Seattle Luthiers Group -- Proceedings 2002

Accounts of later meetings and events are available here.


Meeting Notes
October 2002
The Seattle Luthiers Group began its fifth year of existence with an event scarcely dreamed of a couple of years ago -- the First Annual Puget Sound Stringed Instrument Exhibit, October 19 and 20 at Renton Technical College. A slide show captures some of the flavor of the two days. (Pictures are by David Brooks and Sam Krause.) From a twinkle in the eye of Ken Savage, with some suggestions by Jay Hargreaves based on a show in Portland, the plan gradually grew to accomodate the works of twenty luthiers from several states and provinces and at least 500 visitors. The obstacles to be overcome were not inconsiderable, beginning with the basic question of what to call the exhibition -- preceded, in fact, by the question of what to call the group itself. But self-described "head lemming" David Haxton, with a small and shifting group of fellow travelers, dealt with the topics of size, location, publicity, sponsorship, security, and even state and local regulatory law, to arrive at a result that apparently satisfied all expectations. Among the other architects of this success are Sam and Dave Krause (Sam in her newly-discovered role of "cat-herder"), Brent McElroy, who worked with an artist friend to develop graphics for the group and the show, and David "Voice of Reason" Brooks, with occasional assists from Ray Moores, Rocky Perko, Greg Oxrieder, Jeff Wickman, James Campbell-Drury and Scott McKee; and plenty of others who pitched in when the day of the show rolled around. Help also came in the form of kind word and deeds from Victory Music, KBCS (the Bellevue Community College radio station), and a nice article in the Seattle Times, which you may be able to read by following this link. The information from our website, including a list of exhibitors, is available here, and we hope to include a more comprehensive report soon.
September 2002
Well satisfied with the accomodations at Gurian Instruments, Inc., the Seattle Luthiers returned on the evening of September 10 for their annual potluck dinner and end-of-summer celebration.
August 2002
On the evening of August 13 a score of luthiers boarded a barge near Gasworks Park on Lake Union, swarmed aloft (up to the barbeque deck) and embarked upon a journey through the mysteries of tool sharpening with skipper Michael Gurian. Asked to start with the "philosophy" of sharpening, Gurian made several clear statements. First, how sharp is sharp depends on what you're using the tool for. Second, for making musical instruments, that level of sharpness is surprisingly sharp (one decades-old chisel, passed around as an example, underscored this point by actually drawing blood from a famous instrument builder). Third, it's that sharpness more than anything else that makes this lutherie stuff work. How to sharpen depends on the use to which a tool will be put. Predictably unpredictable, a lot of Gurian's practices are just backwards from the ones you read about. Separate tools for hard and soft woods? No siree! Hollow grinding? For that very reason, just the opposite. Direction of blade across the stone? You might be surprised. But underlying each of these choices is the understanding that what works for the individual is what is ultimately important. And what a lot of edges there are! The discussion extended to saw blades of all kinds, and featured arcane tools for setting and filing teeth. One example from the heaps of lore is a previously unknown use for hemp. There were also three new recruits, a double-ought by Brent McElroy about to ship out for its new post, and, for those who stayed late, a tour of Gurian Instruments, Inc. The last is a sort of floating theme park for guitar builders ("Next we'll be leaving CNC City for the Land o' Lathes. Please try to keep up!") whose future, recently in doubt because of proposed development in the area ("Please get in line for the Deja Vu!") is now looking somewhat brighter.
July 2002
Only eight for dinner on July 16, we discussed foreign travel and the peculiar materials choices made by manufacturers. David Haxton reported on the preparations for the first Puget Sound Stringed Instrument Exhibit and tried to persuade Michael Gurian to undertake to put on a sharpening symposium for our next meeting.
June 2002
Encouraged by the knowledge gained during their last visit a year earlier, tantalized by the last-minute substitution in April, an overflow crowd of luthiers gathered at or very near the cozy premises of Sound Guitar Repair to watch Cat Fox demonstrate the fine points of adding, removing and replacing frets. Rob Girdis provided a guitar-in-progress as well as examples of alternate tools and techniques, and Sidney Couch bravely volunteered both a concert guitar and her first built and finished instrument for work and examination. Volunteers also provided the refreshments, most notably cookies from the famous Hargreaves kitchen.

