Handmade Musical Instruments

Know what's fun about this guitar back, above? It's flat. Optical illusion ...

And look at the bracing, above. Down to the real nitty-gritty.

Steel bodies, from Port Townsend, WA, above.

We went to the annual show at Marylhurst University, as we always do. It's a two-day deal, we often go on Sunday, but today seemed propitious, so we went.


Saw the usual assortment of fine, handmade instruments, ranging from flutes and fiddle bows to double-basses and all manner of things in-between. Some gorgeous, high-end stuff, fine, fine things, and if I won the lottery, I'd have to rent a truck to get home with all the things I'd be forced to buy ...


Not the least of it is tooling across the yard and into what used to be a chapel on the third floor and listening the mini-concerts. Players get fifteen minutes to demonstrate how a freshly-minted guitar or fiddle or bass or whatever sounds like, and there are some world-class players who elect to drop by. 


We saw most of the folks on the list picture above, and there wasn't a clunker in the bunch and some who held a hundred and fifty or so attendees rapt with their performances. It's a great acoustic venue, and one kid, doing some serious string-tapping, managed to get the smallest notes on an outstanding unamplified steel string guitar all the way to the back of the room.


Once again, we had a fine old time. If you are around Portland tomorrow, give yourself a treat and go.