Archive for the ‘The 2009 Healdsgurg Guitar Festival’ Category

Well, here it is ( I have to admit that I didn’t find out if it sold at the Festival or at all) BUT the actual price tag on this instrument is $US400,000:00 presumably that included the Case!! The Guitar is a maple Instrument (back and sides) and is heavily and exquisitely inlaid on its back. Whilst I did not get to play the Guitar I spoke at length to somebody that did and the reported that the Instrument was surpassingly light, considering the amount of pearl and other material used in... Read More

Charles fox exhibited at the festival again this year and as one would expect ,attended with a range of stunning instruments. none the least of which was his SJ-!4 Ergo Noir 2005 Guitar or as I like to call it his Ebony Guitar,( pictured here), this Stunning Instrument is FULL of innovative Features, or possibly more accuratively put ,”Recent Design Trends” such as a Wedge-shaped body,elevated Finger Board and a double top soundboard or Sandwich Laminated Top. Charles also had a number of... Read More

If you read the addendum to the post that I put at the end of the first Guitar Festival Post you will see that the cutter and its table is about a month and a half away.Here are some pictures of the new laminate cutter and housing that will make up half of the new COMPLETE UNIT. I can however say one thing this unit is as smooth as silk,LMI have done a terrific job on the upward sliding cutter head,the unit is counterbalanced and special bearing etc,etc have been installed and the unit works a TREAT. Here... Read More

There were many fine Luthiers with examples of their Art, in other words there were may Beautiful Instruments on display. It would be impossible for me to feature then all but I am going to feature some of the examples that took my Fancy. I will do this in separate posts the first Luthier was from Malaysia and that was Jeffrey Yong. Jeffrey has been building for may years but this year he pushed the boundaries with three Guitars (he sold them ALL) great work Jeffrey. The instrument that took my... Read More

Ervin is an Artist in the real sense of the word. He has been building Guitars since 1970 and has influence on a generation of Luthiers through building writing,teaching,lecturing ,exhibiting and the training a dearth of apprentices. I first met Ervin, early on the first day of the Festival, in the car park of The Wells Fargo Centre for the Arts, as he staggered towards the main entrance, weighed down by LARGE cloth shoulder/carry bags filled with books papers and other paraphernalia, no... Read More

For me one of the exciting discoveries at the Festival, and there were many, was the discovery of Thomas Lloyd Guitars. Luthier, Chris Wynne, the Principal of Thomas Lloyd Guitars (check them out on the link above) who has been hand building and running Guitar Building Classes both in Australia and Italy for the past 20 years, had a stand at the Festival. I was neither interested in purchasing any of Chris’s Guitars or taking his classes (and that is NO reflection on Chris or his... Read More

LMI has come up with a new bending machine at the Festival. The bender is not yet finished and I will be discussing its design and operation at the LMI Facility tomorrow. In my view this Bender has great advantages over the existing Bender. Set out hereunder are some of the Pictures that I took at the Festival.You will notice if you look at the pictures of the new Bender that the controller has received a great deal of A&R This will be a great advantage to ALL users.Further the... Read More

Where to start??? Well the Festival was all and more than I expected, as I type this it is still going although it will wrap up in 40 minutes. It will be impossible to post all the material that I have Therefor over the next few months I will gather and sort the material, speak to the various builders and attempt to give you a good representation of what was there, and what it was like. I can certainly say this,I learnt a great deal from the Festival and although I am not  actively selling into... Read More

The HEALDSBURG GUITAR FESTIVAL commences on the 14th August and runs through to Sunday the 16th of August. It is held at the Wells Fargo Centre for the Arts,  just out of Santa Rosa, close to Healdsburg in the beautiful Napa valley area. Hundreds of handmade instruments ,carefully and lovingly crafted by Luthiers from six (6) continents, will be on display, to play,purchase or just otherwise browse and admire. Custom steel string,crossover and Baritones’,Classical, Solidbodys’... Read More