Official Luthiers Forum!

So a fella calls me up and says he’s got some wood that needs processing and can I help?

He proceeds to rock up with a van full of timber from the 60’s. A good portion of it is Brazilian, and a good portion ain’t. Apparently it’s from Bill Lewis’ stash, who, IIRC, eventually went on to form our beloved LMI.

Unfortunately it’s in pretty poor nick, so the likelihood of getting back/side sets is low, but it’s a strong supply of fingerboards and bridges at the very least.

There’s a couple of chonkers of ebony in there as well as a few spruce billets from Jean.

Some days are stranger than others!

Nice one.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

That's a nice pile!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Wow! I’m sorry to hear that Bill has passed, he was a very nice man and was very kind to me when I was just starting out with repairs and building back in the early 1970’s.

I still have a bit of wood from him left in my stash.

Thanks for posting this Ed.

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

Hi Cal,

Oops, that was actually quite an assumption of mine. I actually do not know the status of Bill Lewis. I’ll change it…

Upon reading your post again, it may have been more of an assumption on my part!!

Never the less, it looks like an interesting stack of wood.

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!