1998 Acoustic Guitar Festival
A photo album from the 1998 San Rafael, California Acoustic Guitar Festival
For me, the 1998 Acoustic Guitar Festival in San Rafael was a time to meet and hang with instrument makers from all over the country:
We had four days to view and play some of the finest individually crafted guitars. A few factories of various sizes had instruments on display, too, but it was really a showcase for the independent luthiers.
For some, this week was a time to learn music:
And for lots of others it was a week of evening concert performances.
I made a pest of myself with my Sony handycam, and tried to take pictures of a lot of luthiers and their work. Lighting in the rooms was a bit unpredictable, so about half of my pictures looked more like shadows. So, friends, if your picture isn't here, it's because it just didn't work out.
Mark Blanchard and Kath showed the latest work from their shop in the Sierra foothills:
Head instructor at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix, John Reuter shows us his resonator fingerstyle guitar:
Leering just behind him is Chris, also an instructor at R-V.
All the way from Calgary, it's Judy Threet with a splendid shirt and some equally splendid fingerstyle guitars:
You can see Judy's work at Gryphon from time to time.
Jon Lee represented Charles Fox guitars:
C. Fox is a small factory just getting underway in Healdsburg, California.
I think you'll be seeing more of this headstock around fine guitar shops:
Bill Hardin enlisted the aid of a fine airbrush artist to decorate the face of his Weissenborn style Hawaiian guitar:
Speaking of Hawaii, Steve Grimes brought a fine selection of his famous guitars:
Steve's shop is in Kula, on island of Maui.
Making guitars and music can be serious business, but you gotta keep your sense of humor, says Kent Everett:
Kent builds his guitars in Atlanta, Georgia
Harvey Leach is from Cedar Ridge, California, and brought along some of the fanciest guitars in the show:
We can count on Lance McCollum to bring us a show-stopper:
This is one of Lance's guitars with decoration by a local water color artist:
Jack West performs on his new Jeff Traugott 8-string:
This unique guitar features the Novax fanned fret design developed by Ralph Novak.
Taku Sakashta (Sonoma, California,) brings a unique sense of design to the art of lutherie:
Notice the arch top guitar on the left. It has rounded sides with no corner edges at all. This is one amazing guitar!
Check out the corner treatment on Taku's cutaway flat top guitar:
This guy really has style.
Ted Megas drove from his shop in San Francisco where he builds traditional and modern arch top jazz guitars for clients all over the world:
Ric McCurdy had to come a lot farther to show off his instruments:
His shop is in New York, NY, the traditional home of fine American jazz guitars.
Ed Claxton and his wife, Maggie, show us a cutaway fingerstyle guitar made of Indian rosewood and German spruce.
Ed's shop is in Santa Cruz, very near Jeff Traugott, Rick Turner, and the Santa Cruz Guitar Co.
Chuck Ogsbury (on the left) has been a banjo maker since 1960. Most all banjo players are familiar with his fine OME banjos:
Standing next to him is the ever elegant Duke of Pearl (Chuck Erikson.) This Chuck has been supplying pearl inlay materials to the trade for almost as long as the other Chuck has been doing pearl inlay. Guess that makes him an old-timer, too!
Chuck Ogsbury sits with John Kael (right) discussing open back five string banjos:
A big dragon graces the back of this OME tenor banjo:
The only Irish bouzouki maker in the show was Phil Crump:
His shop is in Arcata, California
Naturally, he uses Celtic decorative elements:
Right down the road from San Rafael, in Sausalito, Bruce Sexauer makes both flat top and archtop guitars in a variety of styles:
Also close by, in Sonoma, Steve Kauffman (left) and Steve Klein handcraft the famous Klein guitars:
These are two new models that will be on display in Steve Klein's Sonoma music shop. He's one of the few luthiers that also operates a music store.
Taking a break between events, Peppino D'Augustino duets with friend, Amy:
Kevin Ryan, looks intent as he discusses his latest work with a potential customer:
Behind, that's John Mickelson from Seldovia, Alaska. He makes bridge pins and other parts from fossil ivory, bone and ebony.
Here's Michael Hornick down from his home and workshop in Avery, in the Sierra foothills:
As usual, Michael had a couple of stellar guitars hot off the press.
Running Dog Guitars are individually made by Rick Davis, in Richmond, Vermont:
David Eichelbaum came from Santa Barbara with a selection of his latest work:
Rick Turner (right) is giving Henry Kaiser the lowdown on his latest instruments:
Nobody misses the fact that Ervin Somogyi has the eye of an artist:
From his shop in Oakland, California, come some of the most striking designs.
Renee Karnes has been building and repairing banjos for a long time and really has her act down:
Working alone in her shop in Rescue, California, she makes some of the most extravagant instruments available anywhere:
Steve Swan (right) and Richard Hoover have a good time together:
Richard's the owner and founder of Santa Cruz Guitar Company. Steve's got his own retail shop in Kensington and is frequently on hand to help out at SCGC.
Yes, that's a left handed guitar Steve is holding. He's left handed too, but actually plays righty.
Roy McAlister is an alumnus of SCGC and makes his own instruments in Watsonville:
As a special celebration of their 600,000th instrument, the Martin Guitar Company commissioned famed artist, Larry Robinson, to create the most elaborately inlaid Martin guitar ever:
Martin representative, Joe McNamara, proudly showed off Martin's latest new instruments:
Alex deGrassi (left,) Jeff Traugott, and Michael Hornick (right) posed for a quick shot as they packed their instruments to go home after a week of hard schmoozing: