Bobby Jay Garrison November 7, 1957 - January 24, 2012

Singer/songwriter, multi instrumentalist, guitar teacher, guitar repairman ... Beej was immersed in music but it didn't define him. He was great friend a deeply spiritual person and a loving father. I will miss him greatly and often. Rest in Peace BJ.

Thinline Lap steel

I've had this idea floating around in my head for a year now. I cut the center part out a few months ago and made a few attempts to bend sides for it. I felt like the bent sides weren't robust enough so I tried laminating them ....still unhappy I shelved it. Last week I glued up some offcuts on a pattern and I like it so far.

3 times Un lucky

This headstock break was in for the third time, the first 2 breaks were in different spots but the wood was compromised and a more involved repair was required. Some of the neck was removed from across the break and 10 new pieces (including the overlay)were laminated in. The neck was reshaped and is now ready for finishing.

Mentors

I worked part time for Joe Kovacic in the 80's. I was his electronics guy I would come in and wire up the 5 instruments he had made that week. It was a great experience ....Joe was intense and passionate about his craft. He was also riotously funny and a wealth of information. He could be all these things and more in the span of 10 min. His passion meant I was the focus of his anger on a few occasions (I remember Anna comforting me )

Mostly we got along and I learned fundamentals from a master. After a particularly enlightening chat about guitar building I said to Joe "There's so much to learn when does it stop" I can hear this like he's right here in the room "Johnny, you learn and you learn all your life and then you die stupid" then he laughed and went back to cutting wood.

Joe would run (no kidding) from one machine to the other ....focused and efficient ...then "Johnny it's time for coffee" He would read the Sun and comment on it and be entertaining for 15 min and then it was back to work.

Joe is probably the most prolific guitar builder in North America, he is a master craftsman and although I haven't talked to him much in recent years he is a good friend. He still builds guitars and has an 18 week teaching course in Lindsay Ontario. http://jklado.com/

Jambsticks

They come in GorD keys... but you can tune up and down ...open or altered...capo - explore your inner modal_______bottom line they're fun to play (have to work at playing a wrong note)

There are 3 string and 4 string Jambsticks... 1st string is doubled up for 4 string ....KD suggested this and I like both

They're made from different kinds of wood ....reassigned birch and beech (an old dresser and an old bed) mahogany and maple ...cedar and spruce. Ty BR

I'll upload the chord chart soon for the owners of the first fifty.


gtrdoc59

Hockey Stick Headstocks

Broken headstocks are always an excercise in creative clamping. The hockey stick headstocks, like this Jackson are like trying to clamp a watermelon seed.

I cut a jig out of plywood and bolted the headstock to it reducing it from a 3 to 2 dimensional clamping situation. I use wedges all the time and this was the ideal place for them to apply pressure, a clamp would push the pieces apart. After a few rehearsals I was ready, this clamping arrangement got good glue squeeze out all the way around the gluing surfaces and I was even able to get a clamp from tip to heel of the headstock.After 24 hours I can do the clean up the touch up and the setup.

Fabulous Fingerstyle Guitar Show

Don't miss this show, these guys are great.

Tim Sparks on you tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AnZDJJy3QE&feature=related


Tim Sparks' long journey to the 1993 National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship, and beyond, began modestly in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, when he started picking out tunes by ear on an old Stella flat top. He was given his first guitar when a bout of encephalitis kept him out of school for a year, and the music he heard around him was traditional country blues, and the gospel his grandmother played on piano in a small church in the Blue Ridge mountains.



Phil Heywood is a fingerstyle guitarist with a bluesy swing and a bucketful of whatever it is that helps a performer turn an instrumental piece into an arresting lyrical narrative. His lucid playing encompasses the down-home rhythmic groove of a Mississippi John Hurt or Leadbelly, and the sheer fluidity and flair of Leo Kottke. Phil has played with Chet Atkins on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion.


For more info click the link below

http://www.wecc.ca/site09/performers/Sparks_Heywood.html


The Doc