Official Luthiers Forum!

We had a great time today with the Chicago area builders plus several who traveled over 5 hours to be here. It was great to see some new faces here. Here are a few photos - just realized we forgot to take a group photo. We had about 25 attendees.

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John Ressler

Here are a few more photos

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John Ressler

That was a lot of fun yesterday. I would like to thank John and his cohorts at Designed Stairs Inc. for making their facilities available to us for the event. The shop tour was amazing, they have a machine that can turn a semi trailer of wood into stair parts in 1 hour. Putting a guitar body blank on that CNC bed was proverbial gnat on an elephant's butt.

I would also like to thank our sponsors who were quite generous in offering up door prizes for the attendees.

High Mountain Tonewood Company
Hibdon Hardwood, Inc.
Allied Lutherie
Advanced Shell Technology
RC Tonewoods & Sons
Lutheriers Merchatile International, Inc.
D'Addario
Blues Creek Guitars, Inc.

Steve

John - thanks for a great time and being a great host. And what an impressive shop you have!!

Nice to see the gang once again.

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

Good company, good food, good guitars--good time. I too would like to thank the sponsors, especially Allied and High Mountain since I won a truss rod and a lutz top. But above all, I would like to thank John Ressler for hosting the event. It is one thing to share ideas on the Forum, but these gatherings add a dimension of reality to the experience since you meet people face to face, play their instruments, and talk about instrument making. I look forward to the next one.

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Kevin Mason
Mason Guitars and Ukuleles on Facebook
http://masonguitars.net

Another great guitar bash. Thank you for hosting John. Really enjoyed seeing your impressive fab facility and another year's worth of great instruments - guitars, ukes, octive mandolins, electrics, harp guitars, jazz boxes. There sure is a lot of talent within driving distance of Sandwich, Illinois. And a big thank you to Hibdon Hardon who donated a very nice set of Leopardwood that I won in the raffle. Guess I'm going to be giving you guys a call soon for a neck billet and some leopardwood splinter extraction tools. My only regret is that nobody played "stairway to heaven" for you John. What's up with that?? <grin>.

PS. Please give your wife another big thank you for me for that great carrot cake she whipped up for the event.

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Doug Mills
Chicago, Illinois

Just got home myself . I had a wonderfull time this weekend and am humbled at the excellent talent that I saw at the gathering . I am proud of the way my work turns out and then to see the Absolutely Beautifull work others have done , my efforts look so small in comparison . I learned several things this weekend.

( 1 ) John and his wife and employees know how to throw a gathering ! It was well done and Many thanks to you for your efforts !

( 2 ) Its a HECK of a long drive to sandwich and back !

( 3 ) There is amazing talent in this group !

( 4 ) After a year of being here , and seeing what I saw this weekend , I realize that I know absolutely " SQUAT" about building Guitars / Mandola's

I was able to go to Johns shop after the gathering and had a personal tutoral on bending . That was extremely helpfull and I was able to see the several reasons my efforts failed .

Thank You again John and Family for your time and hard work . You truly are an asset to this community !

ps: if the "green " guitar goes missing , wasnt me , musta been that other guy that was droolin over it .

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Hi Guys,

I'm glad I put down the fretwire and inlays long enough to come out and meet/see you all again. There were lots of great side-bar discussions, many great players and the food was excellent. I had a bunch of necks out in the car I forgot to bring in. Basically I had a neck from each step of my process start to finish. Oh well, maybe next time.

I got a kick out of Gene Liberty and learned alot just by picking his brain.

Thanks to all that let me play their guitars too.

Joe

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Joe