Guitar History 101

Well quite a week has unfolded. The good news is I think I have finally done fairly well on the math portion of our second quiz, although I am embracing it I am afraid math is not by best subject. We have very full plates and work is piling up, yet I am managing to stay current with our projects. I'll get straight through to the explanation of Guitar History 101-As we were having our morning break,enjoying a delicious "Roach Coach" snack, an elderly gentleman rounded the corner of the building asking to see someone in charge. I immediately recognized him as Richard "R.C." Allen, one of the last remaining luthiers from the golden age of guitar building in the late 40's and 50's, co-designer and artist of the original Paul Bigsby "Merle Travis" guitars and cohorts of famed builders Leo Fender, Doc Kaufmann, George Fullerton and many other notably historic guitar builders and early celebrities of guitar. His brother John Paul Allen accompanied him, as per usual, and filters questions from the masses. He had dropped by,Roberto-Venn on his way to Mesa, AZ on a family vacation, and as we would soon find out would be a "surprise" guest lecturer. He brought with him many of his archtop guitars and the venerable "Paul Bigsby" model (which I got to play!-see photos) which was made by from the original templates made by himself and Paul Bigsby in the late forties. He also brought with him an original fretboard template made by the original Dopera brothers whom founded the famous Dobro Model Resonator guitars. Most of our class was really too young to appreciate that this guy was the "REAL DEAL" a man who holds a place in guitar making history. Those of us who did know, where all excited and goose-pimply and hung on every word. Once they all realized how important a figure he is, they all sat, spellbound, in a hot sticky lecture room listening intently to all the famous storys of who did what when and where, as if they were there. As i said a few of us got to play his archtops and the Paul Bigsby guitar as well as the new Model "Uncle Chester" model which he was given the blessing by Gretsch guitars to use that name, of course named for Chet Atkins. R.C. Allen is building "molded" archtops in a process that he came up with and built a machine to produce them using hardwood plywoods, that he makes, no one else has this hame process although on a grand production, hardwood ply guitars are made, just not in his manner, which he explained the process in great detail to us, almost to sort of, "pass the torch" to younger builders. Making sure me knew, "there is always a new way to accomplish and old task." The instructors and staff at R-V were all especially buzzed about Mr Allens' visit and we all continue to recount the stories he told. A fairly big event for all of us. Mr Allen is 85 years young and is still taking orders for guitars. The "Uncle Chester" is surprisingly affordable, and I would think, highly collectable. If I can find a way to order one, I will, and try very hard, I will. I would suggest to anyone that just because what and who he is, the last of the breed, it would be money well spent. As for me and school I will be brief, Mr Allen's visit was the highlight of the week, let's see we are designing our rosettes for our acoustics (soundhole ornamentation) which is very laborious in that it requires hand cutting, with a jewelers saw pieces of ebony, abalone, mother of pearl, etc. to a tolerance of about .065 thick by .032 wide. we have also glued our electric guitar tops to the bodies and have cut them to shape, rough sawn our acoustic necks and will glue thos up next week, chose our pick-ups and binding materials for the electrics and installed the back braces into our acoustic guitar backs. The process of making braces and rounding off the backs to a 15 foot radius is all done by hand in hollow for sanding decks that are precision made and have 80 grit sandpaper glued into them. I will post as many pics as I can tonight and post the rest on my "Mobile Me' .mac gallery later. I am very happy and grateful to have this opportunity in life, not many people get to chase a dream. The love and support of my wife, Michele, is paramount. as well as the support I get from my Kids, family and friends. I am truly blessed with the best of all the aforementioned. I am homesick. I will look forward to seeing a few of you, in October as I will come home for a weekend visit for a couple important weddings and my special daughter's birthday. I f I don't get to see you, It doesn't mean I don't love you, it is just a quick, furlough. Again, thank you all for your prayers, support and confidence. I will do the best I can. Blessings and Peace.