Post Scripts

It's one week after the Fretboard Summit, and I'm left with great memories of conversations and performances, but also with ideas and topics which I wanted to research further.  Here are some interesting things that I've found in our wonderful world wild web which were spawned from things that I've learned at the Fretboard Summit.

Here are podcasts from the Fretboard Journal website and YouTube:

Julian Lage stops by the Fretboard Journal offices in Seattle a couple of weeks before the Summit.

Dana Bourgeois talks about Torrifaction/Torrification.

Bill Frisell speaks of a reunion with a guitar that he had regrettably sold 37+ years prior to its return.

Summit Finale - Day 3

"What was this liquid that was leaking from the sky?"  With California in a drought, it actually rained at the Summit on the final day (first time with this significance in about a year).  Most people will find that a little depressing, or a downer, but as a Northern Californian, it was refreshing and made for a perfect day in my book.

The Summit was capped off by duo performances.  First up was TK Smith, who creates his own guitars that are Bigsby inspired.  He showed off two of his 6 string electrics and a mandolin.  The treat however was watching and listening him play his own instruments with Julian Lage in jazz and blues styles.

TK Smith (right) with his first guitar that he built

Julian Lage and TK Smith trading licks on his guitars

Then melting together steel and nylon stringed guitars, Mark Goldenberg and Eric Skye perform on the Main Stage this time around.

Mark Goldenberg on nylon & Eric Skye on steel string

Lastly for the finale, Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge perform numbers from their album Avalon.  This was certainly the highlight of the Summit and a great finale.

Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge close the Summit

Overall a wonderful Summit.  Everything was great from the location, to the facilities, to the sessions and performances.  I've met a number of people and was able to "talk guitar" with fellow guitar geeks and the makers that provide us with such great instruments.  I learned so much, and best yet, I was extremely inspired.

Saturday evening performances - Day 2

Check my twitter feed for some samples:  twitter.com/hmstrbrn14

Shelby Earl

Matt Munisteri

Joe Henry & Bill Frisell

Blake Mills

Sessions on Day 2

Day 2 started right off the bat with Teja Gerken showing us some Contemporary Fingerstyle Technique.  They really go beyond hammer ons and pull offs.

Teja Gerken in the distance

Then Santa Cruz Guitar Company was doing free setups on guitars.  I turned in my Gibson AJ and asked to have their new strings put on.  Interesting about Santa Cruz proprietary strings: no gauges.  Your choices are Low Tension (Lights) or Mid Tension (Mediums).  My AJ now has the SCGC Mids on them and they feel and sound awesome (but part of that could be the new setup too)

SCGC techs at work

Only available through SCGC website

Next I sat in on Howard Kleppers discussion on guitar conversions.  He tells us of an old Martin archtop that he converted to a 1930s flat top.  He does amazing work and the converted guitar sounds like a dream (unfortunately,I neglected to take a pic)

Howard Klepper on Martin Conversions

I next sat in on a discussion about a new guitar wood from Hawaii called Hawaiian Kiawe with Peter Howorth and Rick Micheletti (Guitar makers living in Hawaii...is there anything better than that?).  It's an extremely stiff wood that has properties that are similar to Brazilian Rosewood.  Sounded very nice but I wouldn't put it in the "holy grail" category of BR.  It's not that rare compared to Koa.  I'm not sure if it will catch on (but what do I know).

Peter Howorth & Rick Micheletti

Then I went to Fingerboard Explorations with Scott Nygaard.  He showed us many ways to play the major scale.  For anyone who may not know, Teja and Scott, come to us from Peghead Nation (pegheadnation.com), which is a site that gives online guitar lessons like the ones that we are subscribed to.

Scott Nygaad of Peghead Nation

Paul Reed Smith and his senior acoustic luthier Michael Byle talked to us about their visions for the perfect acoustic guitar.  Paul demonstrated the projection of his guitars and how loud they can be and how long they sustain.  PRS acoustic guitars ought not to be overlooked when shopping for acoustic guitars.  Even though PRS is known for their electrics, they want to compete badly with the other well known acoustic brands.

Paul Reed Smith & Michael Byle of PRS

PRS demonstrating how his guitar's sound fills the room (tent)

I dropped by on the discussion with Pacific Rim Tonewoods' Steve McMinn and Dr. Dave Olson who are doing a lot of tests on Thermal Modifications on wood (aka Torrifaction).  They are looking into baking the woods before cutting to see the effects.  No substantial test results yet.

Dr. Dave Olson on Torrifaction

Dana Bourgeois of Bourgeois Guitars does a voicing demonstration on finding a guitar top's sweet spot and setting the bracing to enhance it.  I had a chance to try out some of his high end models and to say that they were "sweet" doesn't do it justice.  They blew my mind as I felt the vibrations through my chest.  Dana is apparently known among the guitar makers community (at least those in attendance) as one of the leading experts in the torrifaction process.  He knows his stuff, trust me.

Dana Bourgeois talkin' guitars

Some of the talks that I missed (because I was somewhere else) are Jeff Traugott, who is a one man shop, but makes excellent guitars.  He had one of his best customers on hand (Guitarist Brady Cohan) to do demonstrations, Bill Collings of Collings and Waterloo Guitars, and interview with Bill Frisell, a discussion on Pre-WW2 Gibsons, Matt Munisteri's Blindfold Guitar Challenge (i.e. can we HEAR the difference between vintage priceless guitars and guitars that are more affordable to the general public, and a lesson on Travis-Style Fingerpicking.  Ah well, maybe next year.

