[mplpost] Canadian Guitars

[Vic Bell]

My first guitar was a $25 steel string Woodwards special...a Suzuki I 
believe.  The action was so high that had I persisted with it I'd 
have donated blood.  This instrument delayed my musical journey for 
about six months.  How I disposed of it is lost in memory but it 
would have made reasonable firewood.

Fortunately, I really wanted to learn how to play.  Finger agony led 
me to conclude that the steel strings were the problem and I got an 
equally cheap nylon string guitar on which I learned my chords. 
About a year later I snapped the neck right off this instrument when 
I swung it at a friend's head in jest.  Oops!

That disaster led me to get a cheap 12 string which was ok for awhile 
but "cheap" meant that eventually the string tension warped the neck 
making it impossible to fine-tune, and I eventually traded it for a 
recorder when I left Vancouver and moved to Lund.

I also picked up a second-hand steel string with much better action, 
on which I began rudimentary finger-picking and my first forays into 
songwriting.  The brand name of these instruments was obviously not 
important enough for me to recall.

In Lund and afterwards, I started playing with some very good 
pickers, a couple of whom had D-18 and D-28 Martins and I was soon 
hooked.  The nameless six-string went with me to the Queen Charlottes 
but soon after, I got the Martin D-18 (315331) that I still have...a 
very sweet instrument.

Steve Welch, one of my Charlotte's pals started apprenticing in the 
Larrivee shop in Vancouver.  I visited the shop several times and was 
very taken with the guitars, but at the time I couldn't justify 
buying a second guitar (dumb!) because I still liked the Martin.

After moving to Calgary and getting involved in the Alberta folk 
scene I was finally ready for a second guitar and picked up a 1978 
Laskin, that I bought from the late Joan MacIsaac.  Joan told me that 
Garnet Rogers had chosen the guitar for her from a group of Laskin's 
in an Ontario store.

In Calgary I often dropped in to visit with Al and Trudy Williams at 
their fledgling guitar case construction shop - Calton Cases.
http://www.caltoncases.ab.ca/   If you have a precious instrument 
that needs travel protection you want a Calton Case.

In an upper back room at Calton Cases, Michael Heiden had an 
instrument repair and luthier operation.  Michael now lives in 
Vancouver and is a tremendous craftsman who has built some absolutely 
beautiful mandolins and archtops.  Guy Clark and Mark O'Conner play 
Heidens.  http://mypage.uniserve.ca/~mheiden/

At that time Judy Threet was working with Michael, learning the craft 
of inlays.  Judy has been mentioned in this thread already as a great 
luthier in her own right.  http://www.threetguitars.com/   In '88 
Michael built me a 12 string on which Judy added a headstock inlay of 
a raven flying across a full moon.  Judy remembers that as her first 
full guitar inlay.

The Martin stays in regular tuning, the Laskin is left in DADGAD and 
the Heiden is the 12 string.

cheers,  Vic

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