Wishnevsky shop fire

[mrmando]

Bad news: North Carolina builder Steve Wishnevsky is known mostly for fretless electric basses but has built a number of electric mandolins, mandocellos and even a few tenor guitars. His shop went up in flames this morning, looks like a total loss:

http://www.journalnow.com/news/local...5efaaa34d.html

[Sweetpea44]

Wow! Sad .... he's not far from me in Winston-Salem. I've seen his instruments on eBay before.

[Groooooove]

http://www.talkbass.com/threads/the-...1134882/page-6

i know he's made a handfull of mandocellos and has been reccomended around this forum so i figured i'd share this.

steves shop burned to the ground this morning, and he had no insurance on the buisiness.

the folks over at talkbass are tossing around the idea of setting up a kickstarter or something similar to give people a chance to donate a few bucks if they want to help. if someone figures out how to and sets that up i'll post it here.

i owned one of his electric basses. for what they are, i loved them.

edit- here's a link for anyone willing to donate. you know how these things work... everyone gives $1 and it can really add up.

http://www.gofundme.com/mmr1a4

[rubydubyr]

Very sad he lost his livelihood and his vocation, and that he had no insurance.

[Dan Krhla]

Such a horrible loss. His basses were a blast!

[Marty Jacobson]

This must be very frustrating for Wish. But he seems to me like the kind of guy that's not going to be set back by something like this for long. He has lots of goodwill from the community and I bet we'll see him back up and running soon. At least I hope so.

[Denman John]

My heart and thoughts go out to him and his family tonight. The best news was that no one was hurt! As a firefighter, I've seen how fast and violently a fire can take everything away. It's amazing how people deal with it and usually bounce back stronger from the experience, and sometimes a truer sense of direction forward.

Stay strong and better days ahead.

[SincereCorgi]

I'm guessing the new shop will be brown, ugly, cost $400, and be unexpectedly great at making instruments.

[Sweetpea44]

This was posted on a thread in the 'builders' section for anyone who wants to help ....

http://www.gofundme.com/mmr1a4

[violmando]

I wish someone would put this on the HOME page. I think it is THAT important. Steve was making AFFORDABLE mandocellos as well as guitars and basses.
He is a strong person and will probably bounce back from this, BUT he needs our help.

[violmando]

I can't stress enough that if you can help, please do. I make minimum wage, but have been watching his instruments for some time. AFFORDABLE and made here in the USA.....

[bernabe]

This morning

[Scott Tichenor]

I'm in.

Also, for clarity of everything in one spot I merged a related thread into this one as Martin's was posted first. Hope no one minds but easier to keep everything focused better.

Donate to Steve's rebuilding effort here:

[Bruce Cech]

So sad to see something like this. I wish him well. Please everyone consider donating what they can. I gave, not a great amount, but I gave what I could.

[GarY Nava]

Poor guy, every luthier's nightmare. Our hearts go out to Steve.

[journeybear]

Donate to Steve's rebuilding effort here:

Done, done, and shared. If anyone is sitting on the fence about this, just think of how it would be if this happened to you.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[Rob Zamites]

First of all, I' am glad no one was hurt. Second of all, Wish was one of the ones from who I almost bought an instrument when I came back to the fold here, and although I didn't purchase from him, his eclectic style struck a sypathetic/empathetic note of kindred spirits with me.

That said, I have a 3 course 'zouk for sale in the classifieds, and I wish it to be known that should someone from the Cafe purchase it, I will donate half the proceeds directly to Steve Wishnevsky's GoFundMe account, and will post proof after the transaction. I would donate directly, but I am cash poor, and this seemed like a good way to go about contributing to the rebuilding of a valuable luthier's life.

Scott, if you find this post out of line, feel free to remove it.

[Jacob]

ST. WISH WINTER BONFIRE BENEFIT
3 p.m. until 10 p.m., Sunday March 15 at Ziggy's in Winston-Salem.
All proceeds go to Stephen to help him get back on his feet following the catastrophic fire that totally destroyed his guitar-making shop.
Admission is just $10. There will also be a silent auction.

The Fund raising is still on going.

[journeybear]

It's sad to see how the fundraising has slowed down. The goal is $60,000, and the first quarter was reached pretty quickly, but since then it's been moving a lot more slowly. I've donated, shared the notice to my facebook page and band's page, but I don't know what more to do, other than give more. But I will repost the link to donate:

http://www.gofundme.com/

[barney 59]

There is a lesson here for all of us! Long ago I worked for a shop that was state of the art, at least for a craftsmans shop. A trust fund kid became woodworker and had the money to built this beautiful building and more fireproof in it's construction than probably most of us have. It happened a while ago but I just found out that it burned to the ground! Thinking about it I realized that they all burn down eventually -Martin, GIbson, Gurian --the list goes on and on. Wood, sawdust,finishing materials, electricity, static electricity, spinning machines and heating, processes that we may do that may require heat or even fire . The other day I was trying to rig up a dust collection set up for a radial arm saw and was using a smaller (2" diameter) hose than what I usually use. While I was trying it out--running it while holding the hose in place to see what would work best to collect the dust from a machine that defies proper dust collection whenever I got my hand close to the metal of the machine I'd arc this static electric thunderbolt. I then noticed how dust was collecting on the outside and presumably inside of the hose and now I'm rethinking the whole thing. (I don't need a lecture on grounding by the way). I recognized the situation as a potential fire hazard but what if I didn't. What if something I have is a fire hazard but for some reason I'm not recognizing it! I keep rags in cans but am pretty good at getting oily rags out of the shop completely,I have extinguishers handy,try to keep volatile chemicals out of the shop as much as possible. I have dust collection and an air filtration system, the walls and ceiling are 5/8" fireshield. I don't have a smoke detector because if I'm not there who is going to hear it but I'm thinking of how I could rig one up that would transmit to maybe a loudspeaker next to my bed (or my I phone? Humm....). So for fire protection what do you do?

[Bill McCall]

In my 22 years as a journeyman working in architectural millwork shops, the only fire I ever encountered was when lightening struck our external sawdust hopper (10 yds). But it had a sprinkler and fire alarm inside it, so there was really nothing when the FD dumped the hopper.
I would suggest sprinklers, grounded, efficient dust collection and commercial electrical wiring. Heating is also a consideration, and woodworkers with stoves in the shop is beyond crazy, but certainly not unknown. I would also work to separate finishing from manufacturing if at all possible. If not, a separate concrete storage bunker for the flammables, along with the requisite alarms and extinguishing equipment is a good practice. I would suspect anecdotally that many small shops do not utilize good housekeeping and take all of the standard precautions regarding flammable rags and other combustible materials. I've seen some so bad I wouldn't work in them, since they were just firetraps.

[Northwest Steve]

Brining this to the top one more time.