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My son is getting set up with the Focusrite audio interface he got for Christmas. Loading Pro Tools now.

Oh, and playing a telecaster from birthday two years ago.



Brad


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I built my first octave mandolin a few years ago and then my first mandocello last year and most of all of my playing for the past couple years has been on those. Fun instruments. The low end on the mandocello is kind of addictive.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

It is officially called a 2011 SG Junior ´63. But obviously the wraparound would have been a lightning bar by 1963 so it’s more of a "first months of production" reissue of sorts. And oh, Gibson chose to put Keystone tuners on this, so I replaced them with period-correct strip tuners with the oval plastic buttons which I aged a bit too. I like the fact that the neck is not typical of the period but has a bit more meat to it. A great guitar to be sure.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

Very cool I'm headed down that route too Focusrite and Pro Tools. That's part of the reason I bought an Alienware to go down that rabbit hole too

J do you know Mark Swanson? He had built a lot of active mandolins and I think he's sold them through Elderly Instruments in Lansing MI. He wanted me to build them too about 15 years ago. They are very popular.

Outstanding it looks like a greta rock and roller.

This showed up on my front porch yesterday and I have no idea how it got there. So I brought it in, checked it out, played some Santana tunes on it through the Dumble clone (RedPlate) downstairs and I think I'll keep her. I named her Lightening With The Yellow Hair since I just got done binge watching 1883.

It's great, superb fit and finish, superb pick-ups that like it's name sake sustain for days like an organ, super comfortable, 8.05lbs, great neck less relief treble side, etc.

Now I'm positively envious. One of my all-time favorites for gigging is a 20-year old McCarty.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

I've been playing this parlor I built in 2020. Its going to a fund raiser auction for a friend that has ALS. Might have to make another one.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Right now, I'm rather partial to my Giannini Craviola.

Cool I think my business partner has one and these are collectible too. We see them every few years in the shop too.

Hesh, we too have a little evening ritual that we've been doing for many many years now. We watch a hour of local and network news, that is all I can take. Then while Mrs Keller makes dinner I "practice'. Basically that means I take one of the electrics (which I really don't play) and do some scales and chord progressions and maybe take some sheet music and try to learn something. I lock myself away in the media room (thats where the amp is) and try to not disturb anyone. These are the usual culprits, the single cut hollow body has been getting a lot of play



Dinner over and the washup done, I'll build a fire, pour a glass of wine and get one of the acoustics out. I just sort of cycle thru them as my mood and maybe what I want to play, the nice thing is that way I get to check and dampen the sponges in the humidifiers. Out of all the different acoustics I'm finding that I play the archtop (right side of the picture) more than some of the others.



I'm an advanced beginner finger picker, I try to actually "play" songs that you might recognize. Tears in Heaven, Dust in the Wind, maybe a Kottke ditty. My wife seems to enjoy her little concert, at least she says she does.

One thing I've noticed as I move more into my golden years (slightly tarnished) is that my fingers have a harder time going places they used to with ease and my brain has a harder time remembering which chord comes after whatever it was I just played. Entropy

I'm down to playing only guitars I've made and I'm starting to give more of those away. But I am still playing.

Freeman this is great and I can completely relate. Our guitars become family members and it's very fun to interact with them every day.

Your guitars look fantastic and my bet is that they are a lot of fun to play and hear.

Have you ever considered building an amp? I went that direction and it as a great time too.

I have a simple Itunes play list that has about 100 of my favorite tunes on it. I spool that up and send it via Bluetooth to a pair of Audio Engine speakers (my band LOL) and I play along with my favorite tunes. It's a good time.

I never built an electric and should have they are my first love. I do play my Heshtone acoustics, the prototypes that I would not sell that are in my living room.

Great to hear my friend that you and your's are enjoying the Lutherie journey too. I don't know what I would do without guitars in my life every day.

25 years ago, I built my first guitar. I was shocked, but I liked playing it more than my Martin d-18. For more than twenty years after that, I never again played a guitar I didn't build (and I practice/play at least 2 hours most days).

Recently I made a radical change in life and had to leave not only my shop and tools behind, but also all my guitars. In my new life I realized I couldn't function properly without a guitar in my hand at least a little bit every day. I bought this out of desperation:

https://harleybenton.com/product/hb-35plus-ld/

The worst part? The VERY WORST part? I love playing it. All my years, technique, tools, experiments, and passion and it came to this. I'm perfectly happy with a $300 Chinese made guitar.

The amp in the picture is a 6/12 watt kit from a British company called AmpMaker. Sitting on top is a spring reverb kit from MojoTone. My kit and scratch build dates back to Heathkits as a kid 65 years ago.

And yes, life would be sad without music, books annd a good friend to share them.

They are very good and surprisingly so. I see them near weekly now from budget conscious folks who just want a professional set-up. And when that's done these are excellent players you're right.

In some ways the build quality is as good or better than what I see from some major US producers....

When we were kids Randy US stuff was the standard that all others were judged against. Not any more.... sadly. We still produce some of the finest guitars in the world but there are at least two big US producers whose quality control sucks.

One US company produces their less expensive stuff here in the US and their high-end in Asia. The reverse of what we saw in the last 50 years.

Heathkits wow I remember them and the catalog was a favorite read.

These three are currently getting the most attention. The one with the dark burst is a 00.12.25, Sitka over Honduran mahogany. The little guy is 20” scale Ukeguitar/Guitarulele tuned to A, very fun and loud. Then there’s the 25.5” scale Mod-dread, Sitka over leopard.

Playing every day… M

Beautiful Michael!

I've been playing some lately. I can't play what I used to play easily a few years ago when I was actually practicing. but it's getting better. I was on the archtop, but the nylon is easier on my left fingers without calluses yet. It is a Stauffer copy. Nice comfy size, around the same as many romantic guitars, and the little Torres I have going. 12" or so wide, and 17" high. A 625 scale.

It weighs 1.13 kg. The tuners add a lot. The 16" archtop is 1.66 kg. That seems more impressive.

I just had to move the neck down, and turn the dehumidifier on downstairs. The strings got too high for me. Nylon classical strings Aquilla Ambra 900. I don't know what they were at, but some turning on the neck bolt with a 4mm Allen wrench, and it is down to 2.5 to 1.5 mm. I think that is fairly low for nylons. I could go lower probably. I'd like it lower. I did have to move it the other way when the humidity got ridiculously low 32% or so. So there is easily enough movement with the bolt.

Really simple idea. I don't know why I'd make any different neck joint. Bang zoom, and you are back to comfortable. It moved that much in one day. You would have to do some engineering to see what you have to do for a more normal string angle. Ken Parker doesn't do normal.

Well!

We dropped the land line, and the DSL went out too. They said is was still on. Turns out, our 10mb went up to 80mb with the phone off! The DSL light blinked, but the modem couldn't handle it.

Those photos went in fast.

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Why be normal?

I like what you're doing Ken. I grew up around early instruments--my Dad was a music professor and had an early music ensemble in his department. Mostly earlier stuff than guitars, but being around theorbos and viols and gambas and lutes definitely shaped my thinking at an early age. Seeing the stuff at the Victoria and Albert that Joachim Tielke and some of those guys did blew me away! Led me more into the inlay/engraving side of things than the instrument making side, but it was great stuff.

Dave