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Brad was a nice young builder. Sounds like he is based in Santa Rosa. He had a number of archtops in his booth and a nylon string. I tried two of his archtops and they were both fine guitars (given the constraints of my perception in a somewhat loud exhibitor hall). It sounds like he will be building flattops for Eric Schoenberg as well.
Richard, yes Tad and I spent a whole bunch of time together (we know each other) both in and outside the show. I did also meet Brad Corney and auditioned some of his guitars.
I am heading off to The Artisan Guitar Show later this week in Harrisburg, PA (https://artisanguitarshow.com/). SCGC will not be there, but a variety of luthier made and other small shop makers as well as some fine performers. I am looking forward to catching up with some old friends, playing some fine guitars and seeing some excellent performances.
Richard, given the modest size of this community and volume of participation, the proposal makes sense to me. Deleting other forums vs. just having archives that are readable is worth consideration. People may find the historic forum information of value.
I really think that they could detail their string products more effectively than they do. They are fine strings.
My guitar (an FS) came with a set of Low-Tension strings on it. I was not particularly enthralled with them. I put a set of Mid-Tension on it and I greatly preferred them for my playing style. I switch between them and D’Addario XS.
I wish that SCGC made 80/20 alloy sets as well.
John is a good friend and a treasure to the vintage Gibson guitar collecting/playing Community and this podcast is well worth listening to (thanks).
Hank, that set has not been used yet. Mark is saving along with some special 4-piece Brazilian Rosewood back sets to build a matched pair of guitars (a nylon string and a steel string).
Here is a set of more aesthetically mortal “Lucky Strike” Redwood that he will be building me a carved back 12 fret 000 sized guitar with either later this year or early next.
He will use some California Black Walnut from a tree that he harvested in the Bay area (e.g. not orchard wood grafted to English Walnut, aka Claro Walnut). Richard would be happy to know that other reputable builders are using some of the materials that he loves.
Tad will appreciate this one.
One of my luthier friends (Mark Blanchard) arrived late to an NCAL (Northern California Association of Luthiers) being held at one of the builder members shop. A fellow builder who had died was having his estate’s woods for sale at this particular meeting. When he arrived to the meeting a bit late, builders, including some well known luthiers such as Ervin Somogyi were busy going through the piles of wood on the table. They also had a buffet of “free” food available and my friend was hungry. So he went for the food first while others rifled through the wood.
After he was done eating and had seen others go through the piles of wood, he went over to the wood table. He took the piles of sets of wood and inverted them to start at the bottom of the piles first, knowing that some experienced hands had gone through the piles ahead of him. On the bottom of one of the piles he found two sets of redwood that looked like this. The sets with their distinct beeswing interlocking grain he immediately recognized as “Lucky Strike” redwood.
The “story” behind LS is that it was a storm felled Redwood tree up in Humboldt County, CA. The large tree happened to fall over a small ravine and it left a large section suspended up in the air off the forest floor. The felled tree was discovered about 30-years ago and over the next few years, Craig Carter, his wife Alicia and others harvested a 3’ diameter x 60’ long portion of the tree and subsequently processed it as instrument tonewood. The experts have suggested that the redwood tree harvested to make LS tonewood was estimated to be between 600 to 800-years old.
He also saw “CC” initials on it. The two sets were purchased for $50/set! The moral of the story is always flip the wood pile and start from the bottom!
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Hank, I am not exactly sure what you are asking.
I have many guitars, but only one Santa Cruz. I have a custom FS with an Italian Spruce soundboard from Rudi Bachmann in Italy and a California Claro Walnut back and sides. It has a 25-3/8” scale, 1-3/4” nut and 2-5/8” string spacing. It came strung with parabolic low tension strings, but sounds better to me with standard light gauge stings or parabolic medium tension strings.
Here’s a nice quartersawn, fiddleback Koa set from a luthier built guitar from about 6-years ago.
Here is the same set in the finished instrument.
My last post has been waiting for 3-days for moderator approval. I suspect Richard N does all the moderation and is traveling to NAMM. As I said, not a scalable model, nor one that promotes contemporaneous conversation. I know of no other guitar forum that operates with such a cautious footing for posting images vs. posting words.
