The Group of Seven Guitar Project

[David Wren]

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

As usual, impeccable work David. Kudos.
Did you burn in the scene before or after you closed the box?
I can almost feel the moment of no return in your words, "...no turning back..."
That would demand a couple less cups of coffee!

Steve

Hey Steve ... the box was basically prep'd for finish when I finally screwed up the courage to start burning the graphics. Not only that, the documentary film crew (Riddle Films) showed up that morning and of course didn't particularly want to film me practicing on a scrap ... so after a few minutes of doodling I started wood burning while they filmed me. No pressure!

[David Wren]

What's this photo all about? Well ... we somehow got talked into performing at the McMichael Gallery's big ($500.00 a plate!) Moonlight Gala fundraising event. We had one rehearsal at Linda's place and performed Grit's song "I'm A Guitarmaker" to 700 patrons. There's a line in the song that's basically saying if it wasn't for guitars, "Bobby Zimmerman, would still be Zimmerman and Segovia would've played the accordion" ... and I notice Leona Boyd in the front row laughing. A bit of a surreal experience for sure.
Left to Right: Tony Duggan-Smith, Linda Manzer, Grit Laskin, David Wren, George Gray and Sergei de Jonge on fiddle


.

[David Wren]

The Tom Thomson Guitar


The Group Of Seven painters are more often referred to as: Tom Thomson and the Group Of Seven—or some variation on that moniker. Once the seven guitar makers each completed their commissioned instrument in tribute to the core artists of the Group Of Seven, we realized an eighth guitar, acknowledging the pivotal role of Tom Thomson as a full associate of the other seven, was needed.

This eighth instrument, a Baritone steel string (tuned one fourth below a normal guitar) is the first and only time in our collective careers that all seven of us guitar makers worked on a single instrument together. The construction tasks were collectively decided on, and collectively begun in the workshop of Sergei De Jonge, where five of the seven guitar makers met over a long weekend to accomplish the initial construction. The partially built guitar then travelled back and forth to different cities, and to each workshop, with a
second collective gathering—a ‘neck carving’ party in Linda Manzer’s workshop—filling out its touring schedule.





When it came to designing some elements of the Tom Thomson guitar, a common visual theme that seemed to resonate with most of the builders was that of the canoe. Tom’s empty boat was found just hours after his departure on a fishing trip in Algonquin Park and a week later his body surfaced. How he died, who found the body and even where his body was buried remains a mystery to this day. The empty canoe burned in the headstock,the “unfinished” matte lacquer, and the cedar strip construction of the back & sides all allude to the circumstances of this iconic painter’s death and his unfinished life.


.

[David Wren]

Linda Manzer's watercolour artwork as all over this one ... and even on the inside where she reproduced a self portrait of Tom Thomson's!

[IBKuz]

Originally Posted by JSDenvir

Let me reinforce Linda's post. You've gotten a sense of the guitars from David's posts, but you haven't seen anything till you've seen the real things. They are genuinely stunning. All I can say is go see them.

But even apart from that, the McMichael Gallery is like nothing you've ever seen. 25 minutes from downtown Toronto, you're in the middle of a forest.

It's less than 2 hours from Buffalo, which in Canadian time is...actually, never mind :-) You have a US dollar which is worth 1.35 Canadian, which can go a long ways at Canada's Wonderland, an amusement park half an hour away, if you have to dump the kids.

I hesitate to indulge in hyperbole, but I can't imagine we're ever gonna see a project of this scope again.

I've been once. I'm booked for 2 more visits. Maybe I'll see you there.

Steve

Just to add to Steve's post, this is a truly unique exhibit that I found very enjoyable. So much so that I have posted a thread outlining my visit in the general forum to hopefully give this exhibit broader exposure. From my perspective it is well worth the effort to go and see. You can find my post here

[David Wren]

Originally Posted by IBKuz

Just to add to Steve's post, this is a truly unique exhibit that I found very enjoyable. So much so that I have posted a thread outlining my visit in the general forum to hopefully give this exhibit broader exposure. From my perspective it is well worth the effort to go and see. You can find my post here

Thanks Ian! The one thing I'll add is that there is one version of the documentary playing in the exhibit room ... and the full version (with different footage for the most part) is playing in the McMichael theater on a different floor. I don't think they make that all that clear, so I thought I'd mention it.

