Sarello Videos and Guitar updates

Here is one short film of a piece being performed on the Sarello I built for Mark Korven.

http://vimeo.com/18804319

Others can be found at http://microfilms.ca/home/Welcome.html

This is a small production company started by Mark Korven and myself to produce short films. Those who know us both know that we have a rich background in the film industry and microfilms gives us both the chance to explore themes that intrigue us, both performance based and narrative. I will add new project links as they are completed!

On a completely different note I will be listing guitars available on this blog shortly. These will include a few of my show guitars as well as some incredible vintage instruments that have come along. The first one is a 1951 Gibson sunburst SJ-200 which is one of the most amazing guitars I have ever played and I generally have little interest in them as 'instruments'. I found it among several from the 1950's and it was far and away the best of the lot. It is the lightest one I have ever picked up and is built as a real musical instrument and not a door stop!
I will be posting pictures soon but feel free to contact me prior if interested. The first serious person to see and PLAY it will not be able to resist!

Pictures courtesy of David Wren!

Thanks David for the cool pix and please notice that there are no butts or ashes in the ashtray!

Montreal Guitar Show update!!!!

So here are a few shots of the guitars in lacquer....... I can't believe that in three weeks the necks will be glued to these bodies, they will be fretted, pickups installed, tailpieces, bridges and pickguards made and attached and with a little luck and no sleep, sounding like guitars...... or I'll be in a pine box on my way to the hereafter!

So here are a few of pictures of the two show guitars ready to be routed for binding. The small one gets koa binding and the larger maple binding. Colours are still to be decided but I like birdseye maple when the colour has some strong yellows in it as seen in the close up of one of the backs! Both guitars have a lot of figure in the maple but I don't want either of them to be natural. This is a guitar show they are going to and they want to scream from the table!!! "look at me....look at me!!"

As a complete aside, there are rumours of a new Pukka Orchestra project to be undertaken! With Graeme Williamson living in Scotland and Neil Chapman and I at least both in Ontario, it would be a wonderful creative sidebar in our lives! I'll keep those interested updated.

Mark Korven and his Sarello!

http://www.markkorven.com/Whats_New.html
Here is a link to Mark Korven's site and a little more information on the Sarello. Poke around the site and you'll see and hear what a clever and talented bloke Mark is!


More pictures to come soon on the two show guitars. The backs are on both and the tops almost ready to brace and glue on! I've been busy with a couple of major neck resets and refrets but another 'build window' is about to open up!

Accidental art from guitar making

Process Art has always appealed to me. Like clues left behind of a journey and purpose.
It has played a central role in much of my own art since I was a kid although I didn't realize it at first. The first Art School I went to was in Canterbury, England studying sculpture. It was a pretty traditional school at heart but somehow it had become a magnet for some very cool people. Characters like Ian Drury (Blockheads) and David Thompson (drummer and sculptor) were our teachers and there was some fantastic art being created.
One of my personal faves was a series of paintings by a girl who used her naked body as a brush, dipping herself in paint and then rolling across the canvas in various poses. That will always be my clearest introduction to 'process' as art.
As I was taking Sculpture I was expected to buy my own materials and learn the skills of the trade. The problem was that I also wanted to visit Greece and Scandinavia during my holidays and the only money I had was my materials, food and lodging grant. I had to eat and sleep, so my material budget became very very small. In fact all I could afford was paper and string. I was also able to buy a few panes of glass that I would use over and over for the next couple of years.
To be honest I think my teachers kind of wrote me off as a lost cause at least until we got a visit from an artist having a large retrospective at the Tate Galley in London. He was the first person I ever met who actually took what I was doing seriously. Seriously enough to offer to trade any piece of his in the London show for one of mine. I took him up on it and then he suggested I apply to NSCAD in Halifax Nova Scotia, which I did and subsequently went to several months later, leading to dozens of adventures.....
All this to say, here are some pictures taken yesterday during some fairly boring sanding stages of guitar building that never the less included some nice visual moments that I wanted to share.
More again soon.........

'Faraway' micro movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=img8SYSZD5w

Check this out!
I was one of the producers on this poem/movie performed by Kate Marshall Flaherty.