Trevor Gore's Modal Tuning course - Gulgong

[steve roberts]

Hi all,
Just wanted to give a bit of feedback about the course Trevor Gore and Gerard Gilet hosted last weekend at Gulgong. It was a great experience and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be in the company of some world-class luthiers.
The course was intensive but very enightening and helped me to understand the theories and how to implement them when designing and building guitars.
Many thanks to Trevor and Gerard for offering their knowledge and insight - and to Gail for her very special hospitality
I would highly recommend attending this course if you have an opportunity.
Attached is a photo of the course attendees (most of whom are members of this forum) ...
From left to right:
Steve Roberts; Tony Morrison; Peter Villaume; Nigel Foster (UK); Mark Grigg; Gerard Gilet; Brian Dunne; Trevor Gore and Bruce Robinson

Regards
Steve

[inoz]

I'm envious ---> , fingers crossed for enough interest from people over here in WA, that we could get one
Thanks for the pic Steve.

[Trevor Gore]

Yes, a good time was had by all, even though I struggled a bit with a heavy cold and was propped up throughout by industrial strength pharmaceuticals.

Everybody learnt a lot, not least due to the fact that the combined number of instrument builds under our collective belts was of the order of 3,000. Yes, three thousand. The participants brought along a total of 13 instruments for show/tell/analysis/discussion featuring X braced tops, lattice braced tops, falcate braced tops in SS and classical; fixed necks, bolt on/off necks, tilt necks and some talented players who were happy to demonstrate what they could do.

Participants included career woodworkers, career scientists/engineers, and career instrument builders and also included people who had hardly used a number in their lives but still took a lot from the course. Everyone appeared to have been a career comedian at some stage!

So thanks to everyone who participated, particularity Gerard and Gail for hosting and to the gentleman who took one of my guitars home with him because he liked it so much. (Yes, he did pay for it!)

Side story 1: Whilst checking my gear out before heading out to Gulgong I discovered that my 30 odd year old analogue signal generator had ceased to function. Fortunately, Peter Villaume was able to provide back-up, so everything turned out fine (thanks, Peter!). Faced with sourcing a new one for ~$500, I thought I would have a look into the guts of the old one to see what had failed. Turned out to be a single chip that had died, but I also found I had a spare that I'd kept from some electronics that I built for my PhD project 35 years ago. Swap out and good to go. Who says that keeping those old bags of bits is a waste of space?

Side story 2: If you've never been to Gulgong, go. It looks like a set from a spaghetti western, complete with characters in costume. Just don't expect speed. Hopefully, we'll do another one there.

Thanks, everyone. It was a lot of fun.

[Nick]

Side story 2: If you've never been to Gulgong, go. It looks like a set from a spaghetti western, complete with characters in costume. Just don't expect speed. Hopefully, we'll do another one there.

Thanks, everyone. It was a lot of fun.

Judging by Gerard's whiskers, I'd say he's the very busy undertaker!
Sounds like you ran a great course Trevor and must have been worth it for Nigel (who builds some very nice twangers) to travel all the way from the UK!

[kiwinoz62]

Nice one guys, good to put faces to names.

[kiwigeo]

An interesting photograph. Did the photographer ask the short guys to stand at left and the taller guys to stand to the right for the photo??

[ozwood]

Side story 1: Whilst checking my gear out before heading out to Gulgong I discovered that my 30 odd year old analogue signal generator had ceased to function. Fortunately, Peter Villaume was able to provide back-up, so everything turned out fine (thanks, Peter!). Faced with sourcing a new one for ~$500, I thought I would have a look into the guts of the old one to see what had failed. Turned out to be a single chip that had died, but I also found I had a spare that I'd kept from some electronics that I built for my PhD project 35 years ago. Swap out and good to go. Who says that keeping those old bags of bits is a waste of space?

Bloody hell Trevor the fact that that Tone generator has a Chip in it is astounding , I was expecting you to say you had to order a replacement valve from Russia .

Cheers,

[Trevor Gore]

An interesting photograph. Did the photographer ask the short guys to stand at left and the taller guys to stand to the right for the photo??

Due to a geological quirk (you'd know about those things, Martin) gravity has a strong left to right component in Gulgong, which has not only tilted Gerard's new shed (already) but automatically sorts by mass when any group of people collect.

Judging by Gerard's whiskers, I'd say he's the very busy undertaker!

We're still trying to figure who shot the piano player (and the sheriff, but that was a while ago). Fortunately, the locals seem to be more friendly toward guitar players.

Bloody hell Trevor the fact that that Tone generator has a Chip in it is astounding...

Well, "chip" might be gilding the lily a bit. Obviously, nothing fancy like an ePROM, but a vintage, first generation, LM741. Of three, two of the originals still work fine and (I've discovered) equivalents are still made. It was nice to see those regular, stable, perfectly formed, symmetrical sine waves again, with no DC off-set. (Only appreciated by sig-gen geeks, I suspect!)

[jeffhigh]

Ah Gulgong....
I fondly remember going there about 25 years ago to see Jane Rutter perform at the opera theatre.

[Trevor Gore]

So the legend goes, it was after that concert that the piano player got shot...

Gerard looks a little trigger-happy. Maybe, even back then, he was moonlighting for his other job...

[DarwinStrings]

For a second there, From that photo I was thinking your courses were exclusive and I would never be able to get to one but then I noticed there was one guy who didn't have grey hair.

Jim

[Trevor Gore]

Definitely not hairist...

Whilst we do specialise in white hair, we also do grey hair and no hair very well, too. Just don't rock up with a blue rinse. I'd be too polite to say anything, of course, but, let me tell you, I can't say that for some of the others.

[Phil Mailloux]

Very cool, would have been a cool course to attend I'm sure, can we edit the first post to show the forum names of the members on the photo?

[peter.coombe]

Well, "chip" might be gilding the lily a bit. Obviously, nothing fancy like an ePROM, but a vintage, first generation, LM741. Of three, two of the originals still work fine and (I've discovered) equivalents are still made. It was nice to see those regular, stable, perfectly formed, symmetrical sine waves again, with no DC off-set. (Only appreciated by sig-gen geeks, I suspect!)

I can appreciate that, so must be a sig-gen geek. I also have a few LM741's stashed away in the drawer in the workshop. Maybe not 30yo, but would be around 25yo.

[steve roberts]

Hi Phil,

Sorry, but this is as much information as I know:
- Steve Roberts (me)
- Nigel = NKFoster
- Trevor = Trevtheshed

Mark, Brian and Bruce are all members but I don't know their "forum names".

Six forum members in total.

Regards
Steve

[bdunne]

And,

Brian = bdunne (me)

Brian.