Official Luthiers Forum!

I had the great fortune of spending a week with some of the finest guitarists (McManus, Petteway, Rolly Brown, Paul Asbell, etc) and luthiers (John Slobod, John Bogdanovich, Gerald Sheppard, Michael Bashkin) on the planet last week at The Swannanoa Gathering here in beautiful Western NC. What an amazing experience. I learned so much and made so many new friends, my head is still spinning! Best of all, I got my guitars into the hands of many of those folks, and they all had positive things to say and were incredibly encouraging. It was great just hanging out, eating, drinking, and laughing with Tony, and picking John Slobod's brain at every opportunity. He is so generous with his knowledge and experiences, and his guitars are the finest I've ever played. So humbling.

Here's one of several clips of Tony playing the prototype of my Odalisque model, which I've nicknamed Bullseye due to its unfortunate run-in with a gyroscope-turned-projectile a few weeks ago, but that's a topic for another thread (seriously, I need some repair advice on that one). This was at the end of the first day. I love watching his left hand...

http://youtu.be/bKKizBKtPk4

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Is it me, or is there a chill in the air...

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

It's like his left hand is doing an Irish jig! The video was pretty danged cool and also you getting to hanging out with the boys. Please post more videos if you have them.

Thanks-

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Hi Ken, how's it going? Couldn't play this on the shop computer had to get up to the house where I've got the bandwidth. Always a treat to watch him play. I notice at the very end he looked at the guitar and said "awesome". Way to go!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Haha, Steve, that was me saying awesome! He asked me what kind of wood I used (Lutz and Honduran Mahogany) and gave me some great feedback. I was surprised how big his hands are, yet so agile. Also, all the great fingerstyle guitarists have incredible right-hand dexterity. I realized, being a flatpicking rock n' roll hack, I've neglected my right hand development something fierce. Time to bust out the thumbpick!

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

I also wanted to mention how generous Rolly Brown was with his time and very thoughtful feedback. He took time out of his crazy schedule to play and evaluate two of my guitars, and his critique was spot on. Fantastic player as well.

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

That word gets used a lot when Tony plays

Awesome opportunity for some feedback on your guitars.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"