Northwoods 1998
At Bryan Galloup's Guitar Hospital, Big Rapids, Michigan
Hosted by Bryan and Susan Galloup at the Guitar Hospital in Big Rapids, Michigan, and organized by them with help from Dan Erlewine, the fourth Northwoods Guitar Repair Seminar was the best so far!
Bryan closed his shop for most of the week while ten "instructors" and 3 dozen "students" addressed all manner of guitar repair topics. We had demonstrations and lectures for four days, and lots of time to schmooze with experts who answered technical questions without reservation.
Abe Wechter, left, gives me a bit of advice on router setup:
Besides being a stellar instrument craftsman, Abe is an expert in small factory setup. He and his crew build the "Pathmaker" double cutaway acoustic electric guitar an innovative design with 19 frets clear of the body.
Abe gave us a slide presentation tour of his factory, including a lot of tricky setups, fixtures and techniques he employs.
He held nothing back as we all fired technical questions at him!
Our esteemed host, Bryan Galloup, went through the entire process of resetting a neck on a Martin D-18:
And demonstrated his unique adaptation of the tilting workbench with the neck jig:
He can simulate the playing position of the guitar while actually working on it.
The world's best known guitar repairman, Dan Erlewine, was on hand, keeping things running smoothly:
Dan showed off his technique for matching colored finishes using stain and finish sample boards made up with different formulations of "trans-tint" colors"
After seeing Dan's demo, I decided it was high time I made up my own stain boards, too.
Dan gave us a preview of his book, now available from Stewart-MacDonald. It's the first how-to finishing book for guitar builders and repairers. Definitely a must for professionals and amateurs alike!
Oh, yes, and Dan also won the Walker-Turner Bandsaw Lookalike Contest:
I worked on a Taylor 610, as I demonstrated refretting technique:
I shipped all my tools by U.P.S., but managed to use the wrong zip code, so they never arrived! Fortunately, we were in a guitar repair shop, so I was able to borrow everything I needed.
Next day, I did a session on the classic technique of French polishing:
We all took a break while Dan took the obligatory group shot:
This is Jim Rolph, the pickup maker and rewinder, showing us how to remagnetize the pole pieces on a single coil pickup:
As you know, my experience is with acoustic instruments, but this guy really got my attention.
Here, he supervises as I try my hand at rewinding a pickup:
A real first for me, I must say.
Joe Glaser spent an entire morning talking about intonation and fret placement:
I really didn't think you could talk that long about fret placement. I was dead wrong! Joe has done a lot of work with Nashville studio musicians, and he gave us a whole bunch of ideas to chew on!
Here's Paul Newson, mandolin maker extroardinaire:
He hand carves each instrument. He prefers to work entirely freehand, so he can make design changes freely, and can make lots of special custom instruments to order.
He showed how quickly and surely he works with hand tools to graduate a mandola top:
This mandola is going to be in the shape of a tiny guitar!
Talk about guts! Here he roughs out the inside of a back, using a Makita grinder with a "chainsaw" wood carving blade:
That's the same blade the roadside woodcarvers use to make Bigfoot carvings on the Redwood Highway. This thing really spits out the chips!
Tim Scheerhorn gave us an entire day of resophonic guitar setup technique:
He carefully levels the feet of a Dobro spider, and fits an ebony topped saddle:
I was duly impressed with the tonal improvement his setup techniques make:
You can bet I'll be using a bunch of his little tricks!
T.J.Thompson is a fingerstyle guitar builder who's best known for his work in restoring Martin guitars from the classic period around 1930:
He discussed his work in great detail, and gave us all a lot to think about!
Tom Murphy is tops in the field of vintage solid body finish work:
He went through the entire process of refinishing a Gibson Les Paul in the elusive "TV Yellow" lacquer. He even showed his technique for matching the peculiar finish cracks that appear on the vintage lacquered instruments.
All in all, this seminar was a real energy boost for me. I came home charged up with all manner of new tricks and technique. I think that those of us who instructed may have learned as much or more than the "students!"