Posted on January 10, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips In Memoriam: Dennis Stevens In Memoriam: Dennis Stevens 1944 – 2009 by Harry Fleishman Originally published in American Lutherie #99, 2009 My good friend Denny died today. He had engaged a brief battle with ALS, and it didn’t beat him; he walked away from the battlefield on his own terms. He was heroic. Everyone who knew Denny respected him. When there was nothing but Sloane, Denny started building. His work was steady, exceptional, occasionally truly innovative, and always genuine and BS-free. He was a good guy to have as an influence. Denny was supportive and argumentative and couldn’t figure out why I did some of the things I was trying to do, because he was so good at doing it the right way that he didn’t feel a need to reinvent it. He was open-minded and open-hearted and generous, even if he did avoid most people most of the time. He had no problem holding contradictory ideas in his head, and didn’t hold onto old ideas if they were supplanted by better ones. Denny’s guitars were always flawless, which is no mean feat, so it was a surprise when he told me that he had encountered a real serious problem on one of his semihollow electrics. He had been experimenting with vinyl purfling, with which he could put together really sharp contrasts, and the lacquer didn’t stick to it leaving a tiny bubble where it should have been adhered. I don’t know what you’d have done, but I doubt you would have taken a fresh #11 X-acto and cut the offending strip, all forty thousandths of it, and carefully removed it. After cleaning the slot left by that, he superglued the original piece of lacquer back in place, sanded and buffed it, and it was invisible and, of course, perfect. Yeah, I know. Me neither. Photo by Harry Fleishman. Denny grew up outside of Boulder in a modest house to which he continually added, putting in their septic tank with his brother when he was a teenager. He lived there from age nine or ten until he moved to Salem, Oregon with Karen at about age fifty. Along the way he added on rooms and a shop as he grew up and married. I helped him load up the truck to drive out west to Salem, and I didn’t understand his difficulty in moving until he told me his history. You might say he was stable. It was Denny who introduced me to the Guild of American Luthiers, even though we are both non-joiners; it was Denny to whom I turned with questions or to show off. We bounced ideas off each other and came up with a great lutherie tool together, one iteration at a time. His first one is still the best one. Denny never advertised, always had lots of work, was revered in the jazz guitar community, made fabulous steel strings, some good classicals, and a truly hilarious electric, his first guitar, made in 1958. Great guy, Denny.
Posted on January 10, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Koestler’s “The Act of Creation” Letter: Koestler’s “The Act of Creation” by Richard Schneider Originally published in American Lutherie #17, 1989 Tim: In my lecture to the 1978 GAL convention, I made a strong pitch for Arthur Koestler’s 1964 work The Act of Creation as a useful and great book. The Guild ran an interview with me in which I was quoted as recommending it. More than 10 years later, in SIGNAL: Communication Tools for the Information Age, a Whole Earth Catalog, Stewart Brand had the following to say about it: “Koestler takes his notion of bisociation to be the root of humor, discovery, and art. I take it to be one of the roots of learning, subject to applications of method (on yourself or whomever). Koestler is a scientist of some reputation by now. This is the book — on how discovery of every kind really occurs in the mind — that gave him the reputation. His most lasting contribution. Get this book back in print!”
Posted on January 10, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Remembering Robert Bouchet Letter: Remembering Robert Bouchet by Philippe Refig Originally published in American Lutherie #71, 2002 Dear Sirs, Coming back to Europe in 1973 from America where I had been working for some years, I had the nasty surprise of opening my guitar case in Paris, to find my Contreras flamenco guitar broken. One of the components of the heel had become unstuck. Cracks were wide open on the ribs on each side of the neck. In those times I used to keep my guitar with me in the cabin without having to pay for an extra seat. But that day they took my guitar just before boarding and put in the hold. I thought I was prepared for all eventualities: I had made a rain cover for the case and put polyurethane under it. I had pieces of foam in strategic places inside the case to keep the guitar steady. Well, apparently that was not enough. I was pretty sad when I saw the damage. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 10, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Remembering Robert Lundberg Letter: Remembering Robert Lundberg by Clive Titmuss Originally published in American Lutherie #71, 2002 Dear Jonathon: I has been several weeks since Historical Lute Construction by Robert Lundberg arrived. I wanted to really absorb it before showering you with well-deserved praise for your great work of lutherie documentation. I have read the whole book several times. It’s a great work. Bob built my two lutes during his early period, while I was a student in Basel, a time which also saw the beginnings of my attempts at lutherie. I once played my Bach suite program with Susan at Reed College in Portland, partly arranged by Bob’s first wife Ellen. One of the works I played that day was my own Tombeau for Glenn Gould, a piece for lute and harpsichord. Bob liked that, I remember. We had borrowed a Flemish double by Byron Will for Susan to play, and he and Byron seemed to get a real charge out of a couple of very determined musicians trying to play in a cafeteria full of hungry students on a Sunday evening, with the smell of frying fish heavy in the air. The 300 or so students were perfectly behaved, as they listened to a French Suite, Prelude Fugue and Allegro, the Chromatic Fantasy, and works by Weiss and Hagen, played on some of the best early instruments made by American crafters. But they seemed not to notice, as if this were normal, or perhaps such a smoothly executed event that it was no more to them than a violin and piano recital. Bob was happy to hear his own lute played in such demanding circumstances. My last memory of Bob is of his kindness, his gentleness, and his understanding of my struggle with the hardest music anyone could ever write for a lute. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 9, 2010February 8, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Remembering José Rubio Letter: Remembering José Rubio by Keith Watson Previously published in American Lutherie #79, 2004 Dear Sir or Madam, AL#65 was recently passed on to me by Jack Spira of Melbourne, a builder of guitars and related instruments. For several years I had been attempting to find the whereabouts of David Spinks (aka José Rubio) in order to renew a friendship that we had in London in the mid-’50s. I had come to London from the north to study flamenco and wood carving and had started my classical guitar tuition in with Alexis Chesnicov. I then went to Paco Juanos who gave lessons in Hampstead at a coffee house called El Serrano. It was there I met David. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
