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From our local (Sonoma County, CA) newspaper this morning, an article about archtop luthier Maegen Wells. Unlock the music - The Press Democrat.
I've not heard of her, although she lives and works a few miles up the road from me, and apprenticed with Tom Ribbecke for five years. Anyone familiar with her, or perhaps own one of her instruments? She is only 34 years old (an age I don't even remember at this point), so perhaps her reputation is yet to be established?Last edited by Perdido; 01-11-2022 at 03:48 PM.
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01-09-2022 11:54 AM
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(I lived in Santa Rosa for over 10 years. I wonder if we bumped shoulders. My real name is Desmond).
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Perhaps at some local events --Randy Vincent's many local gigs? -- but unless you happened to visit my spare bedroom, aka the music room, we haven't bumped shoulders in a playing situation. I've been in Sebastopol since 2008.
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Oddly enough a friend just had a guitar commissioned with her and had it delivered this week. Never had heard of her before that and now this thread!
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Cool... I left Santa Rosa maybe 2003. I did the jazz improve classes at the JC with Bennet(?). I also did the Summer Jazz thing and whole bunch of other classes. I was in a local Reggae band for a little while. Only thing I can say is: do not anger the local gods or like me you might be sent to live in Fresno. Peace
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Originally Posted by callouscallus
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Outstanding and creative. She's well on her way to stardom.
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I have seen her name pop up here in there and the instruments that I have seen pictures of have been gorgeous. I found three videos of her guitar is being played; interesting that they are all fingerstylists; a lot of archtops seem to be suboptimal for fingerstyle, to my ears. These seem to work well.
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She's a wonderful builder, and well-known enough to have a several year wait list! She's scheduled to attend Henriksen's Archtop Fest in Fall 2022!
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That's nice to know, especially in a field where female builders, especially young ones, are underrepresented. She's just a few miles up the road from me, so I'm surprised I've not run across her name before. (I've been at Ribbecke's workshop a few times, but Maegen is even closer than Healdsburg.) That purple one in the video is a beauty.
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I read the article hastily but a $10K guitar requiring 300 hours of work sounds generous and explains the long waitlist. After all, neither tonewoods nor the workspace come free so the hourly compensation for top craftsmanship may be even less than what a skilled U.S. factory worker costs to Fender or Gibson, all indirect expenses included. Other luthiers can go below that using CNC milling, pre-cut blanks and a more standardized product made in batches, i.e. a radically shorter working time per unit. There's so many well-trained luthiers all over the world now that I'm beginning to understand Gibson's predicament. At the same time, Martin seems to be sailing full steam ahead.
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I've been following her on Instagram for a while. Her specialty seems to be 15" archtops, and her work looks amazing.
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Those are beautiful guitars, thumbs up.
Reminds me a little of Canadian luthier Greenfield, who stopped making archtops I believe.
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It’s great to see a nice young lady passionate about building Archtop guitars. I wish her only the best in achieving her place among the great luthiers of our time. She seems well on her way.
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Originally Posted by Cunamara
Yeah I have been wanting to find a video of someone playing one of her guitars in a straight ahead, swinging style but have not found any. Mainly the fingerpicking styles you shared
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Originally Posted by thelostboss
Those archtops seem perfect for someone such as myself going between acoustic and archtop fingerstyle. Her archtops have very decent acoustic tone played fingerstyle. If I had the money, I would certainly be tempted to sign up for a build slot for 2024. Who knows, maybe I will have it by then. Just in case, I also linked her site.
Thanks,
Tony
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I have one on order! Should get it this spring or summer. For archtops I play vintage parallel braced stuff but I wanted to try something new and different.
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Originally Posted by ksihlanick
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She is cool and apparently a great builder. Her main "thing" is smaller archtops, usually 15". I considered a build a few years ago but decided to go in another direction.
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I love her Instagram. She has a deep affection for the woods and process of building guitars.
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I've watched a few of her instructional vids in the past. She seems really cool.
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One of her guitars was for sale some months ago on Joe V's site at a silly low price, something like $3,500. I regret not having moved on it
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Maegan is a delightful and very skilled Luthier, I've chatted with her at a few of the Artisan Guitar shows.
I'd love to have one of her instruments , they are exquisite!
One head, two cabs.
Today, 03:56 AM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos