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Post by sidheguitarmichael on Nov 22, 2009 20:24:31 GMT -5
Took some of my EWU students up to Luthier Eric Sahlin’s place for a shop tour/demonstration Yesterday. Eric basically took us through the build process from start to finish. I think the guys really dug it. Plus, we all got to play a couple of his guitars. For everyone who doesn’t know who this guy is; Eric is a very well-known builder of classical guitars with a list of clients about as good as any (folks like Scott Tennant and Andy York might be names that some here would know). He has a reputation for building guitars that not only sound good, but are also impeccably fit together and polished. Nobody alive does better craftsmanship, and only a couple of the big names in CG luthierie can equal his fit and finish work (not just my opinion, but also a widely-held one). His wait list is a little over 9 years at this point, and he lives right over the hill from me. I thought I’d share some photos: Eric: Guitars, freshly minted: Eric makes almost all the tools he uses himself, for example this little thing for testing the deflection weight (density) of his top braces before working with them: Here’s a top from a ’58 Hauser II in his collection of tops (the guitar was sent to him to be, believe it or not, re-topped, due to one too many crappy repairs over the years. The top is as it came to Eric. There went the value of that guitar, but it was already pretty much done for when it came to Eric. He learned a lot from working on that guitar back in the day: One of my students playing what is reportedly a pretty dead-nuts on repro of the old ’37 of Segovia fame. I wouldn’t be able to judge the comparison, but I will say that the guitar is pretty special with a roaring magnificence of tone. Very engaging to play, even with the messed up tuners (they work opposite to convention, and require a bit of getting used to): Some of the lads (two of whom are interested in learning to build guitars) with the Maestro: In all, a fun field trip.
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Post by omaha on Nov 22, 2009 21:00:08 GMT -5
What a beautiful (and tidy!) shop!
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Post by theevan on Nov 22, 2009 21:24:26 GMT -5
I've handled and played one. The workmanship was, as mm says, the absolute best. The only thing I've seen in that league is maybe McGill.
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Post by sidheguitarmichael on Nov 22, 2009 21:43:26 GMT -5
That's exactly right; I've owned a McGill before and I'd say that they are neck-and-neck, mainly because you can't eclipse perfection when it comes to mitered edges.
His shop is tidy and very well organized. Plus, he built that too. I forgot to mention that fact.
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Post by RickW on Nov 22, 2009 21:45:44 GMT -5
Sounds like a mucho fun day. I'm always interested in how craftsmen make things go together so well. When they show you, you go 'duh!'. But you have to think of it first.
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Post by Supertramp78 on Nov 22, 2009 21:57:00 GMT -5
"What a beautiful (and tidy!) shop!"
No kidding! You would think that it wouldn't be asking to much for just a little sawdust to be visible. My goodness.
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Post by John B on Nov 22, 2009 22:09:55 GMT -5
"What a beautiful (and tidy!) shop!" No kidding! You would think that it wouldn't be asking to much for just a little sawdust to be visible. My goodness. Sure he builds guitars in there. Sure he does.
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Post by Village Idiot on Nov 22, 2009 22:32:14 GMT -5
I know nothing about building guitars, but I'll take his view out the window any day.
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Post by omaha on Nov 22, 2009 22:51:06 GMT -5
There is something so efficient about his speaker stand!
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Post by sidheguitarmichael on Nov 23, 2009 2:33:00 GMT -5
I know nothing about building guitars, but I'll take his view out the window any day. That's the truth; the place is so bucolic. I love sitting in the window playing someone else's mega-grand guitar as the wind blows through the pines. Which I do pretty much every time he strings up a new batch. I can't even imagine spending my days out there building guitars. Perfect. A beautiful life.
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Post by theevan on Nov 23, 2009 6:38:35 GMT -5
Greg Byers has a beautiful place in the mountains he built himself but his view isn't quite like Eric's.
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Post by TKennedy on Nov 23, 2009 9:45:06 GMT -5
Very nice! I love his homemade thickness sander. No loose clothing allowed around that baby.
