April 2000 Hosted by John Fitzgerald

  
We had a good turn out at John's new shop in southeast Dallas. About 20 members and some new faces. John besides being a luthier of great skill is also an extraordinary talented furniture and cabinet maker. John prepares almost all of his tone wood from larger billets and he walked us through stock preparation from a raw billet analysis to finished backs and sides.
Chris Jenkins presented a demonstration on his finishing techniques. His guitars are known to sparkle with unique blends of color and metallic powders. He talked about his new method of filling the raw wood with slow cure epoxy. He reported that after leveling the epoxy the final finish required many fewer coats of lacquer to achieve a mirror sheen. Finally he talked about his air powered sander. He is achieving excellent result in a minimum of time using the sanding pads that are used to polish Corian counter tops.

On the left is Gary Graves his newest Classical.

Floyd Cheatum shows his work in progress. His first instrument that he started at a Harry Flieshman's course in California.
Member Steve Mayo shown here playing one of John Fitzgerald's recent guitars. A classical with a cut-away, marker dots and a pickup. Now how about that for "No Fear"!