	Northwest Folklife Festival -- May 2002 Just as the Seattle Luthiers plan the move to their own, exclusive exhibition, the Northwest Folklife Festival becomes more appealing. More space in a quieter room made this year's experience more enjoyable for some, though concerns over security caused some doubts. For 2002, veterans Hass, Haxton, Girdis and Krause were joined by Rick Davis, who, though technically from Vermont, quickly showed himself to possess all the spiritual attributes of a true Northwesterner. At left: The work of David Krause, whose motifs have expanded beyond the mammalian to the mythological, is always sure to attract attention.
May 2002
May 14, 2002, marked the first time since their advent, in November, 1998, that your editor failed to attend a regular dinner meeting. And yet as always we can see it in our mind's eye: the big green table with its concentric potluck roulette wheel; the serving spoons that are left extended beyond its edge to sound against the plates and water glasses of the surrounding diners; the eggrolls and barbecue pork; the fried seafood and the steamed rice; the hapless duck with satellite dumplings and hoisin sauce; the prawns (the prawns!); the cookies and oranges. . . . Perhaps some alert stringer will file a report. . .
April 2002
Popular speaker Jay Hargreaves consented at the last minute to fill in for the absent Cat Fox for April's meeting, and David Krause graciously provided a familiar venue. There was a late start but, as always with Jay's demonstrations, a strong finish. There was actual application of Tru Oil to tonewood, followed by discussion of several types of lacquer and the tools used to apply them, then some talk about stains, and an example of a water-borne finish applied several years ago. "Abrasive" is not the word that springs to mind when the Hargreaves name is mentioned, but Jay has a lot to say about sandpaper and the forms in which it occurs and especially the means of getting it, in the right shape, into tight spaces. Besides the Hargreaves examples, there were new instruments, new members to go with them, and a couple of grand exits. David Brooks, himself a fixture in this space for several years but now with shop space in his remodelled home, was seen leaving with a symbolic footstool. On a larger scale, fellow Founding Father Paul Hass, standing beside his own bench, announced his relocation to New Mexico later this year, a departure already keenly felt despite his promises to return frequently. There was no official discussion of the group's plans for its first exhibition, scheduled for October, but if there had been, it would have been noted that a very pleasant space has been secured at Renton Technical College, that there will be room for as many as thirty exhibitors, who may indeed materialize since the costs are so low; and that the planning committee, having successfully arranged these details, is casting about for sponsorship and publicity. There being no further business, the two dozen or so attendees withdrew to await the next meeting.
March 2002
The March dinner meeting at the Fortune City Seafood Restaurant was under-attended, though the restaurant itself was unusually crowded due to some other event. We had the upstairs to ourselves. The service was as spirited as always, but in the confusion, dishes arrived in an unusual order -- the soup, for instance, came after several other dishes. For whatever reason, two plates of Honey Walnut Prawns eventually appeared, allowing us to answer once and for all the question, is that too much? Apparently not. There was news from the world of fiber laminates, discussion of plans for the October exhibition at Renton Technical college, and some wood and fret wire changed hands. Messrs. Haxton and McElroy brought freshly-minted instruments (David's first twelve-string and Brent's latest 00-sized delight, this one with acacia back and sides). Cat Fox, promising to present next month's fretting discussion, offered some suggestions and then led a small group toward Capitol Hill and a taste of the night life there.
February 2002
The second quasi-annual swap meet of the Seattle Luthiers Group, February 12, 2002, at the Greenwood shop of Rob Girdis, was a more intimate affair than last year's. Only about 14 attended, but with fewer distractions from the outside world they had a chance calmly to discuss venues for this fall's exhibition and topics for upcoming meetings. Cat Fox said that she'd talk about frets, Rob Girdis about sharpening, and Rob Lane (who has volunteered to take over the dinner-meeting e-mail list from Jim Blilie) reported that Boeing has developed the perfect machine for depicting vibration modes in guitar tops (though there's a chance that they had something else in mind). He hopes to be able to present the results of a sample test. The tradition of altruism is still strong. There were superglue samples as party favors, and Jay Hargreaves handed out not just his popular torsion-rod knives but sets of earplugs as well, which came in handy as David Haxton demonstrated the electronic tuner he hoped to sell (for a twentieth of its list price). Rocky Perko's box of surplus tools included big gnarly files that made at least one pattern-maker very happy. As always, one of the biggest benefits was just getting to hang out at the Girdis establishment. We left muttering to ourselves, like theatre-goers trying to remember that catchy melody, rehearsing the clever things we were going to make as soon as we got home: the expandable inside braces that are really just turnbuckles. . . the file rack that's just a board with some slots cut in it. . . the holder for small tools that's just a block of foam you can stick things in. . .
