, and Kenny Hill.

**I'm sorry to the wives if they see me mention them as the wife but the only reason I remember your husbands names is because I'm addicted to the OLF and I try to put the bios into memory**

There are the obvious forum goers and then Kenny Hill came up to our shop a couple years ago. He builds classicals with doubletops, is the front man for New World Guitars and teaches guitar building in California. He's also a really nice guy and I think he bought some cedar from us.. can't really remember.Jason38586.9556481481

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

Thanks again, Jason!

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

I captioned some of my pics.

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

   Wow! It looks like the Healdsburg show was a great time to be had by everyone in attendance. I'll look forward to being at the '07 show and am starting a few guitars in preparation for the Newport show next year.

   Glad to see so many from the forum were there to enjoy all of the great guitars and some time with one another. It's always a treat to have a chance to meet the folks that we are in regular internet contact with.

   It is truly amazing how many skilled and innovative builders are offering guitars now. What an honor to be counted as part of such a great community where freindships and sharing of information are both so common.

All the best,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars