New Luthier's Forum - LuthierforumAustraliaNewZealand.com

[kiwigeo]

Still not sure what I'll do with the tops I bought from Mario......

Give 'em to the hippo.....he can use 'em as toilet paper.

[kiwigeo]

Well that seems very unfair, the pictures are of a Kangaroo, a koala bear and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There is not a single picture of a guy doing a Haka, a sheep or a possum. Looks like discrimination to me.

Jim

The pics of the Kangaroo, Koala and Sydney Harbour Bridge are gone/ Replaced with this lovely pic:

A set of cliffs....which could be anywhere, and what looks like a Scotch Thistle. A scotch thistle......classed as a noxious weed in Australia and New Zealand.

[Kim]

Still not sure what I'll do with the tops I bought from Mario that are mismatched (non-consecutive slices), too thin, or are too thin to sand away the felt-tip marker scribbles Mario put on the wood. Or the lower quality, too thin replacement set that he sent when I complained about a non-usable set. Potential soundboard buyers: Caveat emptor and good luck - you'll need it.

Dennis

You mean like this Dennis..

As the yellow sticker shows, this set was sold to me as "Master Grade" and marketed by Mario HeCostya as "Wonder Wood"

Same top a bit closer. It's only been sanded on the one side to try and remove the mold and marker pen. A couple of mm already sanded off and the sander 'still' has not touched the rough sawn wood at the lower areas and has only just started to touch the marker pen. If you look close you can still see a few spots of mold in this top even though a few mm have already been sanded from that area.

And just how thin is it?? Well this top was sold on the premise that even with the lows, each plate would still sand out to leave 8" of clean wood to produce a full size guitar.....so here we are, still got rough sawn wood on the surface photographed and you can still see marker pen and the other surface is yet to take its first passed through the sander..

Or how about this one...Again sold as "Master Grade" but marketed as "Curly Bear" This is actually nice looking wood. But again it's too thin for anything, and just have a look at how overly thick the other plate to this set is that sits on top of the stack in the background of the image...what a shameful waste...Rate Mario Decosta as a tone wood processor...bungling rank amateur.

Still rough sawn both sides..

Oh BTW, must say that I've had my feeling terribly hurt today by Mario. He called me a "Bad Dingo" but I haven't eaten a baby in years....pheeewwwt! Nah, my feeling is okay, must have been wind....yuk, yuk, yuk, yuk...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIGZRCXRxak



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYt6af5TdiA

Cheers

Kim

[ozwood]

http://luthierforumaustralianewzealand. ... ilder-.htm

He's UUUUUUMMMMMMMM not a stable table is he.

That Rant is worsre than Joh Bjelke-Petersen on Crack .

There is a few Kangaroo's Loose in the Top Paddock , a six pack Missing from the case, and he's playing with half a Deck.

and I'm tipping he left school just after primary, cause that's some F*%$ked up grammar.

Oh Dear !!!!

[colburge]

Wow Mario is a dead set squeezer. He is going nuts on poor Dennis about his wall hangings I find his rants hilarious. I reckon he is on the gear for sure.

Col

[kiwigeo]

Wow Mario is a dead set squeezer. He is going nuts on poor Dennis about his wall hangings I find his rants hilarious. I reckon he is on the gear for sure.

Col

They must be some wall hangings. Hey Dennis....some pics please of your prize winning wall hangings.

[colburge]

Wow Mario is a dead set squeezer. He is going nuts on poor Dennis about his wall hangings I find his rants hilarious. I reckon he is on the gear for sure.

Col

They must be some wall hangings. Hey Dennis....some pics please of your prize winning wall hangings.

Please, I love macramé, post some pics

Col

[kiwigeo]

Hot off the press:

"At Luthierforum.com with 12000 members we respect each other."

In a recent expletive peppered email to Bob Connor there was a boast from Mario about sending out an email to all 300,000 of his forum members.

Oh dear what's happened??? In the space of a few days Mario's magnificent forum has mysteriously lost 288,000 members.

[kiwigeo]

Same top a bit closer. It's only been sanded on the one side to try and remove the mold and marker pen. A couple of mm already sanded off and the sander 'still' has not touched the rough sawn wood at the lower areas and has only just started to touch the marker pen. If you look close you can still see a few spots of mold in this top even though a few mm have already been sanded from that area.

Jezus Kim that wood's hairier than Ron Jeremy's chest!!! You'd need to run your hair clippers over it before putting it through the drum sander.

[Dennis Leahy]

Wow Mario is a dead set squeezer. He is going nuts on poor Dennis about his wall hangings I find his rants hilarious. I reckon he is on the gear for sure.

Col

They must be some wall hangings. Hey Dennis....some pics please of your prize winning wall hangings.

Please, I love macramé, post some pics

Col

A bit of background, so the context makes sense:
I joined that forum and participated as a "cheerleader" to the luthiers on the forum, as I was working up to building a guitar. One of the members expressed the idea of having a contest, it went like wildfire, and I was set to cheer some more - then one member offered to pay my $75 entry fee, another offered to give me a set of wood, and Mario offered to give me a master grade top set... and suddenly, I was in the contest. A beginner competing with luthiers. No chance for me, but what the hell - good fun and camaraderie.

