A Long, Detailed and Fascinating Interview of Legendary Luthier: Rick Turner

I had an hour to kill before leaving for a long weekend, thanks for the fantastic read.

A few of the great quotes....

"To hit Boston University in '62-'63, for me, was basically to major in Coffeehouse 101."

"I mean, the New Lost City Ramblers were great, but they're sort of like a very formal version of a moonshined-up old-timey band."

"Some junkie in New York smashed a Les Paul SG Custom to smithereens, and the building manager gave me the neck and a three-humbucker-pickup combination. I designed a little guitar body, went to a local cabinet shop, and they cut it out for me in mahogany. I veneered the back and sides in walnut, bound it, put this SG neck on it, and that became my main guitar. I wired it in stereo, and I had a pedal board that I put together with volume controls, fuzz tones, wah-wahs, and all that. Jerry Garcia bought that guitar from me later on, and who knows where it is today?"

Sounds like that might be that first Alembic that there are pictures of Jerry playing.

"You designed your Alembic guitar production process by watching these guys make toilet seats?

Yeah! (laughs)

That's why those contours are so smooth and comfortable!

Exactly! The big roundover. Hey, it's hippies with routers! Hippies with routers! Anyway, it started to work."

"One of the biggest thrills in my life was to write a review of the Martin J-40M and then have a quote and my name in the Martin catalog. That was like, "Jeez, this is great!" "

That's the model I play, built and purchased in 1986.  I'll never sell that guitar.

The stuff about building the Antartica guitar for Henry Kaiser was really cool as well.

Thanks for posting, great stuff.

Really good article, after reading it, I wonder where Pete Sears bass guitar Red Dragon fits in. I know it was stolen way back when, but where does it fit in with this timeline. 

A few months ago I saw some Rick Turner pick ups for sale, cheap

Thanks Treb, after reading that article my mind was all confused. I knew it was a Doug Irwin but blanked 

Thanks for the link to that article, Mr. Treblemaker.

While it was somewhat much for anyone with a 30-second attention span,  you have to give a few extra minutes to a fellow who has been part of the Evolution of sonic developments over the last 50 years or so.

I enjoyed that particular interview transcript,  and also reading other stuff on the main Website regarding the current range of Rick Turner instruments and how they  came to be.

In particular,  his explanation of piezo pickups and newer approaches was quite illuminating.

Really fascinating look into many advances in instrument / sound reinforcement technology.

Good weekend reading...thanks for posting.