Dawn and Lance McCollum unloading their stuff: Charlie Brown greeting everbody: Early arrivals by the main entrace to the concert hall, where about 60% of the exhibitors were located: Charles M. Shultz, the cartoonist who created the peanuts cartoon strip, was a long-time resident of Santa Rosa, where the Healdsburg Guitar Festival was held. The city has decorated many of the streets, as well as the Luther Burbank Center For The Arts, with larger-than-life figures like these: A sign over the entrace to the concert hall: The Cyr Custom Guitars half-table. A space 30" wide andf 4 feet long was all we had, so things were a little crowded! Next time in 2007 we'll get a full table, which is 8 feet long. I started by putting up the Koa-topped guitar, the Quilted maple Oakhurst 5-string, and the 4- string acoustic bass: The two bases: Hank Mauel discussing his guitars with a customer. Hank has been very helpful; with advice, and he's helped me out by letting me use his belt sander to sand some of the solid bodies to thickness a couple of years ago. In early August he sanded down some of my acoustic tops, backs, and sides, then bent the sides on the 12-string I've been working on. You can see Hank's work at www.mauelguitars.com. Michael Doolin with two of his double-cutaway guitars. On the left end of his table there was a banjo prior to the first day of the show. I asked him about it, and he said he doesn't build banjos--therefore, this was not a "Doolin Banjo." A closeup of the guitar on the left above, showing the arm-rest contour he built into the guitar. The guitar also has a "belly contour" on the back to make it more comfortable to play. Impressive amount of work went into that guitar. Mike said the contours represented 2 weeks of his life. Wow! You can see Mike's work at the www.doolinguitars.com. The spiral rosette that appears on every single one of Mike Doolin's guitars: Lance McCollum's booth. Dawn McCollum is talking to a customer, but Lance was not there both times I went by to take pictures. Lance is another one of the luthiers who's close by, and has been very helpful with advice. He is joint-owner with Hank Mauel of the huge belt-sander at Hank Mauel's shop. They charge a nominal fee for the use of the sander, and use the money to go to a reportedly excellent Mexican Food restaurant for lunch on occasion. You can see Lance's guitars at http://www.mccollumguitars.com The next several pictures are of some of the people who played our instruments while we were at the Healdsburg show:

All Pictures and Text (c) Copyright 2007 by Stephen Cyr Last updated January 3, 2007

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