This is the 5th year of the Montreal Guitar Show. This year the show sprawled across two convention rooms of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Montreal. One room featured acoustic builders and one featured electric builders. Although most of my work lies somewhere between the two worlds, I chose to exhibit in the acoustic room. I felt a little self conscious, because I had two electric guitars and only one which was fully acoustic. But in the end, exhibiting in the acoustic room proved to be a good choice. If there were any disparaging remarks, they were probably in French and I therefore did not understand them...ignorance is bliss! Anyway, all the instruments seemed to get a lot of attention.
Friday July 1st was opening day and it seemed very busy to me. By the end of the day, I was worn out from all of the talking. I met some really great people!
Be it ever so humble...my table...
Saturday continued in much the same way. Lots of talking, explaining fanned frets, construction techniques, and listening to people talk about their own projects. The guitars got played a lot, and on Saturday afternoon I sold the Archtop! It was really awesome. Saturday night, there was an after party for the builders on a roof top deck of the Hyatt. There was much drunken jamming...I did not partake, but it was fun to be there.
I could have sold the Archtop again on Sunday. A person who had played it on Saturday came back to see if it was still available...unfortunately, it was not. There's always next year!
Both The acoustic and electric room were filled with amazing guitars! Here are a few that caught my eye.
An Archtop by Dimitri Tenev. Very organic looking, I really like the rustic nature of this guitar. I've been interested in trying to include some organic elements in my work. I really dig the tailpiece on this guitar, Super cool!
An Archtop by Greg German. Another fanned fret guy.
William "Grit" Laskin. What can I say, his work is amazing! My photos don't do it justice. All of the inlay is hand cut and fitted by him. Here are some better pictures. http://www.williamlaskin.com/gallery2.php
In addition to his stunning inlay work, he is a very innovative luthier. Many of his designs are now standard practice for many guitar makers.
This guitar by Claudio Pagelli was really an awesome feat of engineering!
It's three guitars...and a banjo...in one!
...an acoustic...
...Loosen one bolt which holds on the neck and replace the top with and electric guitar...
...or a resonator...didn't get a pic of the banjo. Crazy!
Speaking of crazy...Ken Parker's Archtop! Crazy is probably not the right word...innovative is more like it! Really amazing!
I don't know what to say about this guitar...It was just stunning!
By Jean-Yves Alquier
This guitar by Christophe Grellier was probably one of my favorite guitars at the show. His execution was really awesome! I love the flowing design of the inlay and finger-rest. I'm sad I didn't get to play it!
Two more really nice Archtops by Pierrick Bura. I Love the sound holes!
Linda Manzer's more-strings-than-you-could-ever-need-o-caster. Her table was always crowded, this was the only picture I could get!
Pete Swanson...The amount of work that goes into just the rim on his guitars is staggering!
He cuts all those little squares on a tablesaw!
Finally I leave you with a video, which kind of captures the feel of the show. I stumbled upon this little impromtu jam on my way back to my table. This kind if thing happened all over the place! I don't know who these guys are, but they were killing it! Sorry about the video/audio quality, but enjoy!
