Girouard Mandolins article

[Dave Kirkpatrick]

The Concord Monitor in Concord, NH, published a story about Max and Lauri Girouard and their up and coming luthier business in Contoocook. Here's the link for those interested:

http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/8...rful-mandolins

In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote this article. Spending time with Max and Lauri during the interviews was a treat. I have a tremendous amount of respect for folks who have the courage and willingness to take the risk to pursue their dreams, so writing about them was a lot of fun.

[pheffernan]

As a New Hampshire native, I appreciated the article, but I want to let you know that there is a typo in the link to Girouard's website which, when clicked, leads nowhere: "They are also being sold on the internet by mandomutt.com as well as their own website, girouardmanodlins.com."

[Max Girouard]

Hey thanks for noticing that. Dave your going to have to let those editing guys have it!

[pheffernan]

My pleasure. Feel free to compensate me for the business I've led you with liberal amounts of spruce and maple.

[Eric C.]

Nice read. However, it still leaves me clueless on how Lauri does such a fine job on the finish. Was she doing this sort of stuff before Max took on mandolins? I've always wondered.

[Max Girouard]

Hi Eric,

Lauri started doing finish work after I had already built a couple of mandolins. She took formal classes in painting and drawing and loved to do it as a hobby. One day she saw how I had butchered a mandolin with color and had to sand it back to re-stain. She said, let me have a shot at it. Well the rest is history! Plus she has lots more patience working with the finish than I do!

[Ben Cooper]

The article is great! It gives a good history as wll as capturing the creative process. I like the pictures too! (wink) expecially since mine is in two of them

[Dave Kirkpatrick]

I'd love to blame the editors, but the errors are mine. I should have included more about Lauri's work, but it was already getting pretty long and I couldn't figure out what to cut, so I shipped it off and hoped for the best.

[Ed Goist]

..."Surprisingly, even in a bad economy, we've got our head above water and we're in a stage of growth," he said. "The business is in the first couple of years, and we’re turning a profit already. That's really good."...

Actually Max, not surprising at all for anyone who has seen, heard, played, or owned one of your instruments.

[lauri Girouard]

I should have included more about Lauri's work

Nahh the article is great as it stands. They all see my work everyday in the pictures we post. That is good enough for me. The focus should be on Max and how he got us to this point. I was just sort of helping our along the way. I knew I might be in for something when he built a work bench out of 2 x 4s and plywood, bought a bunch of tools and started playing around with a bouzouki, all in the common living area of a 700 square foot condo.