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Notes of Meetings June '99 to May '00From latest to earliest
Click here for reports of more recent events
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May 2000The Seattle Lutherie Group's exhibit at the Northwest Folklife Festival, Memorial Day weekend: an insider's look by Brent McElroy, plus an article in the first issue of Seattle's own Lutherie District NEWS. |
March 2000The March dinner at the Viet My was a pretty relaxed affair. There were no announcements, but following an excellent repast (soup: poultry; spicy brown sauce: mussels; curry: prawns; the usual spring rolls and shrimp-and-pickled-vegetable salad) those planning for the Northwest Folklife Festival exhibit met among themselves. |
February 2000Noted author, raconteur and star of the small screen Michael Dresdner mesmerized a near record crowd of Puget Sound area luthiers at Michael Gurian's Pioneer Square shop on February 8 with a no-holds-barred discussion of finishes. Most of the evening was taken up with questions. There was no single answer, but the word "shellac" came up a lot. Is your plasticizer really a fugitive? What's one big difference between badger and camel brushes? How will you learn these things without coming to our meetings? Possibly by acquiring The New Wood Finishing Book. |
January 2000A savory soup with mushrooms and tofu, fried rice with spring vegetables, and shrimp lightly battered and deep-fried greeted a dozen luthiers at their favorite dinner venue, the Viet My, on January 11, 2000. Michael Gurian introduced Kevin Almeida to the group as a master of computer inlay technique; other members invented brief autobiographies in response. David Brooks brought empty baby-food jars for last month's hot-glue converts and in return was given advice about parenting and soundhole placement and bracing for his next guitar project. Following criticism of those who fail to appear for dinner, and a few jokes at the expense of banjo players, the group fell to discussing plans for this year's Northwest Folklife Festival. |
December 1999Our last meeting of the 1999 calendar year took place on December 14 at Michael Gurian's studio. About twenty luthiers attended, two from as far away as Olympia. Guest host Clint Farrell unveiled the results of his glue survey and with special guest Michael Dresdner explored the mysteries of mucilage. Sample glue lines were examined and then broken to test their characteristics. Much-praised hide glue was heated and offered for tactile examination. Mr. Gurian provided samples, information on other animal adhesives, and a look at manufacturers' tech sheets. Jay Hargreaves arrived with examples of the laminated braces he makes for his Kasha style guitars and with a welcome batch of cookies. The evening ended with a planning session for next year's exhibit at the Northwest Folklife Festival. |
November 1999The chill, blustery weather of November 9 deterred only a few luthiers from attending the regular dinner at the Viet My. Those who were there found egg rolls, a thick seafood soup, chicken curry, giant prawns, the familiar grated-carrot salad, and, in at least one case, a fortune cookie advising that "Tasks where skill is essential may be accomplished." There were also new members, old members, an invitation to Michael Gurian's holiday celebration (December 4), a look at Jay Hargreaves' stunning blue acoustic bass, a quantity of Rion Dudley's miracle shaping tools (see June entry for details), a glue-preference survey by Clint Ferrell (with the promise of a presentation on glues at the next meeting, December 14 at Gurian's lutherie paradise), and a plea by Founding Father (and now actual father) David Brooks for someone to take over the duties of keeping the membership list (answered by new membership-list keeper Jim Blilie). Whew! |
October 1999The Seattle Luthiers Group swung into its second year on October 5th with a gathering at the campus of the Cornish College of the Arts, where an audience of about three dozen enjoyed a detailed slide presentation by Steve Andersen on the making of an archtop guitar. There was something for everyone, from careful explanations of purpose-built machines and jigs to a demonstration of how to mask f-holes from the inside. The evening ended with a frank discussion of lacquer and the the lutherie business in general. |
 | There was time after the slides to talk about starting out as a luthier. Photo by David Brooks. | | In a couple of weeks we will all be able to see pictures of the guitar in the "Fresh Fish" area of Steve's web site. |
July 1999Sunday July 18th, 1999, the first Seattle Luthiers Group Potluck was held at Jerry Timm's place in Auburn. The photos of that event are no longer available on the web, but you may be able to get Jerry to reminisce.
June 1999 |
| Tuesday, June 15, 1999, our hosts were Brent McElroy and Picasso, the muse and guardian at the former's appealing home and workshop in soon-to-be-trendy Lower Belltown. A jubilant post-Folklife crowd brought jigs and tools for show-and-tell, and Ken Savage brought his first completed guitar, still in white but newly strung, judged by all to be a handsome instrument despite his excuses. Food surpassed the usual chips, salsa and very good cookies to include nuts and fresh fruit, remarkably large succulent strawberries with cream for dipping. |
| Mr. Savage (left) and Mr. Haxton discuss the use of Mr. Haxton's device for shaping fingerboards. Many of the items shown were router guides or attachments. |  |
| In addition to a neck-shaping contrivance, Rion Dudley had examples of a lazer-made tool, a cross between a box rasp and a cuts-everything TV-miracle knife, which he knows how to get in quantitiy and which we predict would be a big seller. Mr. Dudley also invited the group to hold its August meeting at a time and place which would allow them to see the work of the students at his instrument-building class at Cornish. Not to be outdone, Jerry Timm offered to host a potluck at his place at Auburn in July, in lieu of the usual Tuesday evening dinner at the Viet My. |