Wednesday, January 19, 2011

NAMM Show



These are some of my favorite images from the Namm show.


I missed out on the rocking Marshall amp bags


I was bummed I didn't see any celebrities, last time I saw Paul Stanley and Jason Hook.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Guitars



Guitars are very important to me. They are beautiful, I love exotic wood and they sound great plugged into a fuzz box.

Before I started my sewing/design business I played guitar in a few bands. I also had the honor of going to GRD (Guitar Research and Design). It was in South Strafford Vermont. If I passed all my college courses my parents would foot the bill. Let's say I did a three year program in two years. I wanted it that bad.



I read about GRD in Guitar player magazine. It looked like paradise blocks of wood, work stations power tools. The course was taught by Charles Fox the articles also showed a few of his designs. His design attitude was keep it simple, classy and let the wood be the star. The classes were small eight students and everyone lived on the premises. Since I was the only female I lived down the hill.



The classes were split between theory in the am then wood shop. Charles Fox was a very calm teacher, he had a class filled with rowdy rockers and me. We were encouraged to design the guitar body and pick our neck scale. The hardware was the same as he used on his guitars we also learned his fantastic neck joint.



Everyday I had something to look forward to using a band saw hand carving the neck setting the frets. Even wiring was fun. We were encouraged to use our free time to make jigs to take home with us.



I built a Honduras Mahogany six string electric and called it Flipper because it had a sharks fin and I liked the song Ha ha ha by a band called Flipper. Under the strict guidance of Charles Fox I made a guitar that was better than anything I ever owned or played. It was the best experience, all of his advice was able to be transferred into other mediums. Every few years I do a Google search on GRD guitars and Charles Fox and think "Thank you, for opening my mind and showing me the link between art and math."