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JeffC
Lokahi
USA
189 Posts |
 Posted - 01/10/2009 : 09:51:36 AM
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A guitar I commissioned about a year ago, and have collaborated with my luthier to design/customize for me, is getting very close. He and his wife (who is, among other things, a website designer) have just created a blog connected to his website. There are several photos of my soon-to-be slack key guitar featured on the new blog.
http://russellguitars.com/rgblog/
I met James through another mutual friend after I took up slack key. I visited him at his shop in Redding and played several of his guitars, and began to develop the idea of working with him to custom design a guitar. This guitar design has been influenced by the sound and aesthetics of the two-hole guitars created by Steve Grimes and Dennis Lake and played so ably by several of the slacker participants at the AMCs I have been fortunate to attend. And not wanting to recreate any wheels, it has also been informed by the experience of at least one of these masterful luthiers; I know James spent many hours reviewing luthery journals about non-standard sound holes and quite a while on the phone with Steve Grimes discussing fine points.
It should be ready in a month or two. Check it out. While you are there, check out some of James' other guitars on his main website. He does fantastic work.
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Jeff
Making Trout Country safe for Slack Key! |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2009 : 10:55:15 AM
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| Oooh, the anticipation must be exquisite! Appears to be a talented guy, building very pretty stuff. Ah, but the sound? |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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JeffC
Lokahi
USA
189 Posts |
Posted - 01/12/2009 : 12:50:55 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by wcerto
Ah, but the sound?
Oh #$%&, is it too late to cancel my order?!?
Yeah, it's a bit of a gamble, but James knows a lot about how different woods work together to produce different kinds of sounds. All of the guitars of his I played had different voices, but all sounded fantastic (and played fantastically), including the first guitar he made when he was in high school. We have spent a lot of time talking about the sound, and James has spent a lot of time listening to the kinds of sounds I am shooting for. Before I gave him the go-ahead, I was asking a lot of very pointed questions, and he said "if you don't love it, you don't have to buy it."
Working with him on this, and your question, Wanda, reminded me of another time and place: preparations for my wedding. I'm one of those guys who actually had some ideas about what I wanted for my wedding--not just a "tell me the time and place, and I'll show up" kind of guy. But despite a lot of good intentions, there were a lot of restrictions laid out there by my in-laws to be, the location, standards of the church, etc. But when it came to the music, that was all mine. We were married in the University Chapel on the Princeton campus. The "chapel" turned out to be (much to my surprise, being a west coast kind of guy) a huge cathedral, which had a huge pipe organ. Some of my fondest memories of the time were sitting with the organist (after he gave us a tour of the working parts of the organ throughout the attic of the cathedral) and going through all the selections telling him to bring up the bass here, more horns there, etc., etc. The organist loved it; he had never done a wedding for anybody who actually cared much about how the music sounded.
And then the entire musical program was threatened by a thunderstorm that was looming in the distance. I had no idea that pipe organs are not played in thunderstorms.
Happy memories |
Jeff
Making Trout Country safe for Slack Key! |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 01/12/2009 : 2:12:44 PM
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| Ya gotta love a man who has fond memories of his wedding day. Sweet. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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JeffC
Lokahi
USA
189 Posts |
Posted - 01/13/2009 : 06:54:10 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by wcerto
Ya gotta love a man who has fond memories of his wedding day. Sweet.
Well the music stuff is where the fond memories end. But don't get me started! |
Jeff
Making Trout Country safe for Slack Key! |
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