Official Luthiers Forum!

It's been a few days since a new Luthier's Bio went up on the OLF. The way this is done. You take a pic of your mug, write a few lies about yourself and email it to Lance.

He sits on it for a little while and collects a half dozen or so then posts them all up on the OLF. So, what are you waiting on? You are not getting any younger.

Okay, if you have a valid excuse for not posting a bio, lets hear it. I have a good idea. Why not just post your bio and picture right here under Roll Call, Lance can pull them off anytime and update it to a more permanent spot. Okay, who's first?

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Bruce,

I already sent mine to Lance and my understanding of it, since Ron Wisdom asked the same question, is that Lance would probably be updating the Bios for the next year if he started and could not concentrate on guitars. This forum must be a victim of it's popularity which would make a lot of sense!

But it's a good idea to do it here, who's git cajhones!

Valid Excuse: Just figured it was for people that has finished at least one guitar ? It is called a "Luthiers" bio. Clinton

Rich and Serge, hey boys, you gotta be a luthier in your head before you ever will be a real luthier. So are you or are you not a luthier? (pro, journeyman, apprentice, craftsperson, wannabe) we are easy 'round here. I have one question. What are cajhones?

The way I see it, if you have a Cumpiano book, a chisel, and a bottle of Titebond and are the prowl for some good wood, heck, you qualify.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Bruce Dickey

Homepage

Born in Russellville, Arkansas, January 5 1952.

Spent most of my life self employed in construction.

Education: Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Arkansas Tech University, honors

I am a licensed Master Electrician in the State of Arkansas.

I hold a Private Pilot's License for General Aviation, Single Engine Land, 220 Hours logged.

Married to the same gal for 32 years, Kay. She's an Elementary teacher.

I retired from a Vocational High School teaching job in Building Trades 3.5 yrs ago after teaching kids construction for seven years.

I'm now full time learning the lutherie craft. I have bodies partially constructed on 12 other instruments. That is due to paying jobs jumping ahead of speculative instruments. My goal is to be building world class instruments within three years.

Why get into guitar making in the first place? Because it is such a wonderfully complex or simple craft. You can take it to any level. It is interesting, and requires the most of any craftsman to become proficient. When do you know you are a master maker? Depends, when you have mastered every aspect of the building and marketing of guitars? What are your goals?

I will feel I'm a master maker, when someone is willing to lay down master quality cash down on the table for one of my instruments. I may actually be a master builder before anyone might recognize the fact, and that's part of "Paying your dues". Many give up before they reach their goals, some, simply don't have any goals. You can't hit a target you don't have. At least, I have a target, I'm just trying to learn to hit the mark. Bruce Dickey

Email me: bdickey@cswnet.com

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I haven't bothered 'cause I'm very lazy, very boring, and very ugly

I never even noticed the Luthiers' Bios link! Hey, that's kinda fun. Allright, I'll get one in one of these days...

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Hey, Bruce, I've been married 32 years also, and my wife and I are/were both teachers.
I've never been to Ireland, though. But my birthday is on St. Patrick's Day.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Ok Bruce, You got cajhones showin' your grizzled hair so i'll have cajhones too, showin' my almost bald head! Da ya need more definition of the spanish word cajhones ? I'm being patient Bruce,...i'll send you to the mothership... I'll show solidarity!



All righty, here i go!

Born in La Sarre, Abitibi-Temiscamingue region, Province of Quebec, Canada eh in June 29 1965

Spent most of my life runnin' after my tail, moved about 50 times tho i'm only 40 and that ain't no lie! It suddenly stopped when i replaced my retirin' Dad at this big appartment complex of 625 appartment as a Janitor and i'm as fast a mopper than a poster on the OLF I only take care of one of the 5 buildings here with 122 apts. My shop is on the main floor of our building, 21-23' x about 12-14'. no windows and all concrete blocks walls!

Education

Forestry technician and mining technician from Rouyn- Noranda College( i can see the questions coming: why mopping floors? Answer: I loved studying both fields and working within them also, it just happens that those 2 fields of work slowed down so much in 98 because of stock markets that i had to move south for work and got a steadyer job here. At least here, i earned steady for the last 6 years!

Married to the same gal for the last year and a half, her name is Line(pronounced Lynn but a la francaise) she's my angel sent from heaven and she can be tough when struggling with the Bear that i am!

Afew things happened last year like a chain of events that brought me to lutherie.