Preliminary judging was done by members, and the only quasi-objective "data" entered for comparison is that everyone had to submit some flat-EQ samples of playing the individual strings, and playing samples. Subjective data included how well the documentation was presented. So, it was (and remains) impossible to ascertain anything but gross impressions, and even the sound samples would reflect more about the mic, room, and recording ability than actually comparing apples-to-apples.

My guitar, "Angelina", was picked by the members as one of the 3 finalists. I have no illusions that it was "better" than any of the guitars not picked - as I said, it was not an objective comparison. But, nonetheless, it was one of 3 packed up and shipped-off to the "authority of authorities", the co-writer of the book that (at that time) was considered as the bible of guitarmaking, William Cumpiano.

I should mention at this point that Cumpiano is a "traditionalist", and builds Martin clones. I should also mention that I specifically did not build a Martin clone, but rather threw in multiple engineering ideas that had been forming in my head over the course of about 25 years of envisioning and daydream engineering. I also wanted to try out some very non-traditional design ideas.

Cumpiano was not content with vomiting on my guitar for NOT being a Martin clone, and he despised the aesthetics. Fair enough - beauty/ugliness is in the eye of the beholder, and his opinion is as valid as anyone's. But once he started typing his "critique", he took a sharp turn down Bullshit Alley, intimating - in a snotty, arrogant, poison-pen manner - mocking the sound of the guitar and saying that the guitar had no power, and that it had NO bass at all (because he could see the bracing through the offset soundhole and simply KNEW it could not produce bass.) That was a bold, public lie, as the guitar was engineered for extra bass and dropped tuning, and every player and luthier who has played the guitar has remarked about the rich bass. Perhaps Cumpiano thought that I would indeed hang it on a wall, and that no one would ever know what a petty tyrant and liar that he is.

Maybe Mario re-posting that "critique" by Cumpiano is more of his passive-aggressive style, as Cumpiano also took a dump on Mario when he gave a resounding recommendation and endorsement to Shane Neifer at High Mountain Tonewoods for the "Lutz" spruce.

Pictures? Terrance Tan was nice enough to publish a story on the "Angelina" guitar, in his wonderful "Guitar Bench" online luthiers magazine: here.

A few "field" (outdoor stage, not studio) recordings of songs played on Angelina:
John Pribyl: "Joleen"
John Bodin: "Windy And Warm"
Ron Miles: "Minnesota"
and here's Gary Demos noodling/playing Angelina (I don't know the name of this tune.)

As all of you know, that have had the chance to get together with friends you've made online, it's fun to check out each others instruments in-person. Angelina has been played by several dozen luthiers and players at the "Stringfest" gathering held in northern Minnesota in late July, and one of the guys, Gary Demos, (who is a very good luthier is also a very good player and songwriter), created a video about the Stringfest gathering. I get a kick out of seeing "Angelina" immortalized in his video: Guitar Maker's Show

I'm still not much of a luthier - I suppose I passed the "advanced beginners" hump, but I do this for fun, not a vocation. I build what I'm inspired to build, and I'm not embarrassed by my work. Cumpiano's "critique" has become an inside joke to anyone who has played the Angelina guitar. And Mario, you can't have it both ways: either the Lutz spruce I got from you was good wood, made a good guitar, Cumpian's a liar, and you are being a mean-spirited asshole by trying to embarrass me and you are complicit by promoting lies, or the wood and the guitar are shit. Pick one.



Dennis

[Dave]

Hi Dennis

I've read your post and I'm a bit taken back on your views of William Cumpiano!

The guy is one of the most respected Luthiers of our time and makes various types of guitars not just Martin Copies! As the judge for a competition most of the time its a thankless task. I'm sorry he didn't like your guitar but surely he gave you some constructive advice and didn't just say its a pile of shit!

I would really relish the chance for him to take a look at something that I built and get his thoughts on it, even if he turned round and told me to set fire to it I would ask why. Its the way we improve things, by just dismissing it point blank is a gut reaction; which we have from time to time, but having thought about it you have to accept that something's can be improved upon.

Dave

[kiwigeo]

Hi Dennis

I've read your post and I'm a bit taken back on your views of William Cumpiano!

The guy is one of the most respected Luthiers of our time and makes various types of guitars not just Martin Copies! As the judge for a competition most of the time its a thankless task. I'm sorry he didn't like your guitar but surely he gave you some constructive advice and didn't just say its a pile of shit!

So Mario's account of what Cumpiano said about Dennis's guitar is wrong???

Let's see Cumpiano's original critique (un-edited please Mario) and then we can decide for ourselves.

Re William Cumpiano. I give him credit for writing his book and getting people like myself started in luthiery. However when I saw him endorsing people like Mario da Costa he quickly lost hero status with me. Sorry Bill but in my eyes you sold your soul when you hooked up with Mario. As a bright eyed new to the game builder I blindly thought that a tonewood dealer endorsed by William Cumpiano couldn't possibly sell crap wood. That was a big mistake.