How Many Builders In Houston

[cwood3]

Just askin'.

I'm around 1960/290

cwood3

[MikeEdgerton]

FM 1960

I have an office in Houston.

[Rodney Riley]

Been down in that area several times over the years after my in-laws moved to Conroe Oct 31, 45 years ago. Hated when the music store on North Frazier closed a few years ago. As for builders, not down there enuff to meet any

[Seter]

I haven't come across any yet, there may be some though. There are a few different boutique guitar makers and such.

[Joe Dodson]

I haven't been to Neal Sargent's (sp?) shop in years, but he was working on building a few mandolins out of non-traditional materials. They looked a little like Big Muddy mandolins iirc. Is Big Muddy even still around?

There's obviously Ellis and Collings in Austin. White Dove mandolins are out in East Texas somewhere. I'm not aware of any real luthiers operating in Houston.

[putnamm]

I'm near 1960 and 290 as well.

Technically, I'm not a builder. Yet. I'm still working on my first instrument. :-)

[Mark Seale]

I'm back in Houston and will be building out a shop. I've been working some with a local archtop guitar builder to get started and have a couple of instruments in the works. I'm inside the loop.

[mgjohnson]

I'm in Katy. Currently building my first mandolin following the Siminoff book.

[Seter]

Nice to see some Houston mandolin luthiers emerging, some day I'd like an instrument using a lot of Texas woods like pecan, mesquite, sugarberry, etc.

[putnamm]

MG, I am doing the same. How is it coming? I've got my neck attached and am cleaning up the edges before I start the binding.

[mgjohnson]

I'm slow as Christmas! Just got my neck attached as well, and am currently carving the back. I cut some pearl for the peghead, and was surprised that it didn't look half bad. Now if I can route a cavity that matches, I'll be happy!

[Chadstark]

Did you ever finish your mandolin? Im in Katy as well and curious how difficult making one would actually be.

[mgjohnson]

Still working on it. I have now finished the binding on the body. This weekend I inlayed the peghead. I used black epoxy to glue the pearl and am going to let it dry for a few days before I sand it down and see the outcome. I've bound, inlayed and installed frets on the fingerboard, so my next step is to carve the fretboard extender and begin thinking about installing the fretboard.