Sexauer/'15, (chapter 2)
 

Having exceeded the 300 posts in the Sexauer/'15 thread which AGF is comfortable with, this thread will continue on. If you want to refer back to the "old" thread, here's the link.

Playing the Memphis bound Pernambuco L00 this morning, I find it in good condition despite what is surely a pretty dry environment in its experience, and its sound seems even better than I'd expect. It is a very clear and articulated guitar to begin with, but seems even more so at the moment.

Looking forward to checking it out in Memphis!

My extended trip to Memphis was planned well in advance, although planned is the wrong word, I merely mean I decided to leave early and do some sightseeing.

I am holed up in Santa Fe for a couple of nights as the weather in inclement. We found a really terrific old school motor hotel on old Route 66 called the "El Ray". Too soon to highly recommend it, but I bet I'm going to.

The trip through Texas is increasingly looking like we may go through, but we won't see much, if we live. It's solid Lightning and thunder with a chance of flooding and tornadoes for the foreseeable future. Not just Texas, either, but New Orleans and even Memphis. Actually, it is too soon to think Memphis will have any particular kind of weather come the Festival. Keeping the fingers crossed.

Memphis is just a couple of days away from Santa Fe on I40, if you hump it. If it were me I would just stay in Santa Fe - lots to see and do in the area and more likely the weather will clear up at least some of the time.

I've stayed at El Rey, in fact I've stayed in most of those little motor courts along Cerrillos - they are definitely the best deals in town. Be sure to visit Bandelier National Monument, Taos Pueblo, and Ojo Caliente if you get the chance. Nothing remotely like them in Texas.

I agree with SJ Van Sandt, I would stay in the Santa Fe area. Tons of amazing places to see. Neat things downtown, too. I lived out there when I was in graduate school from 92-95, and been back many times since. It's a magical area.
I look forward to checking out your guitars too, Bruce. My name is Bruce also, and met you at Woodstock last year, remember? See you in Memphis. Have a great time in New Mexico.

We are indeed spending more time in Santa Fe. I'd be surprised if we lingered here till the very last moment and then hightailed it to Memphis, but I do think we will spend a disproportionate number of our "extra" days here. We are now committed to four nights in the El Rey.

Spent the day walking the downtown tourist area and had a very good time. The last time I saw a city with so much to offer a tourist I was in Prague about twenty years ago. Tomorrow we plan to hit the countryside a bit. Maybe some ruins and then Los Alamos for contrast.

Saw a lot of Oaxacan carpets made in the Navajo style today and then decided the visit a store that had genuine Navajo loom work. They have two kinds to offer, genuine antiques, and modern recreations in both traditional and traditionally inspired motifs. It occured to me that the guitar market is not much different. The carpet that Linda and I agreed on was a modern rendition of a traditional design, and amazingly, it was called a "tree of life". It cost about 50 times the price of of the cheapest usable one of the same size we found. In this case that's $3500 relative to $65. If we were instead talking guitars, it would be mine at $15000 compared to the least workable cheapie at $300.

If the show goes well at all, I plan to get that carpet for Linda, and I may do it anyway.

I remember you easily, Bruce, and I hope that Slobod you picked up is working well for you.

Bruce, I don't know which route you came into Santa Fe, so don't know what you've seen. Bandelier National Monument is very nice, and East of Santa Fe is Pecos National park is great to visit. Up North at the start of the high road to Taos is the Santuario De Chimayo. Very cool place to visit, although they have made " improvements " the last time I was there, and to me lost some of it's authentic feeling.You can look all these up. Bandelier is close and in the same direction as Los Alamos. Not much to see in Los Alamos IMO. Downtown, the St. Francis Cathedral, the Lorretto Chapel are nice. Canyon Rd. has lots of nice galleries and art, and the Farmer's Market on Sat. is really great. South,you can go down Route 14, the " Turquoise Trail ". Down that rd. is Cerrillos, an old town, fun to stop and see what it looked like in the old west. Hasn't changed. Then down further is the town of Madrid. A neat old coal town built by the railroad in the 1800's, was a ghost town for a while, now a neat art funky town. Pretty cool to visit. I lived there in a haunted old row house for a while. I'll tell you the story if you want in Memphis. These are just ideas. There are many different places to experience.
The Slobod is doing very well. Thank you. Great little guitar.