1- found an old reso guitar in a snow bank that i restored
2- tried a beautiful Martin dc16re aura with a venitian cutaway at Steve's music store that was on sale for $2700 and thought that with the little woodworking skills i had, i should give it a try and build my own cuz i could not afford this one! Geez i was wrong, i could have afforded this one then! I started building in March last year and i spent way more than that already.

Here's a pic of me with Line's granddaughter with her favorite Bear, she calls me Pepere the Bear! Her name is Jasmine and she's a true sweetheart!



For the first eight months i relied on a few websites( Kathy, Mario, Hoffman and had the chance to visit Mario's shop tho i introduced myself as a new luthier from Quebec. Sorry Mario, i should have said " Hi, i'm a new apprentice from Quebec" . Then, i was hooked forever, i found you guys on christmas night 2005 and i'm a very happy guy, it's like icing on the cake!

I'm a hobbyist for now but if i ever come to the point of building faster than i post, watch out, i'll be competition too!

Humbly yours!Serge Poirier38781.4314814815

Hi Bruce,

I figure the luthier's bios section would be mighty full of wanabees, er, I mean luthiers in the making, if every one of us were in there. I'm closing in on finishing number one, and will then consider myself a beginning luthier.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

How do you cut the size of the picture down to fit ?

Clinton, open your pic folder, double-click on the image and it should bring you to your photo shop with that image, then click on image, resize, do it in pixels with either 500 or 400 at the top requirements, then close that box and it will ask you to save. clik yes and then it will bring you back to your pic folder. you will have to do it for each pic which is a PITB but once accustomed to it, it's nothing! hope this helps

[QUOTE=PaulB] I haven't bothered 'cause I'm very lazy, very boring, and very ugly [/QUOTE]

Uh, I guess you haven't seen my bio, Paul.

OK, I'll try this.

Jimmie Sorrels


]


Jimmie Sorrels


I was born on October 4, 1947 in McAlester, OK. I grew up on a ranch in southern Colorado, where I still call home, even though I haven’t lived there in over 35 years. I still have family and friends there and go back at least once a year to guide elk hunters on a 48000 acre ranch that my brother-in-law manages.

I had messed around with a guitar a little when I was in college, but when I discovered that I couldn’t play like Chet Atkins in a couple of months, It kind of got shoved aside. One day when I was looking for something in my daughter’s car, I saw a Sigma dred in the trunk. I put it in my office and then chewed my daughter out for keeping a guitar in the trunk of her car. She said it belonged to a friend of hers who threw it in there after a campfire party. After looking at that thing for a few days, I picked it up and tried to remember what little I knew from the many years before and after looking, found a wealth of information on the internet. I told my daughter’s friend he couldn’t have his guitar back until I got one.

Upon checking out prices on decent guitars, I was about to give up when I found Cumpiano’s book .Other hobbies I have had included leather craft, woodworking, gunsmithing, knife making and woodturning, so I figured with this book, I could make one. I then found the MIMF and I was off and running. It took me over a year to make that first guitar. It is ugly as sin but sounds surprisingly good. I have since made 3 more and have 4 more in the works. I guess my obsessive compulsive behavior is coming out. That’s what my wife says anyway. Needless to say, I am hooked.

I have lived in IN, NM, CA, AZ, KS, OK and CO. I now live in Germantown, TN, which is a suburb of Memphis, and have for the past 24 yrs. I still don’t know what a transplanted cowboy from Colorado is doing in Tennessee, but we make do. I am a production supervisor at a small mfg. firm here. I have had the same wonderful wife for 36 yrs. We have a 29 year old daughter and a 5 year old grandson.

Jimmie D38781.7377777778

[QUOTE=old man] Hey, Bruce, I've been married 32 years also, and my wife and I are/were both teachers.
I've never been to Ireland, though. But my birthday is on St. Patrick's Day.

Ron[/QUOTE]

I've never been to Ireland either. But I like to think of my ancestors over there... eating potatoes, starving to death... think of America, the land of plenty.

Then they came to Arkansas... ate potatoes, starving to death, thinking anywhere but Arkansas.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

OK then, here’s my story:

Born here in Trondheim, Norway in 1966. 2 kids (3 in April), married, architect, one house, one car, lots of guitars. The picture shows me and Rasmus, my youngest (and only) fan.

