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Here are a few of the many pics I was able to take today at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival

Nice. Those guys in the last two pics are pretty good-looking.

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

More pics

Great shots Robbie. How about some more.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Great pictures. I sure wish I could have gone. I agree with the above post more pictures please.
Chuck

Anyway to label them as to who the builders are and if the inlays are done by the builder of was it done by someone else. That one rosette looks like something that might have been Larry Robinson's. Is that back Ervin's?

Just got back from Healdsburg myself. Yeah, Chris, the back is Ervin's (beyond stunning in person!) I don't know about the rosette. The bevel with soundports is Kevin Ryan's and the dovetail guitar is Howard Klepper's of course. I forget the name of the builder on the guitar with the samurai scene, but judging from the way Larry Robinson was scrutinizing it and commenting about it, I'm sure he didn't do the inlay work. That inlay was one of the most stunning pieces at the festival. There was a lot of stuff there that was beyond belief.

I kind of figured that those two might have been Howard's and Kevin's work. Wasn't sure about the Samurai. What were the comments about it?

I should have a little video on Youtube soon with more Highlights from Healdsburg.

Larry something to the effect, "got a couple of things going on there, don't you?" and also wanted to know what the symbols around the soundhole were. The builder said, as far as I could understand (noisy) that they were something to do with the family of these particular samurais. Other than that he seemed to just be looking very carefully.

Kevin Ryan had a piece of space age looking wood that was fully lasered that was shaped like a stealth bomber. He said that these are bridge patches he's putting on all of his guitars now. The bottom side was fully honeycombed (with a laser) and there were lots of oblong holes around the edges (he said to remove mass). Dana Bourgois was there riddling him with questions about it and trying to figure out it's effect on the decibel level on both the bridge, the underside of the soundboard, the top of the soundboard and the finish itself. He started to put out numbers on the levels that come off of these specific areas - wild stuff. I asked Kevin how he came up with this design. He said, "Just a desperate man trying to sell guitars!" I didn't believe him. When I told him that, we both laughed.

So much stunning work. I must go sometime, it looks like a great time.

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

I should have a little video on Youtube soon with more Highlights from Healdsburg.

I am sure that was Harvey Leach. That has his style written all over it.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

He was the guy right across from you, Brock.

I was wandering around at the festival and a guitar caught my eye. The woods were something I didn't recognize. The luthier was A.J. Lucas. I asked him what the woods were. It turns out that the back, sides and bridge were English Yew. They looked like a softwood. He said that Yew is a conifer and was local to where he lives (he's British). Turns out the top was Douglas Fir that he salvaged from an old door. I had to play it. On the first strum I knew that it was an extaordinary instrument. I can honestly say that I have never hear this kind of overtone and sustain in any other guitar I have ever played. The guitar was an unusual looking guitar (in my opinion) because of the woods, but the sound was like other dimensions just opened up. It was balanced with sining trebles, a big bright base and all the mids there. It didn't change as you played up the neck and I couldn't get over that sustain. Every festival I've been to, there always seems to be a favorite guitar above the rest for me. This time this unexpected one was it.
Douglas Fir? I asked a few other builders what their thought was on it. They almost all said that it makes a great sounding guitar, but you can't sell them. "People think they're buying a 2X4 !" Anyway, I'm sure there were many more there as good, but that's one that I found that sang to me.
Another one that really got me was Brock's dreadnaught. Although I didn't play it much, I could tell that thing would pretty much be a monster if you stepped on it with a pick. It had a really bright Mahogany tone that seemed to be screaming to be driven. Now I wish I had. If I were a rich guy I would have walked away with that one.

I wandered around Healdsburg for 3 days. Photographs was one of my primary objectives, but was frustrated by the poor (dingy) lighting, and there were soooo many people milling around, it made it difficult to set up for good shots without disturbing conversations between builders and potential customers.

I finally relegated myself to setting the camera to Auto and just snapping a quick picture whenever I saw an opening. I also took a few of the scenes in the common areas as well.

Radom Healdsburg Pics


I don't have notes about who all the builders are. I tried to get the names in some of the shots where I could but some of the signage was very small or poorly positioned.

Disclaimer:
None of these are edited, many are redundant, and have not been scrutinized (I hope I deleted the one I had a Brock picking his nose! - I KID!.. I didn't delete it! :p)

Just teasing Brock! Brocks beautiful slope dread was one of my favorites of the show.

I had a lot of fun at the show. I especially enjoyed getting me meet and talk with Robbie, Lance, Brock, Kathy Matsushita, Hank Maul, Rick Davis, and many other builders and online persona's I have come to know from the various forums.

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Jim Hansen

I added captions to the pictures I could quickly identify. Some I'm not sure about so I left them blank.

One of my favorite guitars of the show was by R.S. Muth. It had a fumed pear bridge and fretboard. It was the antithesis of most of the guitars at the show. Very understated, but still visually striking.

There are a couple of pictures of it in the post above.

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Jim Hansen

Nice pictures Jim and Robbie, thanks! It's almost like I was there.....wait.....I was!

So many people, so many guitars - what an experience it was!!
I had a great time, met a lot of really nice people. and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
I was so engrossed in the guitars that I forgot to use my camera at all!!

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Thanks for the kudos Jim. It's hard to stand out amongst all the beautiful work there. That guitar got a LOT of attention. I was wasn't sure how it would go over at Healdsburg, but I took a chance.

I know Adrian Lucas from other shows. He's a great guy and builder. I always look forward to seeing him. It's always great to catch up with old friends and make new ones. Looking forward to the next show.

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Randy Muth
RS Muth Guitars Website
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