[Codfather]

Originally Posted by David Wren

Linda Manzer's watercolour artwork as all over this one ... and even on the inside where she reproduced a self portrait of Tom Thomson's!

I really like the maple neck

[David Wren]

All of the inlay on the Tom Thomson guitar is of course by the one and only William "Grit" Laskin! Here's what he had to say.

"With the Inlay I focused on Thomson himself and his early and later work. Nearest the ‘Nut’ we see his drawing “Study Of A Woman” from 1903, a period when he was still working at The Grip, the graphic arts firm. Moving towards the higher frets we see two versions of Thomson himself, the first is based on an early photograph; the second is an interpretation of one of his own self-portraits. The fourth element to the design reproduces one of his painted Pine trees. Given Thomson’s posthumous fame with his iconic West Wind painting of lakeside Pine trees, I felt one of his depicted trees needed tomake an appearance. This one is taken from the painting, Summer Shore, Georgian Bay."















.

[IBKuz]

Originally Posted by David Wren

Thanks Ian! The one thing I'll add is that there is one version of the documentary playing in the exhibit room ... and the full version (with different footage for the most part) is playing in the McMichael theater on a different floor. I don't think they make that all that clear, so I thought I'd mention it.

No David, all the thanks should go to you and the other luthiers on this project. My father and I had an extremely enjoyable visit and were both really impressed with all the builds. We left making additional plans to go again later in the year and plan to see some of the concerts as well.

I did contact a curator of the exhibit and she confirmed that the full length documentary is available on-demand in the theatre. She noted to just go to the theatre when visiting and ask them for a viewing. They will que up the video for a private showing right while you are there. Nice ... this is on my plan for the next visit. I have updated my thread in the General Forum to reflect this.

She also noted that they are looking at a wider distribution of the documentary. Please give us a head's up here on the AGF if they do, I'm sure you would find some general interest to purchase this from those that can not make it to the exhibit (and even from those of us that do make it as well).

[David Wren]

Originally Posted by IBKuz

No David, all the thanks should go to you and the other luthiers on this project. My father and I had an extremely enjoyable visit and were both really impressed with all the builds. We left making additional plans to go again later in the year and plan to see some of the concerts as well.

I did contact a curator of the exhibit and she confirmed that the full length documentary is available on-demand in the theatre. She noted to just go to the theatre when visiting and ask them for a viewing. They will que up the video for a private showing right while you are there. Nice ... this is on my plan for the next visit. I have updated my thread in the General Forum to reflect this.

She also noted that they are looking at a wider distribution of the documentary. Please give us a head's up here on the AGF if they do, I'm sure you would find some general interest to purchase this from those that can not make it to the exhibit (and even from those of us that do make it as well).

Hey Ian ... apparently PBS has picked the documentary up and is airing it in August sometime ... and Cineplex has picked it up for a Canada-wide release as part of the 150th Canada celebrations! Who'd a thunk?

[David Wren]

A shot of the "Empty Canoe" peghead. I had fun designing this peghead and burning the canoe image ... but it wouldn't have fit in with Grit's inlay if not for Linda's artistic flair with her watercolour pencils making the perfect transition between the woodiness of the woodburning and the vibrant colours of Grit's art!


.

[David Wren]

Sergei de Jonge did all of the "cedar strip canoe" work on the back and sides ... the man's an incredible craftsperson!


.

[SJ VanSandt]

Man, that back is beautiful, but isn't cedar a little soft for backs and sides? Did you laminate it with maple or something? Not that I doubt your collective expertise: I would trust you guys to make a good guitar out of wicker.

[David Wren]

Originally Posted by SJ VanSandt

Man, that back is beautiful, but isn't cedar a little soft for backs and sides? Did you laminate it with maple or something? Not that I doubt your collective expertise: I would trust you guys to make a good guitar out of wicker.

Thanks for popping into this thread SJ! You're right ... Sergei laminated the cedar to maple. He did an amazing job doing the cedar strips on the sides too ... tapered the strips to match the taper in the sides and made laminating jigs to bond the cedar to maple.

[markrj]

My poster came back from the framing shop. It looks awesome. The frame and matting cost was about half the cost of a nice used Larrivee 03. lol