Jim Norris’ Lattice Bracing

by Brent Benfield

Originally published in American Lutherie #89, 2007



The last time I saw my friend Jim Norris was on March 4, 2000. He had called to tell me to come get some more of his wood if I wanted, because the doctors had told him that his cancer was definitely terminal. I got more than I could afford that day, so he told me to send the remainder when I could. When I sent a letter soon after that, Mary called to say that Jim had passed away two weeks after I’d been there.

Mary and I talked a while. She told me a great story that I think is appropriate to share. Jim was a longtime friend of the classical guitarist John Williams. Soon after John Williams began using a Smallman guitar, Jim and Mary attended a concert, and afterward they all went out to eat. Jim asked John about the new guitar. John hauled this high-dollar instrument out of the case and handed it to Jim. He began telling all about it, how it had a very thin top reinforced with this space-age fiber... he thought it was Kevlar. Well, John called up a few weeks later saying he’d been wrong. It wasn’t Kevlar, but carbon fiber. In the meantime, Jim had found and bought several spools of Kevlar. Mary said he joked that if anyone wanted to build a bulletproof guitar, he knew where they could buy some Kevlar.