On The Bench: Montreal and beyond

Hi everybody,

Well the Montreal guitar show was awesome! We met some great people and saw some beautiful instruments. The show was organized so well. There were sound proof rooms where prospective buyers could check out instruments and get to know them a bit. There were also mini concerts running almost all day featuring musicians playing luthiers instruments. The show was a lot more hands on than I thought it would be. I was very impressed. I am psyched that we were able to make it up there. I am looking forward to exhibiting there next year.

One of the highlights for me was meeting John Monteleone. He's one of the great archtop builders and a hero of mine. His work is especially amazing in person. I also got a chance to meet Jason Verlinde, publisher of my favorite guitar magazine The Fretboard Journal. He was great, and I can't say enough good things about the magazine. If you're a fan of guitars and musicians check it out.

I also had a very nice meeting with Lyle Robinson, the editor for www.jazzguitarlife.com. It was great to get to know him a bit and he seemed to really enjoy my guitar. I hope to do some advertising on his site at some point in the near future.

All in all it was a great trip. My guitars seem to stack up pretty well, of course there is always room for improvement but I am looking forward to taking part in the festivities next year.

Back at home, I've been re-grouping a bit, cleaning up the shop, and organizing. I bought a couple of new tools. finally a decent jointer and a good table-saw. It's starting to look like a real shop. the next projects are up in the air right now, I'm planning to use the down time to experiment with winding my own pickups. I also want to finish the acoustic prototype which has taken a back seat to more pressing work. That's about it for now, check out the photos of the finished 510 which I took to Montreal.

The Montreal 510