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I just finished a long trip to california to lay my Grandfather to rest, he was in so many ways my hero. I don't ever once recalling my grandfather ever raising his voice to any of his grandchildren (we where always too busy laughing), he taught me to use a saw and I spent countless summers while we welded, worked on various projects and basically fixed anything that needed fixing. When I was 11 I got to spend a day watching him and a friend build a 40 ft sailboat from scratch.

He was a Aeronautical Engineer by training but preferred Marine Architecture, he sailed the world as a young boy, worked for Howard Hughes on various planes including the Spruce Goose and lived a full life to the age of 95. So it was with a broken heart, still filled with memories that we laid him to rest next to his Mother and Father in Ventura California.

The past couple of weeks have been the crucible for me, I've been studying and testing (I have the very last one next tuesday) and am doing much better than I expected.
I found out last night I didn't make it to Healdsburg this year, I'm pretty bummed out about it because I had some cool stuff planned. It's a two edged sword though because by not going I have time to iron out some new ideas I've been working on for a while now. I'm actually just waiting for the shipment of my humidifier so I can get the shop to 47RH and start building, it's WAY to dry here to build, even when it rains

I'm trying to finish up some CNC work this week and finish redecorating the front room for the holidays (and so I don't have to sleep with the dogs ;)... But I'm back and ready to get rolling, regardless of HB I have enough orders already to keep me busy for the next year, that along with a new job should keep me busy.

Now if I can just find a playstation 3, I'll be all set...

Hahahaha :)

-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

Your Grandpa sounds like a really great man. I think I would have liked to have a chat with him.

Sorry for your loss.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Welcome back, Paul! Sorry for your grief but it's the lessons and fond memories of our departed family members that make us stronger and able to form our own legacies.

Looking forward to seeing your next shop offerings!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

My sincere sympathy Paul, Fortunately you have great memories with your Grandpa and they will help you turn your eyes to life in a different light.

Good to see you back here friend.

Serge

I too am very sorry about your Grandfather. It sounds like he was a great man. Having those great memories is very special indeed.

Sometimes one door closes and another opens. It's good that you can see the benefit of not going this time around. Perhaps you will come up with some ingenious idea that will revolutionize your building and put you in a position within the market to gain stature and sales. You never know...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Welcome back, Paul. Good that you will finally get to settle in and get some routine back in your life. Your grandfather sounds wo wonderful. It certainly is easy to see the influence he had on you. And he taught you things you will use all your life and pass on to others. That is priceless.    I only hope my grand children will think that highly of me someday. Build something beautiful.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

It sounds like your Grandfather lived a long,wonderful life Paul.It's cool that he was your hero as so was mine to me. Sorry about Healdsburg but now you can work on your new ideas and go to the next one with even better guitars. Welcome back to the forum.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

    Condolences Paul! He sounds like a great guy! I remembered when my grandfater passed on I didn't realize how much regard I had for him. He was a real craftsman mechanic/Body and fender man, working on Packards, Duesenbergs...just about anything that moved on its own.

    I think I remember him the most because he just sat there and kept his mouth shut most of the time, so don't think he didn't deserve a lot of respect!

Grandfathers are an incredibly undervalued commodity in this world! Sorry to hear about your loss!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Thanks for the kind words guys, he was quite a man and I only hope I can be like him someday. My uncle tells a story where he was wiring a 440 Water Pump, my grandfather walked up and looked at the schematic and then at the wiring and said "Son, that's a direct short".

My uncle turned and said "No Dad!, I have the schematic right here and I'm using that". My grandfather said "Well ok, let me go stand over here when you flip it on". My uncle was standing in the pump house and hit the start button, there was a huge BANG! and one of the switches launched off the wall past my uncle almost hitting my granfather who fell down laughing.

My uncle got a good shock out of it and my granfather instead of making fun of him (although he did have a huge grin on his face), asked him if he has spare parts to re-wire the circuit which he did. Then my grandfather pulled out a pad and drew up a new circuit and told my uncle to use that one. My Uncle winced as he push the button again but the pump fired up and ran like a top.

My uncle say's that he learned humility that day, and of course we all got a good laugh out of the story. But I think that sums up the man, he was so humble that no one knew he worked on the Spruce Goose until the very last years of his life, he just never talked about himself he was more interested in helping others succeed.

I think my favorite story is my moms sister loves to make apple pies, and grandpa LOVED to eat apple pie, so everytime she would make one he would sample it and then tell her that it was 'Almost Right', I can't even begin to count the number of pies she tried to get 'right' and of course he got all the pies he could eat. I think it took her years to catch on....

Pretty funny....

-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

Good stories. Good man. You're fortunate to have had him for so long, Paul. I never knew my grandfathers, one died before I was born and the other lived 600 miles away and we only saw him once or twice before he died.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Sorry to hear of your loss.

Al