Love For The Luthier

[journeybear]

I just got back my 1918 Gibson A back from my luthier, George Youngblood, and what a great job he did! Sure, it cost almost as much as I'd paid for it seven years ago, but since I rode her like a rented mule for the first year, and she never complained, she needed a lot of succor for her suffering. He went well beyond what I thought she needed, taking care to attend to some small matters I hadn't even noticed. She is probably in better shape now than what she was in when I got her. She plays and sounds magnificently. The wait was well worth it.



1) The great man and his happy customer. I think it's a 1906 A-1 he's holding - was hanging on the wall behind us.
2) A view inside the workshop. I knew some of you would enjoy seeing just one portion of his tools - all as old as the instruments.
3) My sweetie and me, and a glimpse of the 1912? mandocello also hanging on the wall. I know that's all some of you wanted to see.
4) A happy customer enjoying a sunny day at the beach.

We also got a show-and-tell of some of the instruments hanging around there. Like an 1839 Martin guitar, one of the first CF made after settling in Nazareth. A double-neck guitar - 6-string and 12-string. A half-length-neck five-string banjo, whose name escapes me. I think he called it a tango banjo, but also something else. He could open a museum of musical oddities.

If anyone has a story they'd like to share about their luthier and whatever happiness they received from their work, please do so. Luthiers keep us going, and don't get enough credit for all they do for us.

[journeybear]

Looking at the receipt, the work included fixing a sizable crack in the top, straightening the neck, refretting, gluing the loose brace, truing the bridge, and a few other things. I'd left it with him a year ago, knowing he had a considerable waiting list. I have two of these, so I wouldn't be without one in the interim. The plan worked out well for both of us. I did get a hankering for something else, though - dang MAS! - which led me to the A-4 in March (after an unsuccessful attempt to buy an F-4 got my MAS going). I'm not 100% on the A-4, which I acquired at an online auction, sound unheard. I hope he'll be able to tweak it and improve its sound. But my other A had more pressing concerns, so that's what I left with him this time. Interestingly, it turns out to have FON 11000. I'd had no idea, all this time. Very cool.

[Mandobar]

I love George. He’s humble, wicked smart and super talented. He’s done so much work on my instruments over the years. I drive 3 hours one way and then back.

I’ve left my player grade instruments there for set up and picked them to find they were all buffed out, sometimes dings taken out. Lol. Damn! I’d think now what am I going to play at the farmers market?

And he never charges enough.

This is the guy who restored Crosby’s vintage Martin when someone knocked it over at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and the headstock broke off. I’ve seen Roseann Cash’s Martin in his shop after an airline whoopsie. I bought my first vintage Gibson mandolin directly from him.

[journeybear]

He sure knows his stuff. His attention to detail is impeccable. And he's entirely self-taught. Truly remarkable how accomplished he's become.

I believe I was one of his first customers, going back to 1976 or 1977. I thought that was an impossible job, but he found a way to fix my first A. It had been dropped a couple of meters onto a rock, causing a horrible series of cracks in the back, which had been left unattended for eight or nine years, so long that the sides had bowed out of place. He couldn't bring them back into proper form, so he filled in the gaps in the back with matched strips of would. It wasn't perfect, but it was solid.

And yes - quite a lot of fine instruments owned by famous people have made their way there. I dropped by once, and was a little surprised to see a banjo on the bench. Turned out it belonged to Charlie Daniels, and he mentioned it was worth $50,000. I wondered aloud how a banjo could be worth that much. He told me to give it a strum, and I'll tell you what - that blessed thing rang like a bell. Hearing is believing.

[fatt-dad]

great morning read, JB! Is this work on the a-model you were playing when we saw you in Key West? That seemed a well-loved mandolin!

I've enjoyed watching luthiers for many years! I think the first shop I walked into was in high school. A buddies father was a luthier. In those years, it was Martin carcasses everywhere! (His son - my buddy - played a late-20's 000-45.)

Fast forward a decade or so and my neighbor in Seattle decided to take a class in instrument building. No joke, I watched him build everything from the bench and tools to his first box - a dulcimer. From there mandolin and classical guitar, etc. Then he moved to Virginia. Few years later so did I, me in Blacksburg. He in Waynesboro.

When I found my A3, it had unglued seams. I gave my buddy in Waynesboro my old Kay mandolin and $50 bucks and he got it all glued up. When I realized the neck was also bowed, I went to John Scholfield and saw his shop! That was a scene up by a few trailers in the woods!

Fast forward a few more decades and all remains with my A3. I've also met and visited Dave Cohen - he's become a buddy and I've learned a lot about building from him. Again, armchair stuff.

Met Wayne Henderson at the first folk festival in Richmond and been talking to him since. That's been 14 years. His shop is so cool! Visited it a few times too!

I just love meeting such builders - folks with passion creating cool stuff!

f-d

[journeybear]

great morning read, JB! Is this work on the a-model you were playing when we saw you in Key West? That seemed a well-loved mandolin!

No, this is Molly Too, the stand-in/swap-out 1918 I got from Eddie Sheehy to be my spare for 1917 Molly. That was with The Real Malloys, right? Must have been, since we were at Schooner Wharf. Hardly ever played there with The Love Lane Gang.

But oh, yes - Molly is much loved. She's the one who replaced Mandy Lynn, the F-12, after she was stolen. There was Mindy Lynn in between - a 1935-ish A-00 formerly owned by the late, great Mindy Jostyn - which wasn't too great but filled the gap. Molly is an eBay find that no one was bidding on because of a little weird cosmetic damage, I think - doesn't affect the sound whatsoever, but kept bidders away so the price stayed low. When she arrived at the store where she'd been shipped, she sounded so good right out of the box, old strings and all, that I literally walked her over to the gig and put her right to work. She's done right by me ever since. As has Molly Too. So I want to do right by them, both to one and to two, too.

Hold on a minute! Further research indicates you were here in 2018, yes? Who the hell was I playing with there then? Both the above bands were long gone by then. Was that The Other Band?

Oh, no - not Schooner Wharf, but BO's Fish Wagon, with Southernmost Magnolia. Never mind ...