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Notes of Meetings January to September 2001From latest to earliest
Click here for reports of more recent events
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September 2001
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The Fortune Seafood Restaurant opened its doors to our group for the second time on September 11, 2001, and this time made considerable use of its stairway as well since the large turnout (fifteen) exceeded the capacity of the big table by the window on the ground floor. Heavenly Walnut Prawns made a return appearance, to the whispered thanks of many, this time accompanied by a thick soup with peas and mushrooms, spring rolls and slices of barbequed pork, green beans and spicy beef, breaded fish, fried tofu with brocolli, rice with egg and shrimp, and a specially-produced vegetarian noodle dish; not to mention a flight of Peking duck and the plentiful orange slices. There were also old and new friends and a sampling of nice-looking koa. Our two round tables buzzed until 9:30, and then the sidewalk outside for a bit longer.
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August 2001
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The August 14 meeting was billed as a grab-bag as luthiers returning from their Healdsburg pilgrimage gathered at David Haxton's shop to swap stories and ideas and, as it turned out, impart advice to newcomers.
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June 2001
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On the evening of June 12 more than a dozen luthiers joined Cat Fox in the reborn Ballard garage that is her workshop. The topic was guitar set-ups, and an example (an instrument just finished by David Haxton) quickly demystified the subject for many. String relief, height at the nut, clearance at the twelfth fret, intonation and you're on your way. Fortunately, just a bit of work was required at both nut and saddle, and then there was an opportunity to track down a little buzz, which turned out to be a kinked string. With the time left, many of the group "repaired" to Hales Brew Pub.
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| At right: Mr. Haxton's face betrays some tension as his nut is filed by Ms. Fox.
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Left: Ms. Fox has a look at Mr. Haxton's guitar. This was the first of our meetings for Chris Chernobieff, who, not busy enough with pianos, is undertaking an instrument shaped like a lute but the size of a harpsichord, which all of us await with considerable interest. Scott Collier, whose own debut was just last September, brought pictures of a wonderful harp that he has built (he later produced pictures of three more arch-top guitars in progress).
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| Mr. Haxton also had news of some potential bargains, from machinery to a container-load of spectacular walnut. The prolific Jim Blilie brought an example of a small but elegant guitar.
Right: Greg Oxrieder looks over the new Size 5 Barbarosa.
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May 2001
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Those who declined the invitation for dinner at the Fortune City Seafood Restaurant, and more particularly those who accepted the invitation but did not attend, have reason to kick themselves, for what they missed included an excellent soup, a dish called simply "Seafood Special," an ambrosial treat called "Honey Walnut Prawns," two other fish dishes, a crustacean nearly too large to identify which we will call a lobster, two kinds of rice, orange slices, talk of landlords, new buildings (including one for local lutherie magnate Ray Mooers), tales of bureaucracies in general and the post office in particular, foreign travel, and an honest-to-gosh Peking Duck.
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April 2001
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Nine of the party faithful gathered at David Haxton's shop on April 10, 2001, to consider the content of upcoming meetings. Typically, plans involved those who were absent and thus not immediately able to protest. The tentative lineup includes a June presentation on frets, a special August Healdsburg rehash, a rosette symposium in October, and a December devoted to electronics and especially pickups for acoustic instruments. Beyond the horizon are dreamed-of meetings with several cellulose celebrities and elucidation of the elusive French polish.
The comfortable Haxton workshop retains its largely automotive theme (see Proceedings, June 2000), but at least there is now a nascent guitar on its own little workstand as well.
The evening's program also called for an exhibition of tools and jigs, and Mr. Haxton showed both a heating blanket with which he augments the lightbulbs in his bending machine and a fret caul that turns your drillpress into a sort of linear bottle-capper for fingerboards. Jay Hargreaves brought two fret-end dressing files he had made by setting ordinary files into blocks of wood at appropriate angles. A jig for drilling holes in lute peghead cheeks rounded out the collection, bolstered by indistinct photos of the penultimate construction phases of the long-awaited McKee 'oud No. 1.
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March 2001
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Last Supper. "Okay, all you guys with glasses, look
straight at the camera!" Michael Gurian (seated third from left) presides over the final bi-monthly
dinner at the soon-to-close Viet My Restaurant. Gentrification
necessitates a move offshore, and the hope is that future meetings can take
place aboard Mr. Gurian's floating lutherie capital, now under construction on
Lake Union. This farewell meeting, attended by about a dozen, featured
donated beer, free wood, '50s-era ivory, two guitars of varying ages,
horror stories about amateur bridge repairs involving epoxy, and a very
small ukulele with a very large crack in its back.
This instance of the Viet My is relocating to Tacoma to take
advantage of the large number of hungry luthiers there, but we have learned that
a branch also exists in the University District, awaiting our arrival.
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February 2001
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The February 13th, 2001, meeting of the
Seattle Luthiers Discussion Group, featuring Jay Hargreaves talking about the
Kasha/Schneider design system of guitar construction, with friend, noted
guitarist Andre Feriante, playing a Kasha/Schneider guitar, was unfortunately
not attended by our correspondents, and therefore will be spared any witty
comments unless a witness comes forward; but from our knowledge of Mr. Hargreaves and his
work with the design we can state with great assurance
that the presentation was both informed and thoughtful.
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January 2001 |
| Nearly twenty (including two new members) attended the
regular January dinner meeting of the Seattle Luthiers Discussion Group,
January 11 at the Viet My Restaurant. The healthy turnout spurred our
hosts to greater creativity (including a Thai-inspired yellow curry) and
left us without the need for announcements. Jay Hargreaves, however,
quietly unrolled photographs showing finish work proceeding on his current
variable-soundhole guitar (see November minutes) and unveiled plans to
deliver it to its new owner in California, stopping along the way to visit
luthier friends.
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