Wilson Burnham Guitars

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it. And they must have a sense of success in it. John Ruskin My season is over at Rocky Mountain National Park, now I can catch up on blogging about some of the work that we did this summer. One big project was re-siding a residence out in Wild Basin, it had once been a very small dude ranch known as "Deer Haven". The building we re-sided with cedar shingles was one of the rental cabins. The main "lodge" was larger and not part of this summer's project. This is the south elevation of the cabin, my friends Tate and Chuck did the work on this side. We had to set up scaffolding to do this part. That is Tate on the scaffolding. It was a little different to re-side with sawn tapered shingles then the hand split sugar pine shingles that were used on the historic Post Office at Yosemite National Park from last October to this

Oral cultures have never developed the same capacity for self dissection and information retrieval that our society has. Instead they build holistic visions of the world and self where image and experience are intertwined. In many societies to separate image or sound from experience - its context - constitutes a violation of the natural order. Allen Feldman, The Northern Fiddler , 1979 This little beauty is built just like a Torres guitar, it has an domed top. The neck and back block are "in plane" (to use a term from Eugene Clark) with each other, the doming of the top makes it look as if the neck is canted in towards the sound board. The bracing is a variation on one used by Yacobi. The lining blocks are glued in place using an awl to hold the block until the glue set. The lower transverse brace is slanted `a la` Santos Hernandez, this was also done on some early 19th century guitars. Why did I slant the bar? To find out if it makes a difference. I shaved out the c

An unimaginative person can neither be reverent or kind. John Ruskin He told me about how it was to be a boy in 1910, in the mountains there in northeastern California, hunting, fishing, trapping first and then how he became an old school buckaroo before he submitted to alcohol. I sat in this rocker when I was a teenager there in my great uncle's house in Red Bluff, California listening to the stories that rolled from him. When he died this rocker went into the attic of the barn at our place in Paynes Creek and sat there for 20 years before my wife pulled it down and placed it in the house. Now here in Colorado, I decided that my wife was right, it was time to restore this old rocker. It didn't creak when you sat in it, it was a little rough around the edges and gray from the break down of the lignin in the oak. I gently pulled on an arm which came up with no resistance... Then I pulled a little on the post and the rail came away from the joint... ...then the whole