Performances on Day 1

Courtney Hartman, from the group Della Mae, is an awesome singer-songwriter in her own right.

Courtney Hartman (I wish I had a better shot of her)

Marcus Eaton is a master with a looping station:

Marcus Eaton

David Crosby is, well, he's David Crosby.

David Crosby

David Crosby and Marcus Eaton collaborate on a tune

Bill Frisell, is super with his instrumental pieces that take you in a different realm of consciousness (to put it mildly)

Bill Frisell on his Waterloo

Bill Frisell on his Tele

Sessions on Day 1

Jason Verlinde is the publisher for "The Fretboard Journal" and gave the Keynote speech and opening remarks, basically welcoming us to the event and thanking us for being subscribers (although I have yet to receive my first copy).

Jason Verlinde (no, he's not showing us where the bathrooms are)

Then the lectures happened right away.  Richard Hoover started off letting us know what Santa Cruz Guitar Company is all about and how they run their operation like an open workshop (I've been there and it truly is just that).

Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz Guitar Co.

Teja Gerken, who you may recognize from Acoustic Guitar Magazine gear reviews on YouTube, demystified alternate tunings.

Teja Gerken on Alternate Tunings

A panel of guitar makers were discussing with us the challenges that they face in today's environment.  The panel included Tom Ribbecke who makes 20 guitars a year, to Bill Collings who makes hundreds of guitars a year.  Michael Gurian talked about how he supplies the parts for the makers and the key point made was if you wanted to get into guitar making the best place to start is guitar repair.

Guitar Maker Panel

Bill Collings of Collings Guitars

Michael Gurian of Gurian Guitars

Mark Goldenberg talked about chord inversions and guitar harmonizing, capped off with a performance of "Wichita Lineman" by Eric Skye and Mark Goldenberg.

Erik Skye and Mark Goldenberg

Lastly, a discussion on Guitars and Environmental Law.  John Thomas, who is an expert lawman on the laws surrounding traveling with guitars that are made of Brazilian Rosewood back and sides and may have ivory pins, saddles, and nuts, went into a little bit of detail on the written law in the law books, how they are enforced and how we can travel with our instruments.  Bottom line is to make sure that you go through the rigors of obtaining a "guitar passport" upfront to save you hassle in the long run.

John Thomas

The Costanoa Resort and Free "Crap"

On the Californian Coast, the trip there is just gorgeous.  I travel south on Hwy 1 where as I look at the road ahead of me, I see land to my left and ocean to my right.  It helps too that it's a perfect sunny day.  I guess an abundance of perfect sunny days is one positive when you're in a drought.

The Restaurant

One of the lecturing venues and where you can check in your guitar and the one spot with spotty Wifi

The picnic area and in the distance, the Pacific Ocean

I shouldn't say "crap" really, but that's usually what I call all of those freebies that I get from conferences and such.  I must say however that out of all of the freebies that I've gotten over the years, I had never gotten a wood plank (which I'm guessing is a sample of a guitar top in its raw form).  Other items are Santa Cruz Guitar Company stickers, a set of D'Addario "Beta" strings (interesting), a Stew-Mac fretboard template and a Collings mug.

Free "crap"?

Line up for Day 1 of the Summit

Couldn't sleep a full night last night (only 4.5 hours) in anticipation of the weekend. I think for Day 1 I'm going to bring my Gibson AJ along.  I'm mainly looking to hit the free setup booth to give it an adjustment (I'm switching from light strings to medium).  I'll even stop by the Open Jamming Space area to see what's up.  I'll probably feel too intimidated to jam by those who I'm likely going to run into, but who knows.  Otherwise, I'll walk around the grounds to see what kind of "free crap" I can pick up.

As for the Summit agenda, I'm likely going to hit the discussions on Lutherie instead of playing technique.  I'm more interested to hear about guitar building and all that surrounds it.  Today's speakers include Richard Hoover from the Santa Cruz Guitar Company, Michael Gurian of Gurian Guitars, and a few other luthiers who will discuss flaming and other building techniques.  There will even be a discussion on Guitars and Environmental Law which I plan to attend.

But what a gathering of talent on the first night of concerts.  Here are the featured artists for tonight:

Courtney Hartman  (sample)

Marcus Eaton  (sample)

David Crosby  (sample)

Bill Frisell  (sample)

More to come!!!

FB Summit Featured Artist: Julian Lage

I first became aware of Julian Lage when he was called last minute by Rosanne Cash to be a guest fill in performer when the Cash family presented last year their historic relationship with Martin Guitars at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a presentation called "Early American Guitars" (video here ; note 1:06:30 mark).  Then I read about him in Acoustic Guitar Magazine and they recorded an interview with him.  Julian performed on his Waterloo WL14L (which by the way is an awesome featherweight guitar with gorgeous tone).  It was a most interesting interview, but the real eye catcher was his rendition of Freight Train.  You haven't heard a really good rendition of Freight Train until you've heard Julian's version.

Julian Lage is one of the featured artists at the Fretboard Summit and will be performing on Sunday as the highligthed finale performer of the Summit.  Here is his interview with Acoustic Guitar Magazine which is capped off by his performance of Freight Train.  I'm very much looking forward to seeing him perform and if the opportunity presents itself, I'll shake his hand.