Another native craft from the area that resembles luthiery in some ways is pueblo pottery. Most of it is hand-coiled and fired on open fires and much of it is very finely crafted (and expensive). Check out shops in the actual pueblos - Santa Clara is a good one - for some relatively good deals, and to see a bit of living history. I used to collect the stuff but lately my disposable income has been going toward more musical artwork. ;)

Today we hiked in Bandelier national Monument and then drove through Los Alamos without actually getting out of the car. Wanted to have dinner at a non hamburger joint and so ate at the La Fonda spa/hotel right downtown. Had Fajitas and they were Okay but pretty tame compared to some of the other fare we had lately. Beautiful and romantic place though, which is what we were after. Thier $16 margarita was not up to the standard margarita at Del Charro, the hamburger joint we DID eat in the night before. of course we went there because it is said to have the best Margarita in Santa Fe.

Yesterday I met the owner and proprietor of High Desert Guitars, Steve, who I had previous had some dealings with over the phone. A few years ago there was a shop within his shop called Different City Guitars that some of you surely recall. The owner of that, Terry Ruby, made quite a splash in the high end handmade guitar world for a while. He ordered and received 4 guitars from me, one of which is the fanciest (yet totally reserved) guitar I have made to this date, which I call Terry Ruby's Fancy, or "the Fancy".

I remember that guitar although I never got to play it. It was spectacular of course and what particularly drew me to it was the tuners. I'm a big fan of banjo tuners (I know I may be the only one), and the tuners that Bruce used on this guitar are the ultimate rendition on the banjo style........ Elegant and exquisitely functional, overcoming the admitted shortcomings of the traditional banjo tuner.

I did get a chance to visit High Desert Guitars many years ago when Different City was there and played one of Kim Walker's 00's, it was probably the finest new guitar I've ever played. I haven't seen another one of Kim's guitars in person since.

The tuners Jimmy refers to were Rogers "LaCote", and they are the only set I have ever used or have ever seen or ever heard of for that matter. LaCote tuners were intended to be used in classical guitars, but I had a set made for steel strings. The entire mechanism of the tuner was inlaid into headstock so that only the shafts, one for the knob and one for the string, were exposed. I made a pretty arty design for the headstock, as you can see if you check out the page I linked earlier, and there was some question in my mind about whether the head was adequately strong for the long haul. But I haven't heard about it again as the years have passed, so I am thinking it worked out. As far as I am aware, that guitar stuck to the original buyer as I imagine I'd have heard about it if it came back to market.

I think on this forum it may be pertinent to clarify if this spot was picked for you and Linda, or you and the Pernambuco L00...:)

Santa Fe
 

Bruce, if you are into mysticism and such like, visit Puye. I'm not mystical in the least, but the place **** near made a convert of me. Take time there. Sit in a kiva it your eyes closed....

Well, we are planning on heading down toward El Paso tomorrow and maybe checking outnCarlsbad Cavern, which I have been hearing about since I was knee high to a grasshopper.

Puye I noticed on a map somewhere, but We will miss it if it is not south of here; I will check.

Tonight we went to SantaFeBite, renowned for its green chilli burger and recommended by many; an obvious tourist trap if ever there was one. Stunningly, the burger was right At the top of the charts! It probably helped that it was 10oz of grassfed beef, mixed sirloin and chuck, and well on the pink side of medium. Linda had the green chilli enchiladas and said they easily topped the upscale romantic meal the night before, not counting ambiance, I hope, as the place was on the plus side of cafe.

Earlier we walked the Canyon Art Row (or whatever they call it) and found a high proportion of decent work, as well as a good attitude at every turn. The prices made everything we liked into unobtainium, but that another story. Numbers were on the order of $18,000 for a horse sculpture that we liked, and $22,500 for a pastel on paper that really slew me. The Memphis show is unlikely to go well enough to make those number feasible.

If you are having trouble telling one from the other in my tale, stay tuned. Linda is more certain to be coming home with me from Memphis. . . I hope!

:) Ha , I certainly hope so on many levels...have a great trip.

Yesterday we left Santa Fe and headed south in the Turquoise Trail, route 14. Last night was in a rustic (run down) log cabin at the "Ponderosa Cabins" in Ruidoso, NM, which is the town that serves the adjacent ski area. The weather here this morning is pristine, which the morning paper suggests is not the case in Texas and Oklahoma, which we cannot avoid crossing. The storm is said to have a week more fury to vent, so we are going to have to deal with it. Fortunately, we shouldn't have to worry about tornados as we are NOT pulling a trailer.

Today we head down to the Carlsbad Caverns, one of the icon tourist spots of my youth.

