April and Obligatory COVID-19 Shop Update
Greetings from the quarantine!
The last couple of months have sure been eventful. I was settling in to a new job as a Studio Technician in the fabrication shop at California College of the Arts and looking forward to begin working as an on call helping to set up exhibitions at an art museum in San Fransisco, but those are on hold for the most part as of now. I am currently trying to learn to navigate these new online waters with the other shop staff at CCA, though it remains to be seen how to transition to an online format for a job that entails helping students create things in a shop they no longer have access to, but I am interested to see how that will pan out. In the meantime I am happy to be sheltering in place with my own shop…
I have been getting a few things accomplished here, both woodworking and some video work.
I finished carving the top and back braces of my latest build, and I am excited to be making some significant progress on this guitar. In the interim between drafting this and finalizing it, I have in fact closed the box, and I will be trying to get started on binding and purfling sometime this week. It feels nice to be getting some consistent lutherie work done, even while the circumstances are difficult and worrisome.
I have also been working a little bit on videos for the youtube series I started a couple months ago. I now have five up and will be trying to make a few more in the near future. They are not flashy, but I hope they are informative about some of the aspects of my build process and some of the unique aspects of my guitars. The latest one I put up a couple of days ago features a little bit about the theory that goes into the structural elements of my guitar tops and the process of creating the braces and pieces themselves. I also put up a video talking a little more about voicing the top and my current approach, as well as a 40 minute brace carving video set to some Renaissance era music, if anyone needs anything relaxing to listen to… You can find that video here, and you can find any of my videos on my youtube channel or in the shop tutorial section of my website.
It is hard to encapsulate all of my thoughts about voicing within an even moderately concise presentation, so I would encourage anyone with any specific questions about anything in the videos to leave them in the comments on youtube or email them directly to me and if there is anything that you would like to see addressed about the build process that I haven’t yet, shoot me an email and let me know, I would love to hear what people are interested in!
I am still open to doing repair work, if you have an instrument that needs some attention send me an email and we can figure out how to make that happen. I also still have guitars that I would love to get into people hands other than my own. Take a look and drop me a line if you might be interested in any of them. All of the guitars listed on sale, with the exception of #6 which is currently quarantined at Mighty Fine Guitars, I am selling for the steeply discounted rate of $2,000.
I am also attempting to commit taking care of old projects. The constant transitions of the last many months are perhaps in a bit of a holding pattern for the moment. The rains, which keep coming back every time I think they are gone, are at least less frequent and the weather warmer in between. Perhaps most of all I no longer have extra space for project guitars as I make more rapid progress on my latest. All of these reasons mean it is time to get the handful of guitars that I have in limbo finished up. Maybe by the summer we will all be able to move about freely again and I can get them into the hands of some people to try out.
Meanwhile I will be here building as much as I can. I have wood set aside for 3 guitars, so I suppose I can shelter in shop for a while. I hope this email finds you healthy and safe, with something engaging and enjoyable to occupy your mind during this time as well. Take care, and check back once in a while to see whats new. Thanks for reading.