Posted on June 1, 2021March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Big Blue Ladder Big Blue Ladder by Harold Turner Originally published in American Lutherie #33, 1993 Now I wouldn’t know a Pinusconeus abundus from an Avocado delectable, but I do know eastern white pine. I’ve rolled down mountains of sawdust, sawn down a few Christmas trees, and lit camp fires with the cones. I’ve even made a few instruments from the stuff. Eastern white pine has one rare gift I’m glad to be associated with: the climb! A mass of limbs from the earth to the moon and back. A boyhood dream come true. A place to get away from it all. In the bowing branches of a pine you can be an astronaut, a cowboy ready to jump on his trusty steed, or Tarzan of the Apes swinging from limb to limb. 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 June 17, 2020March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Hellfire! or How Not To Build A Banjo Hellfire! or How Not To Build A Banjo by Harold Turner Originally published in American Lutherie #32, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 My grandfather came down from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in the year of 1907. He was a jack-of-all-trades like most of the original settlers in the area, but living was hard so he pursued a career in a textile plant south of the border in South Carolina, where he became locally famous for building fine furniture and musical instruments, especially violins. He died in 1927 from influenza. My father was only one year old when his father passed away, and this specter of a wonderful man always hung over him. Dad was a great carpenter and cabinet maker, and became a well-known woodcarver, but those musical instruments just wouldn’t go together right for him. 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.