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Post by Greg B on Nov 23, 2009 10:07:43 GMT -5
I barely have time to work in my shop at all and it's WAY dirtier than that.
Actually, I did work this weekend. It was a nice change to get out and cut some wood. I started adding layers of binding to my headstock. Cut out a bridge blank and started to work on a fingerboard for my personal dulcimer when I realized that the fingerboard had twisted. There's an expensive piece of bocote and purpleheart firewood.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2009 10:41:54 GMT -5
Now that looks like a fun field trip. Notice the dust collector next to the *Brune sander, he probably has most of his machines on a collection system. I don't see any crappy repairs here. I do see repairs done by a very skillful and well intentioned person. The major problem is that someone has splinted the top to repair 3 of the cracks, that's a no-no in my book, and has used way too many cleats per crack. * I still have the plans for this type of thickness sander tucked away in my library somewhere.
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Post by sidheguitarmichael on Nov 23, 2009 13:47:42 GMT -5
Good eye, Marty!
he does use a dust collector on all of his various machines. If you look at the sander, you can see the removed cover with the connector to the collector on the floor. he pulled it off to show us the machine, as well as to show us the cocobolo dust from rough-thicknessing the back on my old teacher (James Reid's) upcoming guitar. The guitar will be a 640mm cedar/cocobolo instrument. The last cedar/coco that he built for James (a 650mm, about 7 years ago) was just a killer. Cedar and cocobolo can be a great combo for CGs.
That's some oily, clumpy stuff; the castoff from cocobolo.
And yes, that looks like a lot of cleats on that old top. Perhaps "crappy" was indeed a, well, crappy choice of adjectives however. I stand corrected on that front.
As an aside, Eric uses the other side of that top as his "gold standard" (no pun intended) for eventual color when mixing up his french polish color. The backlighting from the window makes it harder to see, but the top on that 11-ish year old 37 Hauser repro that Art is playing in the pic just below the HH2 top has mellowed to almost the same golden color as the pretty side of the Hauser top.
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Post by j on Nov 23, 2009 15:53:37 GMT -5
While a new classical is quite down on my priority list (after a baroque guitar and a tricone resonator, more specifically), I have to say that a Sahlin is up there with a select few others (Byers, D'Anton, and perhaps Hilhorst). It was treat to visit Eric last year - his shop is flat-out magical.
gf
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Post by theevan on Nov 23, 2009 17:59:43 GMT -5
You ought to visit Byers when you have time to make an outing north. Have a substantial vehicle, though. My rented Insight damn near hurtled off the mountain numerous times. Those skinny tires do not like being on a loose-gravel road. Once you're there, keep an eye peeled for bears. They play hell with his orchard of heirloom fruit trees. He built an amazing house/shop out there. He's a very smart and accomplished fellow if a bit inscrutable.
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Post by j on Nov 23, 2009 18:29:58 GMT -5
I've been meaning to do that, Evan. Got to talk my girl into it. Greg's a bit beyond my ideal budget (as is D'Anton), but I did meet him twice and he struck me as a very nice man - even though he's definitely on the inscrutable/quiet side. Incidentally I got to play David Russell's new guitar (after he bought it, before he got it... ), as Greg came down to the Conservatory to offer him the instrument in occasion of a concert/masterclass double deal. It was one of his new Cedar top lattices and it was beyond incredible - warm, poetic, refined, yet with volume and power to boot. Not a TRACE of your usual Smallmann/Aussie lattice timbral qualities.
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Post by theevan on Nov 23, 2009 19:53:12 GMT -5
He'll relax after engaging in conversation on his home turf. Talk about heirloom fruit trees. Or evolutionary biolgy. (I think that might be his pHd) Or wood. Pitch in and help. We had a splendid time picking fruit and pruning low-lying bear-reachable branches. Check out his kitchen cabinets.
!
Marty would faint dead away...
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Post by sidheguitarmichael on Nov 23, 2009 21:27:07 GMT -5
So far as I know, Greg's lattice is all cedar; no carbon. Great guitars. The above-mentioned James Reid has one of those as well as a Sahlin (and probably a Traphagen or two laying around..).
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