I just returned from 12 days in Alaska, touring in an RV with Carol and William.  I did miss working in the shop, and have some serious catching up to do.  I recently purchased plans to build a CNC machine platform.  I’m not sure what I’ll use the CNC for, but I’ve got some ideas about neck shaping that might come to fruition.

Next Thursday I will be traveling to Lava Hot Springs for a cousin reunion.  There was a germ of an idea that I would have my sister’s uke ready for delivery, but it looks iffy.  I’ll still schlep a bunch of finished ukes and we can have a uke-fest anyway.

The summer will be busy with diversions from building, and I’ll have to squeeze in shop time between excursions.  Lava Hot Springs next week, then Ste. Agathe, followed by Guitar Camp (www.psgw.com).  I’ll have some time in August after camp before I attend training for my new job (High School Math Teacher!), then volunteering for the Boeing Classic golf tourney as a walking scorer.  School starts September 7th.

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.  He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.  He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”  St. Francis of Assisi.

Is there any significance to May 15th?  Half way into the 5th month of the 11th year of the 21st century?  Maybe.  The significance for me is that I’m done with my student teaching, and I will be co-teaching at my high school only until June 8th.  On that date I will submit my portfolio to CityU, and they will go through the process of confirming all my requirements in order to issue a certificate of completion so the state can provide me with my teaching certificate.  Then I can start looking for a job teaching high school mathematics.  The prospects are dismal.  In 1978 I was granted an elementary education teaching certificate in an era very much like this one.  Tenured teachers were sitting on the bench waiting for job openings, and no jobs were being offered to the newly minted teachers like myself.  That’s when I got into Information Technology, into which I dallied and tarried for the subsequent 30 years.  Deja vu all over again.

I ventured into guitar building in 2008, not to support myself financially, but to leave something behind and to find my inner artist.  I come from a family of very much NON artists.  Our upbringing did not emphasize artistic exploration, and none of us siblings showed any signs of artistic expression.  At least, that’s how I saw it until my sister Cyndy exploded with prolific artistic output that made me question where it came from.  Maybe there was some of that artist in me too.  Thus began the artistic investigation through guitar building.

My building fills many holes I suspected needing filling.  Manipulative skill and craftsmanship have always been important to me.  Music has been part of my life since I was a teenager.  And, beauty.  This guitar building adventure has been filling those holes in a very satisfying way.   I have to eat, support a family, and keep the dog alive.  Building won’t satisfy those requirements, hence the teaching as income endeavor.

So, the path is defined for employment for income (OK, I do like teaching and math).  But the path for craftsmanship and artistry is also defined, and I am planning my journey, which includes:

1.  Finish Uke number 1.

2.  Finish Uke number 2.

3.  Help Devin finish his Walnut OM and watch him leave with a guitar and a smile.

4.  Start/Finish Jim’s Hybrid Macaferri.

5.  Design a new guitar for my daughter Rachel.  She keeps playing Carol’s parlor.  The most beautiful guitar in the world is worth shit if you don’t play it.

6.  Start another Uke.

7.  Plan the next 3 guitars (which is two less than the number of back and side sets I have waiting in the wings).

On page 8 of Allied’s weekly specials, one of my guitars, the parlor with the sinker redwood top, is featured.  There’s a link there to this blog, so if you are here via the link, welcome.

My blog is a blow by blow account of the building of my guitars and ukes, where I expose myself through my mishaps and victories.  If you are a builder, hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and help me celebrate success.

Leave comments, make suggestions, ask for advice, I always respond.  I do get spam, and am quick to dismiss if you offer prescription salves over the interweb.

Yesterday I installed a plugin on my blog which is supposed to feed my posts to my wall on Facebook.  This way I can annoy additional people who don’t visit this blog and “reach a wider audience”.  I’m practicing my social media vocabulary.  What follows is a post I made yesterday before I installed the plugin to see if it really works.

Today is a snow day, which means I don’t have to work!  Work being teaching math at a high school.  The power is still on, so my power tools and lights work down in the shop, and I’ve got lots I can work on.  I’m juggling several projects right now, a koa dreadnought, a bubinga uke, and a new entry, a palo escrito hybrid with my first cutaway.  I’m also supporting an intern who is working on a walnut OM.  In addition, I’ve got lots of workshop organization and cleanup to do.

I introduced a new power tool into my garage; a planer.

I moved the compressor to a temporary location to make room for the planer, merely delaying the inevitable; where do I put the compressor?

Anyway, minor issues, lots of work available to choose from, and I’m damn excited.

I received a call on June 30th that Rob Girdis had taken his own life.  I was stunned and thoughts raced through my head saying it couldn’t be so.  A few weeks earlier, I was with Rob in his workshop and he was talking gleefully of his upcomming Opera Cruise with friends in Italy.  He was upbeat and seemingly carefree.  I heard later, through an acquaintance, how he returned from the cruise with pictures and stories of his grand adventure.

I had worked with Rob a handful of times in his workshop where he gladly imparted wisdom and gave me constructive instruction on how to improve my skills, ease some tricky techniques, and showed me the value of having, maintaining, and using the right tools.  He preferred the hand tool vs. power tool option, and spent lots of his energy on unique jigs and fixtures for assembling guitars.  His shop was like a candy store.

Our conversations at the shop were both technical and personal.  He wasn’t shy to talk about things going on in his life other than building, and I got the sense that this was a person comfortable with the transitions he was experiencing, not a troubled soul who would choose ending his life.  On his website, www.girdisguitars.com, friends and colleagues have been leaving tribute messages, and it’s clear that no one around him knew he was prone to take the action he did.

“Genius is pain”, loosely attributed to John Lennon, but says to me that our troubled souls aren’t soothed by our outstanding qualities, but that they have a life and momentum independently.  “You are what you eat” also doesn’t stand.  I know some people are pissed, as his actions hurt those remaining, and it seems incredibly selfish.  But, perhaps Rob felt he could be a more content being devoid of life.

I will miss him, miss the opportunity to learn from him, and miss seeing more of his spectacular guitars get made.  I started building guitars because I looked at what I had accomplished in life and felt that I was missing tangible legacy; leaving something behind, a footprint of some sort.  Rob, even though he is no longer with us, left behind a beautiful and plentiful legacy.

sMg Guitars are featured front and center as a live auction item in Phinney’s upcomming fundraising auction.  The auction is for the labor to construct the guitar of the winning bidder’s choice.  You can access the auction list at http://www.phinneycenter.org/events/auction_hotlist_2009.shtml

There’s a link in the listing to this blog.  If you’ve arrived at the blog from the auction link, and are a potential interested bidder, use the comments feature here to post queries.

Sometimes, things get in the way of progress.  Sometimes it is more important than building guitars.  This time, it’s the new speakers for the kitchen.  After seven thousand hours, I have finally installed the new kitchen speakers, and…they sound soooooo nice.  I’m listening to Steely Dan, and I’m almost verklempt.

Here they are….

So, if you sit back and carefully listen, you may hear total bliss…or not.