19 Interviews from the Montreal Guitar Show

msr13 · #1 07-13-2010, 04:20 PM

As some of you know, Derek and I have a fledgling podcast another guy called Gear for Guitar. The show is hosted by Derek, Dale (maplebaby), and me, Matt. We started it in January, and have really enjoyed the experience. We are three players, all with day jobs, who got together to talk about guitars, guitar gear, and music. Our interview skills and production capabilities are certainly not at professional standards, yet, but we are learning every day. And, there have been a lot of folks who have helped us get better. As a disclaimer, we are doing this for fun, and do not receive any kind of payments whatsoever. Other than interviewing these people here, we have no professional relationship with any of them.

Last week, Derek and I went to the Montreal Guitar Show. We posted pictures in another thread. We conducted 19 interviews, including Linda Manzer, George Lowden, Tom Ribbecke, Nik Huber, Claudio Pagelli, Chuck Thornton, and others. We were blown away by how kind, supportive, and open everyone was. Because the interviews took place at the show, often in the middle of the show, there is a lot of background noise-- talking, guitar playing, cappuccino machines, etc. Sorry about that. We divided the interviews into 6 episodes. Here is a breakdown:

EPISODE 13 (part 1):
Linda Manzer
Mike Potvin
Otto D'Ambrosio

EPISODE 14 (part 2):
Tom Ribbecke
Cardinal Instruments
Jeff Bamburg

EPISODE 15 (part 3):
George Lowden
Peter Hopkins
Doug Kauer

EPISODE 16 (part 4):
Nik Huber
Kathy Wingert
Jason Verlinde (publisher of the Fretboard Journal)
Marc Lupien (XXL Guitars)

EPISODE 17 (part 5):
CP Thornton
Alexander James Guitars
52 Instruments

EPISODE 18 (part 6):
Claudio Pagelli
Sheldon Dingwall
Mark Blanchard

Below is a link to the RSS feed that contains the six episodes with all 19 interviews, as well as the the first 12 episodes we completed before going to the MGS. If you subscribe through iTunes or our ning site, you will have already received them. All of our episodes are posted on iTunes, under the name Gear for Guitar. We have a website, but it is under construction right now.

Gear for Guitar

Anyway, we wanted to share. Although, Derek and I didn't always ask great, profound questions, often the answers were great, interesting, and educational. Hopefully next year, we can get more.

randyc · #2 07-13-2010, 11:30 PM

Fantastic !!! This is the kind of productive work that a good forum and knowledgeable members, can produce. Those willing to devote time and $$$ to educate the rest of us without any financial motivation get MY complete respect.

Thanks, Matt and Derek,
Randy

msr13 · #3 07-14-2010, 04:09 AM

Thanks, Randy. Can't speak for Derek, but I do have one ulterior motive... getting to meet these players let's me get to try some pretty amazing instruments. Fun stuff!

BigDaddyLoveHandles · #4 07-14-2010, 08:41 AM

I'm really enjoying these interviews. Peter Hopkins is just down the lake from me!

derek · #5 07-14-2010, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles

I'm really enjoying these interviews. Peter Hopkins is just down the lake from me!

Pete was a very kind, gentle, and insightful guy. His instruments are jewell like, and just flat out amazing. Though pricing is beyond my reach at this point in life, playing a couple of them was a real treat.

derek · #6 07-14-2010, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by randyc

Fantastic !!! This is the kind of productive work that a good forum and knowledgeable members, can produce. Those willing to devote time and $$$ to educate the rest of us without any financial motivation get MY complete respect.

Thanks, Matt and Derek,
Randy

Thanks Randy. We both had a blast, and it was just unbelievable the vast amount of creativity and world class level of craftsmanship that was on display.

And to a person, every builder we talked to was as kind as could be, and totally passionate about what they do. The only interview I wanted to do, but didn't get done was with Ken Parker. Ken looks like a mountain man with sort of a wildness about him. He was very willing to do it, but each time I stopped by, he was holding court with a number of admirers, so I didn't get an opening.

I hope you guys enjoy the interviews. Any feedback either way is appreciated. We are still fairly new at this, and are striving to get better.