A little local seaside town has a luthier's guitar show once a year. It's a big event in a great little town. I stayed maybe 4 hours but had to get out of there before I bought a $10k guitar. Most there are special order but the ones they have for sale are pretty much $2500 low end and some at $20k. The craftsmanship is amazing. Every fret on every guitar is like a mirror. Pics dont do them justice, but here are a couple. I wanted this one real bad at $10k. That pickguard is not screwed on, it's part of the guitar. The binding was well rounded for a very soft feel against your body. Cello style bridge. Most of the ebony fretboards I saw you couldn't see any grain in at all. Like smooth black plastic.
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Luthier guitar show yesterday
- Thread starter schmee
- Start date
String Tree
Doctor of Teleocity
The Craftsmanship is off-the-hook!
This show is mostly acoustic guitars, mandos etc. I didn't see an on-board EQ on one of them. It's a 3 day event. They have short concerts throughout the town at restaurants or bars and have a 1/2 hour concert on site with animal players demo'ing the builder's creations. With builder's answering questions. Most these players are fingerpickers or jazz guys. Video Brochure:
laconnerguitarfestival.com
La Conner Guitar Festival - Luthiers
Showcasing the Art of Lutherie with some of the finest luthiers in the world
Freeman Keller
Poster Extraordinaire
On their way over to La Conner Paul Asbell and Fred Tellier stopped in Wenatchee and did a little house concert. Had a chance to play a few of Fred's guitars.
Another show you should put on your calender is the tri annual Guild of American Lutherie conference at PLU in Tacoma. Its oriented a bit more towards the building side of lutherier, lots of eye and ear candy yes, but lots of hands on demos by some of the best.
ps - I have a friend who goes to La Conner each year and buys or commissions a guitar. I think he is single handedly trying to keep independent lutherie alive.
Another show you should put on your calender is the tri annual Guild of American Lutherie conference at PLU in Tacoma. Its oriented a bit more towards the building side of lutherier, lots of eye and ear candy yes, but lots of hands on demos by some of the best.
ps - I have a friend who goes to La Conner each year and buys or commissions a guitar. I think he is single handedly trying to keep independent lutherie alive.
Cool, I saw Paul play yesterday and out on the street we were both looking on his phone for "the Garden Club" where he was headed to play later and was off course a bit!
That first guitar I posted is by Tad Brown... amazing.
Gorgeous. I'd love to have that!
It would be a great trip for some guys or couples. La Conner is an artsy fartsy little town with good restaurants and people and it's on the water. Hotels there too. I ran a jam there for a couple of years. We play the opening Summer Sunday Concert again this year on Memorial weekend.
Here's another interesting thing. In looking and talking with these builders, they seem to shy away from 24.75 scale and to some extent 25.5 scale. If I got it right, they like a 25.4 scale a lot and it has tonal and harmonic benefits over 25.5. Also ditto for 25" scale over 24.75.
Freeman Keller
Poster Extraordinaire
I know it only a tenth of an inch difference but 25.5 is the standard Fender scale and 25.4 is the long Martin scale. Likewise 24.75 (and its variations) is the Gibson traditional scale, 24.9 is the short Martin scale that you see on a lot of smaller bodied guiars. 25.0 is right in the middle and was use by PRS, Dobro and maybe a few others.
One of the Tellier guitars that I played at the house concert was a multi scale (so called fan fret). I've played them a couple of time before, it would take me a while to adjust. Beautiful instrument.
I'd like to try a fan fret sometime, but suspect it may be troublesome getting used to it, especially if you then try to play a normal type!
Freeman Keller
Poster Extraordinaire
Schmee, I just ran into my friend who goes over to La Conner each year. He had a phone full of guitar porn from the show - pretty spectacular stuff. I'm always amazed to see what modern luthiers are doing, but frankly much of it is too over the top for me - I'm afraid I'm far too conservative and traditional. Not to mention that the idea of a guitar costing as much as a nice new car is somewhat foreign. They are pretty to look at however.
And, as usual, my friend commissioned a baritone from a well known builder. Must be nice.
And, as usual, my friend commissioned a baritone from a well known builder. Must be nice.
I kinda agree, some of it seems more art than functional. Fun to look at and you are immediately smitten... then you sleep on it and realize.... "naah"!
Woe so it’s like the G string on a fender headstock!*
Except at the bridge and it’s all 6!
I can’t imagine that whistling through an amp! It would drive most of us guitar crazy people to true insanity!
Thank goodness it’s only acoustic
It is beautiful though
*give it a listen strum the strings hard and dampen them real quick the G string behind the nut will be ringing in G except a couple octaves higher, but be warned once you know it’s there you can’t un-hear, you’ll even hear it coming out of your amp (needs to have single string tree)
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Oh man.... that would've been hard for me to walk away from. I'd be wheelin' and dealin' to get that baby, for sure. I'm glad I didn't go to this show LOL!!! Thanks for sharing man. That was hard to do I'm sure.
He shall be forever in the tdpri hall of fame, braving all that guitar poon for our enjoyment
Utmost respect
