Cool dude, and a heck of a nice guy
Sept 22, 2023 23:57:00 GMT -5
dradtke, Cosmic Wonder, and 5 more like this
Post by Marshall on Sept 22, 2023 23:57:00 GMT -5
Plus he's a magician.
I'm talking about luthier/musician/recording engineer, and all around cool dude, Bruce Roper.
www.chicagoluthiers.com/1467-2/
I had the immense pleasure of spending a good part of this afternoon (Friday) with Mark Clark and Joy Ward at Bruce's workshop. You see, Mark wants to have a new neck made for his 1970 Martin D41. And Mark knows that I had a new neck made for my Eastman (by Bruce) and Mark is interested in doing something similar for his old D41. Actually Bruce tried to talk him out of it. He even took us around the corner to Chicago Music Exchange to see if Mark could find anything there to his liking. He didn't. And in the end we were back in Bruce's shop and convinced him to take on the D41 project. I'll let Mark talk more about what he wants to have done. It'll take about 6 months or less, Bruce Says. He's pretty booked up. He said he's got 300 guitar repairs schedule for this year. - Busy fellow !
But I also brought my Eastman with-the-Bruce-neck in to Bruce. You see I've had some issues with doing my thumb-overs on that guitar. And I wanted to ask Bruce about moving the nut a smidge to the bass side to get the bass string closer to the edge. I was planning on doing that myself. Bruce said He would just fill the existing bass slot and cut another one a smidge over. He showed me where the Eastman Nut looked like the spacing tween the E and A strings seemed a little closer than need be. I asked how long would it take to do that. He said I can do it right now.
But then Mark and Joy showed up and we spent a couple hours talking and trying out guitars for Mark. Then while we were at CME, Bruce said, let me get back to the shop (a block away) and I can do your nut. About 20 minutes later M & J & I were done at CME and headed back to Bruce's. And when we go there he said my guitar was done. And it was. I asked him "How much?" He said, "Nothing." I pulled out a $50 and he wouldn't take it. I stuffed a $20 in his pocket and he said. "OK."
What he did was fill the old slot with a concoction of his of Dental filler and Superglue. He let it set a few minutes, and filed a new groove in a bassier location. Voila ! And the guitar plays like a dream in the thumb-overs now. And it holds strong for regular chords like Todd's famous "G" chord (without the bass string rolling over the edge).
PERFECTO !
I'm talking about luthier/musician/recording engineer, and all around cool dude, Bruce Roper.
www.chicagoluthiers.com/1467-2/
I had the immense pleasure of spending a good part of this afternoon (Friday) with Mark Clark and Joy Ward at Bruce's workshop. You see, Mark wants to have a new neck made for his 1970 Martin D41. And Mark knows that I had a new neck made for my Eastman (by Bruce) and Mark is interested in doing something similar for his old D41. Actually Bruce tried to talk him out of it. He even took us around the corner to Chicago Music Exchange to see if Mark could find anything there to his liking. He didn't. And in the end we were back in Bruce's shop and convinced him to take on the D41 project. I'll let Mark talk more about what he wants to have done. It'll take about 6 months or less, Bruce Says. He's pretty booked up. He said he's got 300 guitar repairs schedule for this year. - Busy fellow !
But I also brought my Eastman with-the-Bruce-neck in to Bruce. You see I've had some issues with doing my thumb-overs on that guitar. And I wanted to ask Bruce about moving the nut a smidge to the bass side to get the bass string closer to the edge. I was planning on doing that myself. Bruce said He would just fill the existing bass slot and cut another one a smidge over. He showed me where the Eastman Nut looked like the spacing tween the E and A strings seemed a little closer than need be. I asked how long would it take to do that. He said I can do it right now.
But then Mark and Joy showed up and we spent a couple hours talking and trying out guitars for Mark. Then while we were at CME, Bruce said, let me get back to the shop (a block away) and I can do your nut. About 20 minutes later M & J & I were done at CME and headed back to Bruce's. And when we go there he said my guitar was done. And it was. I asked him "How much?" He said, "Nothing." I pulled out a $50 and he wouldn't take it. I stuffed a $20 in his pocket and he said. "OK."
What he did was fill the old slot with a concoction of his of Dental filler and Superglue. He let it set a few minutes, and filed a new groove in a bassier location. Voila ! And the guitar plays like a dream in the thumb-overs now. And it holds strong for regular chords like Todd's famous "G" chord (without the bass string rolling over the edge).
PERFECTO !