I started playing guitar at age 14 or so and for the next 10 years that was pretty much what my world revolved around. I did manage to finish school, spend one year in the US, one year in the Army, and a few years of years of semi pro playing while holding various jobs. That got old, so went back to school and I graduated in ’94 after 5 ? years at architecture school. I sometimes feel like I have been tied up behind a computer since, sadly playing guitar less each day as life takes priority. So it goes.

All work and no play makes Arnt a dull boy, so when we moved back to my home town in 2000 the first thing I did set up a shop in the basement of our new house. I built my first guitar there later that year (inspired by my wife’s grandfather who had built his first violin at age 80!) and realized immediately that almost everything I had done so far in life was relevant for this new passion, yet I was totally on new ground. Although I have played mostly electric guitar, I build only acoustic steel strings and archtop mandolins.

I spend most nights in my shop and I work for as long as I can before I stagger to bed and go to my paying job in the morning. I have started selling a few instruments and I make them faster and better as I gain experience and new tools, but I won’t quit my day time job anytime soon as they say; my family needs the money and I need to keep this fun! We’ll see what happens tho.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Way to go Hesh and Jimmy, wasn't so hard to do after all, c'mon guys we need some more

Thanks for the Bio's folks. It is always great to put a picture on the name and to know a bit more about the members. I now know that 1)I'm not the only cowboy, though a long haired one, 2) how much I miss not having kids, 3) Hesh will make it through number 50 as I have, and last but not least 4) I'm by far the purtiest

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

OK, here's mine: I'm from central Ohio, been married to the same girl (Donna) for 23 years and have two sons,Caleb and Corbin. The oldest is finishing his first year in college and the other his junior year in high school. They both play football for their schools which keeps us busy from late summer to late fall. My wife still rides horses,I gave it up for the most part, and we'll take the Harley out after work and on the weekends. We actually rode out to Stugis and around last summer, had a ball! I started playing the guitar after my ( not yet father-in-law ) showed me three chords when I was 20 years old. From there I've played in all kinds of bands, part time, 6 nights a week, solo, duets, and playing many kinds of music. My interest in fingerstyle guitar developed my appreciation for fine acoustic instruments. I've been in construction for 30 years,starting out as a carpenter and now I am a project manager for a commercial construction company. I used to build anything we couldn't afford, including the house, and now it's just a good break to out to the shop and do something creative. I commissioned a 7 string from Rick Davis at Running Dog Guitars a few years back. I visited his shop and through out the building process I developed an obsessive interest to build a guitar.   Homepage

Serge, Jimmie, Arnt, Hesh, and Clinton thanks for sharing your story with us. This should make it easy for Lance to archive this thread on his system and then put up the Bios when he get's around to doing so.

Very very interesting to peek a little closer into each of your worlds. And I echo the sentiment that putting a face onto the name is great. You guys look like regular folk to me, with one special thread in common, you love acoustic guitars. I'm still amazed each time I hear someone's story, after all, each person's story is incredibly important.

Thanks for sharing. Hey Jimmie, I flew into McAlister twice. Once to pick up a friend who took his mother's car back to her and I had to pick him up. the other time was on my 300 mile Solo flight getting my license. Clarksville, McAlester, Muskogee and back. Great memories.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I have been fascinated with guitars ever since i was younger and heard Jimi Hendrix's music for the first time. After almost nagging my parents to death i got my first guitar...... and its all been downhill from that point!!!

Joking aside i built my first electric guitar when i was 16, everyone else at school was making a table or a stand for something... i thought i would build a guitar... just to be different! little did i know how rewarding the occupation of instrument building could be. The first guitar turned out surprisingly well, and the school entered me into a competition, and unbelievably i won.

fast forward a few years of travelling, jobs, and other stuff, i have found myself once again in the lap of luthiery. so here i am trying to get some meaning out of life, with a big pile of wood and some tools.....and as i always say to my friends, i don't care if i die with a house filled to the brim with guitars, i am going to do this!

i have currently just set up my own shop, and spent too much money on wood..........whats new??
eagerly waiting for the upcoming arrival of a CNC router, and i am planning to make inlay/tools/parts, and strange things that i haven't even though of yet!!

toodles

paddy

Toodles Turnip Lover. Hey Paddy, you should build a guitar and name it the Turnip Series, for no particular reason.

Neat story, picture too. We didn't know you were a burly bearded guy. We all thought you looked like this:

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I agree with you Bruce when you say we look like reg. folks, you look like my uncle Yvon, Hesh looks like cousin Gino, Clinton looks like cousin Dany, Paddy looks like cousin Luc, are we all related somehow?