Official Luthiers Forum!

The "Midwest Chapter" of the OLF used to get together in the Chicago area about annually. Held at member homes, storefronts, and then at John Watkins place in the 'burbs, I remember lots of lovely guitars, giveaways, workshops (once John demonstrated making a nearly finished neck from a blank with a sanding block in about one minute), and friendly storytelling. Music, too!!

Here are some of the fellows that showed up in 2008. I have shared shop space with some, tonewood with others, and lots of shared experiences. I recognize Joe White, Kevin Mason, John Watkins, Steven Wheeler. Maybe others will be able to ID the remaining fellows.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Sure like to hear about the one minute neck…

Good stuff! I'd be interested in knowing how one could carve a neck in one minute with a sanding block as well. I do recall Jean Larivee claiming he could rough one out in 45 seconds with a drawknife.

Hey Steve,
How's it going?

John Ressler is there. In fact every time someone posts a picture from a gathering, John is there.
Ed Lysne and our gracious host Doug Mills. I recognize the guy on the far right but can't attach a name.

Thanks for posting this Steve I'm grinning like an idiot seeing our old friends. I recognize about half of them. John Watkins always looks so serious too

From what I can recall, the neck blank had been roughed out on a bandsaw with a line drawn from a template, and the blank was essentially rectangular in cross section, with the heel and the head generally defined by the saw. John wrapped a sheet of coarse sandpaper around a rectangular and flat wood block, about 10 inches long. He started aggressively knocking the corners off of the middle of the blank and worked circumferentially and then longitudinally to the ends of the functional part of the neck to define the rounded shape and in moments had a pretty good looking neck. Obviously, some time would have to be spent defining the heel properly and the transition to the head but he clearly had done it a bunch of times and therefore it was not much fussing to get it maybe 90% there... I wish I could explain more, but I can't do it myself!!

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck