Being an Air Force brat, Matt and his family had lived all around the world, hence his frat nickname “Nomad”. Despite this lifestyle, he had still managed to accumulate a quantity of oddities, like this porcelain elephant from the mysterious kingdom of Siam.
Here is a pencil sketch of a vista which I have depicted in oils and marker: the north side of the valley of the Rio Bonito, setting of Lincoln, New Mexico. These are the only mountains I have ever climbed…I’ve scaled the north side with my wife and the south side with Matt, Spook, Carol and Burnsie. It took us probably a couple of hours and we used no equipment and met no disaster, so they are pretty easy mountains, I’m sure. The dark green mountains peeking behind are the Capitan Mountains. Supposedly, the Capitans are the only mountain range in North America which has an overall east-west orientation. The Capitans’ most famous inhabitant was Smokey Bear, found as a cub in a tree there in 1950 in the wake of a fire. The north face of the Capitans is the site of the fabled Roswell UFO crash. My buddy Matt, a Lincoln inhabitant, was a firm believer in the authenticity of that event. This may be because his friend Glen was the undertaker called in by the Air Force to provide child-sized coffins for the alien corpses.
Unfortunately, the flash of the camera is too intense. However, the headstock has been modified with several pieces. First I glued on some mahogany veneer. The guitar tuners weren’t quite right for the thickness of the headstock, so I ran two strips of bocote to make up the difference. The stalk of thistle, the leaves and lower part of of the flower are carved from poplar and the bristle is carved from purpleheart. I was quite surprised that when I finished the rehabilitation of this instrument, it sounded quite good…far better than my modest skills warrant.
I used the smallest guitar tuners I could find, but there are 12 of ’em and they do throw off the balance of the instrument, the body being so light. The case is maybe overkill…it is plywood all around. A cavity for the gourd-back was formed with the spray-foam “Great Stuff” and at Joann’s Fabrics I found a liner that is somewhat thistle-like. The instrument is flanked by two compartments which store strings and original unused parts.
I decided to employ the thistle, a symbol of Scotland, as the motif on the 12-string. After some failed attempts with other materials, I settled on thinly cut lyptus to represent the leaves of the plant. I tinted a water-based stain with food coloring to make them green, glued the pickguards to the soundboard and lacquered the body.
About 30 years ago, Mr Kopriva gave me the remnant of a 12-string mandolin, consisting of the
shell back, neck (no fingerboard) and headstock. One set of 6 tuners and the bridge and saddle were included. There was no soundboard and the nut was missing, too. I started working on it at Bob Gorney’s ( a Chicago luthier ) shop. With his assistance, I put on the fingerboard and cut the fret slots, as well as glued on a soundboard. Then, I got distracted by life and forgot about it for 25 years…
Speaking of mandolin players, here is the official group portrait for The Clueless Rose Trio…that’s 4-String Paul on bass, Irish Mike on guitar and me, Deaf Jeff, on mandolin. We make quite a noise.
I’ve been massacring the mandolin for too many years, but I’ve seldom met another player. Whereas, guitar players are a dime
a dozen. This is perfectly reasonable because the guitar is a more versatile instrument and better suited as accompaniment when singing. Still, I think every guitar player ought to learn a second instrument. So when Mr Doman said his pal Dan, the mandolin player for “Cabin 5” would be playing at Hops & Barley’s, I was delighted to catch their performance.
Boy, it doesn’t take much more than a thaw to get me thinking about a visit to the Chicago Croquet Club greens, which are actually brown this time of year and sprinkled with goose turds. But, I may have to get out there soon to claim February braggin’ rights!