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Here is a pic, taken by my wife. This crowd of guitarmakers were on the deck of the shop for the OLF Arkansas guitar get together Aug 19, 2006. We had some surprises.

Jimmie D. Sorrels, Germantown, TN; Bruce Dickey, Russellville, AR; Chris Clendenen, Siloam Springs, AR; Dave Rector, Jones, OK; Jon Kendall, Siloam Springs, AR; Ron Wisdom, Beebe, AR; Paul Gandy, Ft. Smith, AR; and Matt Jacobs, Pine Bluff, AR. That's the bunch.

I had fun, seeing the level of these guys work really amazed me. Not one guitar that was strung up didn't sound great. Paul Gandy, is quite a picker, not to mention machinist. Paul, welcome to the OLF.

We got a call from a local doctor/guitarmaker as we began, he had a medical emergency preventing him from attending. Doctor B, we hope you are doing all right and everything works out in that regard.

Chris Clendenen is new too to the OLF. He built a mandolin years ago and is just now getting back ready to build.

Okay guys, your take when you get home, Bruce.... I'll post some more pics later...

Dickey38948.8887268519

Names! We need names!

The wise old owl. Ron Wisdom

Matt Jacobs, New York transplant and boy are we glad. I think his smile rivals Woolson's don't ya'll.

I just got home from Bruce's in Ark. What a great time it was and Bruce's hospitality was second to none. Great guys everyone of them. Saw some really nice guitars,Good food, good talk, good ideas. Fantastic unexpected gift. Thanks Bruce

Dave Rector and I went to hear Big Daddy and the Porkchops down on the Arkansas River at ValleyFest. Oh, and the Marshall Tucker Band showed up too. Anyone remember any Tucker Band songs?

Dave, thanks for the wonderful plate of ribs, mmm mmm. Here is a funny one: I dropped two alka seltzer in a cup last night for a wee bit of relief. I found it still by the kitchen sink this morning, unused... I stayed up too late and got up too early. No regrets.

Chris Clendenen, now I remember, you were laying down some pretty good licks yourself. I wish we could have had more time. Another carpenter and a Keaggy fan to boot.

Jon "Letseatpaste" Kendall, all around nice guy. He brought some 0-18 Martin printouts to share. There are a couple sets left if someone would like me to mail one to ya? Jon that small body cocobolo you are building was an O Martin right?

Jimmie D Sorrels from Germantown, brought a cool leather guitar strap he makes out of deluxe leathers. It was a bit different, I guess you'd say ergonomic, and they are custom made to fit. Can you say supple leather, wow, very nice.

Thanks for the report guys! Glad ya'all had a great time!
Bruce, great observation, Matt and Paul do share the same smile

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Paul Gandy drove in from Ft. Smith, knocked on the door and revealed himself for the OLF lurker he is. Now folks he promises to reform and sign up and post like a good luthier. He had some advanced gadgets which made me know he has a machinists heart with a guitarmaker's passion. Welcome to the OLF Paul!

You guessed it, it's my ugly mug. Thanks to Matt's inquiry, my shop is clean, I have leftovers to spare, and enough sodas to see me though the summer. Not to mention gaining a few more pounds for all the treats you guys left. Grin.

Thanks for making the effort to get together guys. For me, it is a great highlight to this summer of guitars.

Thanks again, Bruce, for welcoming us in your home and shop. I thought I might be too worn out to enjoy it as I had a pretty rough/long week at work and not much sleep, but it was energizing to be around guys that share this passion about building guitars. It was good motivation to get busy and finish some guitars so I can have something to show the next time a bunch of OLFers get together. As fun as it is to see pics of new guitars on the forum, it's a hundred times better getting to hold and play them.

The thing that struck me on the way home is that I don't think any of us there had built a large number of guitars, but the workmanship was impressive and good sounds, too. I think Matt's 12-string might be the nicest 12-string I've ever played, and I think that was his 2nd or 3rd guitar if I remember correctly.

Yup, the in-progress cocobolo parlor body I brought was a Martin 0-size, but it's the 12-fret, not the 14-fret body shape from the prints.

It was good meeting each of you guys, it'll be nice to be able to put real faces with the names.

Thanks for the bubinga, Bruce! Very generous gift, can't wait to build something with it and post pictures. Scored a nice little set of Hond. Mahogany, too, I think I'll make a little 14-fret 0-18 out of it.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

I also just realized I forgot to ask to see some Dickey brand bi-flex linings this afternoon...

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Guitars, guitars, guitars! Everything's always about guitars! Haven't we had enough of guitars and the guys that build 'em? NOPE!!!

Thanks for the photos, Bruce. Looks like a good time was had by y'all.

MAN, I wish I could have attended!
Glad to see Matt there. You know he attends LINT get-togethers? IN TEXAS?! What a trooper.