It is part of my families folklore that one of my distant relatives discovered the Caverns or was one of the first to explore them....this from my Grandmother who I never knew to lie to me before...god rest her soul.

Carl's Bad
 

One of my favorite places. I have spent hundreds of hours (and days, too) exploring, mapping, and photographing one of the caves there.

LaCote tuners
 

Bruce,

Your guitar was the first i have seen with these style tuners in an actual build photo. I am having a flamenco negra built and saw this style of tuner on the Rogers site, any experience good or bad would be appreciated. I know yours was a steel string but your thoughts in general would be nice. Thanks for all the amazing build pictures and info that you share.

Jrw

The two things I remember about the LaCote tuners are that they made the headstock ridiculously fragile, and that I didn't charge nearly enough for the installation. I suspect I didn't charge anything extra past the cost of the tuners, and it ought to be something like $500. That do look pretty cool, if not entirely traditional.

I am in Abilene TX at the moment. We are about to embark on the slog across the storm, which does not show signs of abating at any point between now and the show. Is in doing the thunderstorm thing at the moment, having started, for us, about 2 hours ago.

We lingered in the southwest for far longer than we had originally intended, and it was truly great for us. Not to mention that the weather was nearly ideal. The previous two nights were spent camping in the desert at Guadlupe Mtn in one of the nicest semi primitive campsites it has been my pleasure to experience. I say my pleasure because it was a bit more primitive than Linda had hoped, having neither hot water nor showers (as the ranger at The Caverns had promised).

I think I mentioned that the reason I brought the pernambuco L00 was that I suspctd it would have an issue with the dryness in the southwest, and I wanted to subject it to trial by fire, as it were. If it didn't succumb to the low humidity thn I culd comfortably sell it for full price, and if it did, well the price would become relatively negotiable. I have been playing it every day and I anm going to hat to part with it when the time comes as it is "what we're talking about" when we talk about the best guitars around. As suspected, the price is going to be negotiable, but at least I won't have to wonder. It cracked in the upper bout of the back, and when it did it was so loud my wife heard it from across the campsite. The crack is in the slabiest part, right where we quartersawing fanatics say it will.

Thanks!
 

Bruce,

Thanks for your insite into the LaCote tuners. I will just get a normal set after hearing your thoughts.

Sorry to hear about the crack in your guitar. I am sure someone will still find a place in there home for a gorgeous instrument.

Thanks again,

Jrw

Weather being what it is, it changed, and we find ourselves in San Antonio after all! We are staying in the RiverWalk Best Western and tonight we did the barge tour and then ate at one of the tourist shark places. So so but what the heck. Very crowded but abit boring as everyone in sight is either a tourist or serving tourists. No rain in sight. Two days of this and we currently expect to head for New Orleans for more of the same, only different. Actually, tomorrow night we will have dinner with my sisters grown daughter, not seen since she was a kid, and her family whom I have never met at all.

We had thought we might get to visit the Kinnairds in Nacogdoches, east of Dallas, but we don't seem to be going that way at this point. That's OK, we'll see them in Memphis.

This is a good development, even if you did miss historic Nacogdoches, Groucho Marx's favorite Texas town, and famed for its Kinnairds.

Dinner with my long lost niece and her family went great. We ate at a hole in the wall edge of town BBQ joint which may have been called 2 Brothers Market. It's the kind of place you would never encounter w/o local inside knowledge.

Today we drove to Lafayette, LA, and had Cajundillas in a Sports Bar called Walk-up. Absolutely up my alley!

Sounds like youre having a good trip - hopefully the show is as good for you as the vacation is!

But I gotta say - running out to the beach just aint the same without a stop in Petaluma! Looking forward to your return, and to the possible, but doubtful, return of that Pernambuco - ;)

I am eating breakfast here in the Lafayette motel and a couple of straw hatted locals are having a conversation at high volume. When I talk to either of them I can understand them perfectly, but when they talk to each other I can't get a word of it. Truly a different corner of America!

Tad, I am enjoying the P L00 so much I can't tell you. It is absolute magic for me. I am currently thinking of it as my new guitar, as if I could afford to have another guitar of this kind of quality.

Sounds like a good time is being had by all. I envy your route, and the vistas of Bald Cypress trees standing guard in the swamps, and then those majestic Live Oaks festooned with Spanish Moss. But crossing the Atchafalaya swamp is its own challenge. (You are on I-10 by now?) Sorta like a moat protecting the entire region. Safe travels.

Steve