"I always take away from Ervin's presentations the idea of working with what you've got...making the most of what you have. But this time he went a step further in encouraging us to work with what we like. He said we'd make better guitars using materials we personally enjoy, or are drawn to. And of course, the encouragement then is not to let "conventional wisdom" tyrannize over your own selection process. (Remember this? e.g., if the top doesn't have 24 grain lines per inch, so what...? if my gut instinct says it will make a good top, go with the one that's got 6 lines per inch.) This to me is liberating!"
Steve Kinnaird

"I too am overloaded with information. I hope I will be able to convert some small amount of that information into knowledge. There was so much covered, it is hard to boil it down to one item. I will most remember the feeling that there is not a single right answer to selecting tone wood. Every piece of wood is a good piece of wood, depending on what you do with it."
Bob Langley

"'There are no bad woods, just improper applications'. The key is to know how to evaluate the wood for your purpose, and to know what qualities you want the wood to have. Then you can make adjustments to make the best use of that wood. I also liked how Ervin Somogyi tried to get us to discover for ourselves, rather than just give us rote instruction and lecture. That's the mark of a good teacher. I liked the discussion on the details of the many properties wood has, and how it behaves in our little corner of the wood world. I'm sure I'll be digesting and using all this information for some time. Glad I took good notes."
Steve Mayo

"Being able to hear and speak to someone with 30 years experience, as well as being able to identify certain physical as well as audible traits about soundboards. Also I thought the discussion about bracing, how, where, etc. was great. It was interesting to me about the discussion where using the braces in the flat sawn direction as opposed to the grain standing straight up really wasn't a whole lot different. I am sure many of us that have read Cumpiano's book, etc. have all believed that vertical grain was the only way to go for strength and sound."
Jim Whelan

"It's really hard to narrow the plethora of information down to a single most important thing that I learned. In terms of top selection I think it would have to be 'how to link a specific players style to the characteristics of a top that would perform best to that style'. Not that I would be able to do that after taking the class. But I'm at least aware it is something a master builder would be capable of doing. Other valuable insight I got from the class would be, how thin a top should be. I didn't occur to me that the factories overbuild guitars to cut down on maintenance and repair. Or that a very stiff top would need to be thinner than a not so stiff top."
Jeff Heath

“The technical skills we were taught at the seminar for evaluating and selecting tonewood will be invaluable to all of us. However, equally important I thought were Ervin's comments about hand built guitars. If we only aspire to build a Martin, Gibson, or Taylor, why build at all? The paradox is that we cannot build those over braced, muffled guitars better than the factories, given their years of experience doing it, and level of mechanization. However, we have the ability and opportunity to create guitars that are far superior in tone by applying care and knowledge to individual pieces of wood. What a wonderful thing!”
Chris Jenkins