January 2002
Luthiers by the dozen again thronged the Fortune City Seafood Restaurant. The fare included crab soup, barbeque pork with a sweet and spicy sauce, green beans with beef, the famous duck, the famous prawns, and a number of amusing cookie fortunes. Jim Blilie, Rob Girdis and Jay Hargreaves all brought guitars to look at, the last a thirty-year-old Schneider redwood flamenco with a hollow cedar neck and a new laminated bridge made by Jay.
December 2001
Dave Krause welcomed the Seattle Luthiers Group back to his shop -- three years after their first official meeting there -- for a discussion of the problems of amplifying acoustic instruments. Membership has grown, and attendance by more than twenty made for a cozy gathering. The amplification solution is always a compromise, but it appears that some compromises may be better than others -- and not always in direct proportion to cost. Manufacturers have widely different approaches, and the worlds of seismology and cardiology afford the luthier still other choices. Besides theory, guests found a great deal of practical information on where and how to put the stuff (including what to do if your hand is bigger than your sound hole), a list of equipment sources, and a chance to make some sound comparisions. Thanks to Mr. Krause, his patient shop mates Paul Hass and David Brooks, and to those who brought equipment or comments, notably John Saba, Nick Peringer and Jay Hargreaves.
November 2001
A new wave of luthiers discovered Heavenly Walnut Prawns at the Fortune City Seafood Restaurant November 13, along with seafood soup and the usual treats including the Peking Duck. Thirteen in all ringed the big table by the window, examined a guitar in need of a new top (see Bulletin Board) and a rough draft of an oud. There was also mention of work toward the group's first independent exhibition, slated for October of 2002. The planning committee meets monthly, next on December 15.
October 2001
The subject was rosettes, as playwright Frank D. Gilroy might have said, when Seattle luthiers gathered at Cornish College's Furniture Design Center on October 9, 2001. It would be hard to find three more different -- or interesting -- approaches than those presented by Greg Oxrieder, Rion Dudley and David Haxton.
	At left: As a maker of traditional rosettes for classic guitars, Greg Oxrieder was frustrated with push-pins and turned to "tongue-depressors" (though note that the ends of his are concave, not convex). The device shown combines elegance with strength to provide fast, accurate but mobile placement of pressure, easy cleanup, and (for those who were at the meeting and thus know the secret) a way to plane the exposed surface of the new rosette level. Those who saw the sample didn't need further persuasion, but there it was nonetheless -- a glowingly beautiful flamenco guitar.
Rion Dudley's work was a clear counterpoint: wedges shaped largely freehand and fitted by eye, glued in a ring. A router then leaves the part that looks like a rosette, including the miracle backing layer, obtained from a huge multinational corporation whose name you would recognize in an instant, to become part of the finished guitar.		Further note to innovators: The striking, finished rosette that Mr. Dudley showed was in a guitar top made of a wood familiar to Northwesterners, but seldom as tonewood -- namely, alder!
In David Haxton's rosette work, known to members since the very first meeting in September 1998, tools and jigs insure the precise fit that leaves the mind free to create. The V-shaped sanding block seen at right imparts the required angle to a wedge (which may be like the traditional checkerboard tile, or any other desired pattern), and the cylindrical clamp, again, allows a router to remove excess. The samples we saw included sawn and recombinant pieces, a ring with loopy, overlapping tracks done with a fly cutter, and a distinctly cubist rosette in two tones of natural wood. And if you're still wanting a clamp to go around the outside, Mr. Haxton revealed that such a device exists ready-made at your hardware store.