2008 Newport Guitar Festival in Miami Beach, Part 2

May 8th, 2008

Julius Borges, who started the Newport Guitar Festival and produced two of them before passing it along to Henry Lowenstein, was there with two guitars. One was a fancy style 45 and the other was this, a rather austere mahogany OM. The mahogany OM had the wonderful dry, crackling tone that I only expect to find in vintage guitars and I couldn’t stop playing it. Julius said that he got the mahogany from a lumber mill that was preparing to cut it up for doors. If that wasn’t bad enough, because the wood had some figure in it, the doors were slated to be paint grade. Yikes!

Larry Robinson had a few of his fanciest inlay projects on display. The China Guitar was very striking but it’s going to look like a D-18 compared to Larry’s latest project, the Lindisfarne Guitar, which he’s building with Kevin Ryan. You can check out the blog that is tracing the progress of that guitar here.

Speaking of Kevin Ryan,he showed up with a handful of his fine guitars, including one his new combination armrest/soundport he call the Bevel Acoustic Flute. I didn’t get a chance to try this guitar out, but Kevin explain the genesis of his innovation here.

I heard that Bozo Podunavac was there, but every time I stopped by his booth he wasn’t around. Still, a couple of his guitars were standing in for him. When I was learning to play guitar in the late 1970s, everyone I knew wanted one of his instruments. I never got to play one back then, but I did this time around and thought the flattop Bell Western sound very good, with a lovely balance of bass and treble. The ornamentation is a bit flashy for me these days, but if I had the money on hand I probably would have bought one as a tribute to my teenaged self. />

Bill Collings had a handful of archtops on display. These were all sold and it seems that Bill is spending most of his time racing Miatas, so if you have one on order you may have to wait a while.

I was unfamiliar with Patrick Queener’s work before the festival. His mandolin looked a little odd but it had a surprisingly full, rich tone.

Yusuke Kawakami had an interesting take on the armrest. It’s a little hard to see in the photo but the armrest and binding are made from a single piece of wood. I can’t even imagine how hard that bit of woodworking was to accomplish. />

I was pleased to see that Steve Klein was building again. He burned out a few years ago and pretty much got out of the building game. He made some of the most innovative guitars I’ve ever seen and it’s good to see that he’s lost none of his pioneering spirit. />

John Walker had some striking guitars based on the Gibson tradition. This was the first time I had had a chance to play them and I was very impressed with the way they sounded. It seems that there are lots of builders out there working in the Martin style but not many doing the Gibson thing, so it was nice to see some round shouldered, sunburst guitars to balance out all the blond top OMs and Ds.

Rene Karnes only brought one instrument, but it was a doozy. It was a banjo based on the Bacon and Day Silver Bell style, bit it was inlaid and engraved in a fashion that was pure Rene. I’ve seen a lot of fancy banjos in my day, but nothing like this. She didn’t mention the exact price but hinted that it would sell somewhere in the mid six figure range. />

No guitar festival would be complete without an appearance by the Duke of Pearl. Chuck Erikson doesn’t make instruments himself but he does supply just about every luthier with pearl, abalone and other inlay materials. I have to say that the guitar world is full of some good guys, but it would be very hard to find one who is as respected as the Duke. As you might expect, he had a table full of various types of shell for inlay, but he also had some more unusual items as well. The multicolored substance is an experimental inlay made from beetle carapaces. He hasn’t quite worked out how to make the beetle parts durable for use in guitars, but if anyone can figure how to make an inlay out of a bug, it will be Chuck Erikson. And on the right was a walrus tusk that had a bit of engraving that dated to 1916. I talked to a number of builders who were interested in buying it to use for nuts and saddles, but ultimately none of them could bear to destroy the engraving so Chuck took it home.

Entry Filed under: 2008 Newport Guitar Festival