Members Freeman Keller Posted October 4, 2015 Members Share Posted October 4, 2015 Some electric content, some acoustic, so cross posted to both forums. My local high school hosted a "Makers Faire" today. A Maker is someone who makes something - in attendance were lots of traditional craftspeople but also a bunch of hands on demonstrations for young people. There were robot competitions and drones racing around indoor obstacle courses, people who have converted their cars to alternate fuel or electricity and one guy building a race car for the Bonneville salt flats. Solar panels and alternate medicine and just about everything else you can imagine. Since a luthier is a Maker of stringed instruments I was asked to participate. I took a variety of home made guitars - electric, acoustic, resonators, a Weissenborn and a mandolin, as well as work in progress and a few tools. I invited people to pick up any of the instruments and play it - a couple of chairs, some picks and an amp for the electrics. I was surprised how many mandolin players there are, including boy probably 13 or 14 who ripped off a really good version of Whiskey Before Breakfast. There was some serious shreading on the Barncaster and the Lester and a lot of interest in the lefty 335 (no players tho) I set a tablet out and invited people to leave their names and e-mail address if they were interested in learning more about building their own guitars - I didn't count but there are a page and a half of names. If only one of two of these actually decide to build and instrument my efforts today will have been worthwhile. What a fun event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted October 4, 2015 Members Share Posted October 4, 2015 If this is the local high school,it's quite a facility.Maybe you should search for a worthy apprentice . It could be a great thing all around. You're probably at the top of your game with no thoughts of ever stoppng. The tech I rely on for things beyond my abiliity is over 80 years old . We were recently talking about what a different place this will be when Jim no longer does repairs,The guy is great,,he can rebuild a flute then do a neck reset on a guitar then maybe tune up a sax or repair a trumpet . But usually he is off in the back corner of the shop with his cronies . The thing is when he's not there no one will pick up the torch.,most likely the doors will close and a tresure will be lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted October 4, 2015 Members Share Posted October 4, 2015 Cool event for sure and beautiful guitars. A few years ago I was in Costa Mesa on vacation and visited a County Fair while there. They actually had an event in one of the buildings for best custom made guitars in various categories. Maybe Californians are used to this, but it was a revelation to me and surprised at how many great craftsman exist out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted October 4, 2015 Author Members Share Posted October 4, 2015 If this is the local high school,it's quite a facility. Maybe you should search for a worthy apprentice . It could be a great thing all around. You're probably at the top of your game with no thoughts of ever stoppng. Frankly, I don't know how the HS pulled this off. The venue is our local ice arena - they put down a floor over the ice when they hold events but normally they charge for the use of the building. Along with hockey we have concerts and things like that - somehow the kids scored the use of the building. Admission was free and for non-commercial exhibitors (like me) there was no cost. People wanting to sell their crafts or services did have to pay, but I don't think it was very much. I assume that this was financed by some sort of grant, there was no sponsor that I could see. Our community college had a couple of booths with 3-D printers making cool stuff, there were drones of every size flying every which way, a guy demonstrating his rototiller that was converted to electric and our local ski area with one of their snow making guns. In the booth next to me grade school kids were making (and taking with them) little solar powered toys. One booth of home made skis and snowboards (I gotta try that) I hope that in the 30 or so names there will be one or two who really do want to make a guitar. I'll do whatever I can to make that happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted October 4, 2015 Members Share Posted October 4, 2015 I would love to spend some time at an event like that. It would be a great place to find ideas.Thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted October 4, 2015 Author Members Share Posted October 4, 2015 Might be one coming to a high school near you http://makerfaire.com/global/ PM me a snail mail addy and I'll send you the free magazine that they were handing out. It is an absolute hoot with all the wild and wacky things people are doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted October 5, 2015 Members Share Posted October 5, 2015 Good on you as usual, Freeman. Glad the organizers were able to make this happen somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted October 6, 2015 Author Members Share Posted October 6, 2015 Just had a phone call, guy says "my kid played your telecaster and wants to build one". I said "we can do that" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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