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Video Crew in the Workshop

By now our guys are used to it—cameras poking at them and microphones shoved under their noses. It seems people can't get enough of what we do and say. And why not? We're a dying breed—an anachronism in the world of instant communication and impulse gratification. People love that. We take our time and do things to a level that is beyond just function. It makes great copy and it also makes great video. It's a little distracting, but we're proud of the instruments we make, our shop, and what we do for a living.

 

So when Public Television showed up this week, Dave and the guys were ready for their closeups. Yes, Dave is actually hand-carving a guitar neck—but you already knew that, right?

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Buddy Miller Visits Workshop

Here in the workshop we're big Buddy Miller fans, so when he took possession of a bright red Monaco III we were thrilled. We felt as though we were giving back to Buddy a small fraction of what he's given to us through his music. Yesterday, Mr. Miller was in town with "The Girls" (Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin and Patty Griffin). He'd only just flown in from performing with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at the Grammys, but it turned out he had just enough time to drop by for some guitar-guy talk.

Here's Dave explaining how each one of our necks are hand-fit for a perfect joint, as Tom and Buddy look on. At this level, it's all about the details.

After hanging out in the shop for a while I let Buddy check out an Earthen Talladega in my office. The spanking tones of the Double D pickups were of special interest to our guest, and I could see the wheels turning already.

We all had a good time talking about our heroes and the music that inspired us all to become musicians in the first place—recordings by Slim Harpo, Otis Rush, Merle Haggard and Bob Wills that had the magic sound that drew us to guitar.

On the way to the sound check at the Warner Theater, Buddy asked me if we made a baritone guitar. Oh man... do we!

This is gonna be fun.

Workshop Guest: Jon Herington of Steely Dan

Jon Herington is a seasoned pro who has worked with an "A" list of performers. Even without his association with Steely Dan, Jon has carved out a fine musical career that includes his own solo recordings as well. In short, Jon is just the kind of player we love to work with. 

Jon has been using a couple of "stock" Hamer instruments over the last few years, but now he's thinking about customizing and personalizing a new one based upon the Talladega Pro. Because of our proximity to NYC, Jon took the opportunity to drive up for the day to nail the specs.

Here's Jon playing the Tally in my office.

Jon has a guitar with a neck dimension and fretwire that he finds most comfortable, so Dave immediately put the calipers, radius and contour gauges on it to archive for future use.

Because we have so many variables to work with the whole exercise is to focus on the end goal in order to keep on track. Jon's desire is to have a comfortable instrument that is capable of delivering a very wide range of tones. The breadth of material that Jon plays covers a lot of sonic ground, so he's interested in being able to switch gears quickly from a funky rhythm to a full round jazz tone easily. The Tally is not only up to that, it will offer the full-on humbucking rock for blazing solos too.

We discussed a number of pickup and switching options before rolling over to Chatterly's cafe for a late lunch. Over excellent grilled salmon and caesar salad, Jon gave us some details of his early musical influences growing up in New Jersey and we traded some more shop talk about amplifiers. All too soon it was time for us to get back to work, and Jon headed back to Manhattan.

We're really excited to get going on Jon's guitar, I'll be sure to take some photos along the way. Our crew enjoyed hanging with Jon—an excellent musician and a really nice guy as well.