Nice to hear that and it was nice to meet her as well - please tell her for me. Cory was pretty taken with your work and my wife really liked the photo of the laurel guitar.

Yay Karen!
 

Yay for Karen!!!
The Luthiers I know are all spectacular human beings in the best sense! Glad it was a blast. Hope you sold a couple...
Cheers
Paul

Mark, it was a pleasure to finally meet you and your lovely wife! You weren't around my first go-around the past weekend, but she was so excited and proud of your work! Your guitars are as beautiful in-person as they are in the pics here!

It was great to catch up with you!

Thanks Paul, The whole community of builders and players are a wonderful group. It was also wonderful to go three days with that many people and not hear any talk of politics! I've got some orders coming and a number of folks are coming out to the my studio. Busy times ahead!

Thanks, it was great to meet you too! I never heard my wife say so many nice things about me!:)

Mark, it was a genuine pleasure meeting you and playing that cedar SJ you brought. Really changed my mind about the potential of cedar in the hands of a great builder. I'll be emailing you soon.

Dustin I enjoyed hearing you play that guitar! I look forward to working with you.

Mark

That was a wonderful guitar! It surprised me as well.

Thanks Mike! Cedar on Indian Rosewood are both underrated woods. Combined their qualities can't be ignored.

I’m a believer! Mark’s lattice bracing combined with this wood combination creates a most amazingly responsive and tonally dynamic guitar.

New Woods
 

We're reaching the end of the year and it's getting on time to close out this Studio 2018 thread. I thought a nice finish would be to show off some of the great woods I've been getting lately.

I just came across a couple of nicely cut and beautifully figured Tigerwood or Goncalo Alves boards:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4807/...822bb073_c.jpg

I started re-sawing them and am pretty sure I will be going back for some more!

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1927/...399763a5_b.jpg

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1925/...7b269a58_b.jpg

On the domestic wood front I happened across this very unusually figured and colored Claro Walnut set:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4823/...2c495b87_b.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4879/...cebf0218_c.jpg

Another great domestic that I've been stocking up on is Myrtle:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1978/...b0bd1a29_b.jpg

Thanks everyone for your comments along the way. I'll start up the Hatcher Studio 2019 in a couple weeks.

Mark

Goncalo Alves, very under rated. I have a Custom NAMM Martin with GA back and sides and Alpine top. It is 0-14 body and it just jumps alive at the lightest touch. Extremely articulate. Plays much larger than it is. Can't wait to see this build Mark.
https://i.imgur.com/Ji0lwLF.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/OZKbuYF.jpg

Looking at the back of that guitar it’s easy to see why Goncalo Alves is also called Tigerwood. Thanks for showing that!

Mark

Happy New Year!
 

Time to wrap up this thread and say Happy New Year everyone! I’m looking forward to digging into the builds I have scheduled and new ideas I want to try. I am diligently working on my new website and hope to introduce it in January. I plan to hold my current rates into this upcoming year.

2018 has been a very good year for me. Some of the highlights were:

The Woodstock Invitational Luthier’s Showcase which introduced me to, in person, to so many great folks here on the forum and many fellow builders as well. It’s a great community I’m proud to be part of.

The introduction of my new Woodsman model has been an unexpectedly exciting adventure into traditional designs and techniques which has expanded my perception of what guitar building is and can be.

Reorders continue to thrill me. It’s a great compliment to receive second orders from existing clients. What can I say, I hope that’s a compliment I just keep getting!

I had a lot of attention in the media this past year including: Acoustic Guitar, Premier Guitar and The Fretboard Jounal magazines. As well as the recent Guild of American Luthiers magazine.

Adventures in domestic woods. What started as a way to accommodate for new CITES restrictions has pulled the door wide open for some very exciting woods and new possibilities in both design and sound.

Happy New Year!
Mark