This afternoon I had a chance to stop by the open exhibition at the 2006 Guild of American Luthiers Convention in Tacoma. There was lots of wood and inlay for sale and lots of great instruments on display.

The highlight for me was getting a chance to chat with David Hurd of Kawika Ukuleles. Not only is he one of the great minds in the science of guitar building, he’s a really nice guy too. He was showing some really innovative jigs for measuring the deflection of acoustic guitar tops under tension, which are detailed in his book Left-Brain Lutherie.

Below are a couple of the more wonderfully weird things at the show:

A matched pair of wood and metal headless acoustic guitars in a custom case built for two. You can’t see it in the picture, but at the end of the metal neck is a mouth holding a guitar pick.

Why would I make that up.

On a table next to some much larger creations including a bass dulcimer and a 1-string electric instrument made, in part, from a boat paddle, was this collection of tiny guitars, no bigger than your finger.

Posted by Brian Goode on Saturday, June 24th, 2006 at 6:15 pm.