I think Jimmie Sorrels must be related to the Zootman.
Looks like he could be a brother to BobC, don't you think?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Dang! Now I think we need to start thinking of a midwest get together. That looks like it was a hoot!
Thanks for the names to go with the faces.

I posted a few more pics and my comments on the OT forum! .   It was a great time and wonderful meeting some fine folks. Thanks Bruce and Kay for a lovely day.
Besides the really nice bubinga, I scored some sweet mahogany and a beautiful set of leopard wood. Whoa!! Bruce said that was leopard wood, but now, in this light, it looks kinda like, maybe, coffee spot stains. (just kidding )


BTW I really liked that 12 string too. Overload , too many good people with fine looking instruments. Dave builds beautiful guitars. Heck, everyone there built beautiful guitars.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

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

Thanks for this great report Bruce and everyone, it makes some of us envious but also happy for you all!

Ron, where was your banjo? Just rubbin' ya my friend!

Sorry to be late to the posting party but I had to get some sleep.

Wow, where to begin. I'll start with our host and hostess. Bruce and Kaye are two of the nicest folks you will ever meet. I arrived on Friday after noon and Bruce stopped by my hotel room and picked me up. We went out to a friend of his house and picked up a guitar that Bruce was going to restring for him. Then we went back to Bruce's house and I got a shop tour. Here are some picks of Bruce's shop.


This is Bruce standing next to the guitar we picked up from his friend.


Some zoot.


More zoot.


More zoot.


And more zoot.

Next we went to a local festival down by the lake. We got there in time to hear the last few songs from a local band. The bass player, Steve Couch, also came over for the get together on Saturday. We stayed for a few of Marshall Tucker's songs and left there sometime around 10:00pm. A full first day for me, that's for sure!

Saturday morning I got to Bruce's at around 9:00am and everyone else started showing up shortly thereafter. I think everyone was there by 10:00. We talke about all things lutherie for quite a while and then the guitars started coming out of the cases. Wow, you wouldn't believe the talent in this group.

Ron Wisdom, aka Old Man, was the first to get his out of the case and I got a pic of Ron here.



Next, Matt aka matteod brought out two of his, a six string and a twelve string. They were both really great guitars. I think everyone there had to play that 12 string at least once. Matt does great work, and to top it off he has been building between stints in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jimmie Sorrels drove in all the way from Memphis and brought an excellent guitar as well. I have to agree with someone who posted above, Jimmie looks like he is related to the zootman.

Jon brought us all a copy of a Martrin O style guitar tracing that he had done nicely in CAD. Jon also brought the parlor that he is working on. It has cocobolo B/S and a nice sitka top if I remember correctly. It's gonna be a killer when it's finished.

Paul brought a nice bridge slotting jig and one guitar that he hasn't quite finished yet. Paul was the suprise visitor. Here's a pic of the jig he brought.



At the end of our meeting time Bruce handed us all a nice bubinga B/S set. How cool is that! But wait, there's more....he also let everyone go through his orphan sides and cutoffs to see if we could find anything we could use for rosettes, bindings or anything else. What a guy, thanks again Bruce!!

Oh yeah, here's a shot of the bubinga set I got.



All in all, I think everyone had a great time. Man I wish we could get all the forum members together in one place. We would need an arena and also a week or two to get to know each other, and that's just for those we know about. No way to know how many Paul's are out there that might show up as well.

Thanks for letting me ramble!

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

That's a very good and acurate description of the day. Thank's Dave. I'm gonna come through Oklahoma one of these days and visit you on your home turf. Really enjoyed meeting you and everyone else, and I loved your guitar.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

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

[QUOTE=Serge Poirier]

Ron, where was your banjo? Just rubbin' ya my friend! [/QUOTE]


Serge, I wasn't sure it was "banjo friendly" territory.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

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

I know Ron, i thought you would have been inspired by me bringing my mandolin at BobC's but if we do get together one day, let's make that a promise to each other my friend!

Great description of the day there Dave, it made me feel like i was there with you all, as if i could hear you guys play them awesome guitars, thanks for sharing this with us!

Bruce, what a shop you got!

[QUOTE=Steve Kinnaird] MAN, I wish I could have attended!
Glad to see Matt there. You know he attends LINT get-togethers? IN TEXAS?! What a trooper.

I think Jimmie Sorrels must be related to the Zootman.
Looks like he could be a brother to BobC, don't you think?

Steve[/QUOTE]

Hey, Bob's just another good looking guy. Right Bob?

Ron, what's the OT forum?? Great meeting you too.

Oh, by the way, Ron has a fantastic inlay of an owl on his headstock. It was Bruce who figured out the significence of it. (Ron WISDOM) Your need to post a picture of that Ron.Jimmie D38949.5161342593