Report: Seminar at Healdsburg Guitar Festival

[Doug Shaker]

I went to a builder seminar at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival titled "The Vintage Ideal: The Specter of Great, Old Guitars in Modern Lutherie."
The discussants were John Greven, Richard Hoover, Kevin Ryan, and TJ Thompson.

The session started with someone playing an old Gibson, an old Martin (both from the 1920s, I think), and then some newer guitars.

My notes are spotty, mostly since I was fascinated, but here are some high points.

TJ Thompson suggests using old, oxidized wood for optimal stiffness to weight ratio. He passed around some old Koa (from a bridgeplate) and some very old spruce (from a brace). Both were dark, quite light and very stiff. As the wood ages, the resins in it undergo a transformation that makes the wood lighter, stiffer, and, I would say, more brittle. He suggests cutting bridgeplates and putting them in a sunny window to help them age more quickly. He also suggests stacking soundboard wood so that air can circulate and aging for several years before using. Thompson likes to use hide glue, but says you have to have a room heated to 90 degrees to use it properly and, if improperly done, hide glue is NOT a good choice. If you don't have a heated room, use something else. Someone, I forget who, said they had a very small gluing room heated by two 200 watt incandescent light bulbs.

Greven suggests using a very flat arch for the top, perhaps a 50 foot radius. He wants to see, after the string tension is applied, a 1/32 of an inch of a depression in front of the bridge. Greven also says that smaller tops should use softer (meaning less stiff) wood than guitars with large tops. If you use the less stiff tops on large guitars, they get muddy. Greven likes LMI's white glue.

Hoover said he doesn't have a particular goal for the sound of his instruments. Santa Cruz apparently builds about 500 guitars a year, of which 350 are custom, so he says they try to build in the sound that the customer wants. Hoover likes to use stiff glues for the bracing and the bridgeplate, then less stiff glues to glue the tops to the side.

My take away: put the wood for my next guitar out in the sun, asap. Keep using Titebond I or LMI's glue until I have a better workshop. Train myself to work to closer tolerances. Keep notes.

[Steve Rolig]

Thanks for the report. I'm envious as I was scheduled to go to Healdsburg this year (been wanting to go for years) but issues at home prevented the trip.
More reports would be appreciated.

[Michael Lewis]

And to repeat Alan Carruth's comment made several years ago at an early Healdsburg guitar festival, "the level of mediocrity has risen significantly", and it still applies. I must say, after participating in all of the HGF events except the previous one in Santa Rosa, the level of workmanship and tone production among the participants is generally much better than just a few short years ago. Much of this improvement is due in no small part to the advent of the internet and sites such as MIMF!