Ramblings and news from the luthier, Ken Hodges

It is with great joy that I can now announce that I have moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This new location is about 20 miles southeast of Nashville.

The move was brought on by a brand new Grand Daughter, Annabelle, Who was born on 3-21-09. I now have the shop back up and am able to work on new guitars. The cooler weather and easier to deal with humidity levels are a great blessing also.

If you plan a trip to Nashville, please email me and let me know you are coming. I welcome visits to my shop if I know you are coming ahead of time (gives me a little chance to spruce the place up a little).

With the economy in the shape it is in, I had thought that my business would suffer, but that has been far from the reality! I have taken on quite a few commissions lately and this is good because it keeps me employed and food on my table for the forseeable future.

 I am finishing up my first Banjo....yup, a Banjo!

It is a 5 string bluegrass special with an inlaid fingerboard and walnut rim, resonator, and neck. It has been a real pleasure to build and I will be happy to see the new owner's reactions when he sees it.

I had several other guitars to finish up and have been in a lag time now waiting for the Nitrocellulose finish to cure so that I can do a final sanding and leveling and then buff everything to a mirror shine. One of these is a flamenco guitar for a local professional. One is for a professional musician in Canada.

I will soon be moving into my new shop. This shop is exactly twice the size of my current shop which I have outgrown. I have also purchased a couple of new tools for the business to help streamline the builds and help boot my output of guitars. I am also in the middle of obtaining a patent for a new way to build guitars. 

Please feel free to email me or call me if you would like to discuss the guitar of your dreams. 

I just got back from Nashville where I attended 2 shows, the IBMA Fanfest and the LB Jam.

There were plenty of people that attended the IBMA show and I got to show off some new experimental guitars. One of those was a smaller dreadnought style guitar in Brazillian rosewood and the other guitar was a standard dread with some experimental bracing. I had several other guitars as well to show off, but none of them were for sale. My main purpose was to get an evaluation of the experiments and those were definitely positive.

 I had a surprise on Sunday when I attended the LB Jam. I was not aware the Muriel Anderson was going to be there, but she was and I was happy to see her again. She was kind enough to play one of my guitars for a short while and I was honored that she took the time to do so.  She is normally a nylon string player, but she did honor me with playing one of the steel string guitars.

Other players such as Joe Carpenter also tested out some of my experiments and I was quite happy to see some of the players that I knew from other online forums and finally meet them face to face.

 The biggest news that I had from the trip is that I found out that I am going to be a grandfather in April   I have been waiting on this news for over 10 years and I am so excited about it that all of my thoughts have been on how I am going to spoil it when it gets here. This is my only child that is expecting and she and my son in law have made me one of the happiest men on earth with this news.

 This news brings about a new issue, which means that I will most likely be moving to the Nashville area in the near future. I dont mind this too much because we are ready to get out of the florida heat and away from the gnats that seem to be attracted to my finishes every time I spray a guitar. 

 I also delivered a new guitar to a new customer and emerging country music sensation, Jake Lott.  I am really happy that he is happy with his new guitar.

I have uploaded a couple of new videos on my youtube site at http://www.youtube.com/hodgesguitars You can see and hear some of my guitars being played at that site if you are interested.

 Thanks for reading my ramblings!

You can return to my home page by clicking here http://www.hodgesguitars.com/ 

I now have a web page on Myspace, and I tend to keep that page updated even more often than I update this one. There are tons of pictures in my archives on MySpace too, even some pictures of the progress of some of the guitars I am building or have built.  If you want to check out this site, the address is http://www.myspace.com/hodges_guitars

 Be sure to add me as a friend ! 

 I was recently interviewed by Dianna Robin Dennis, a reporter from Calgary, Ireland and she took the time to examine and evaluate my guitars. We had a nice long conversation ranging from the woods that luthiers use to build guitars to the dreams and concepts that I have for my instruments, she was gathering information for her week long radio broadcast in Ireland titled "Love and the Golden Age of Luthierie." She was absolutely a pleasure to talk to and I could tell that the guitar was an instrument that she looked at as though it were a mystical tool to express the universal language of love. In more ways than one, she is correct since no matter what language you may speak, a song skillfully played on an acoustic guitar can envoke all sorts of emotions, but is well known for expressing love.  In just a few minutes I felt like I had known Di all of my life even though we had just met. She sent me this transcript of the radio show and her report that was aired on radio stations in Ireland and Europe. Here is what she had to say about me and my guitars:

"Have you ever heard of the wood Lutz? Ken Hodges' Lutz and Myrtle dreadnought combined the best qualities of the Martin, Gibson, Taylor sounds in one fine instrument. And his acoustic - electric instrument's natural wood colored back with bright red streaks in the grain was brilliant. He said the red was left behind by worms that travel up the wood grain when the tree is still alive."

When I was being interviewed, I had no idea that this would be broadcast anywhere, but I am humbled by her kind words about me and my guitars.

In the last few weeks I have been blessed by acquiring several  new comissions to build more guitars. One of them was a guitar for a client that already has one of my guitars and wants a different model to add to his collection.  I dont know how each of you stand with your faith, but for me God has blessed me beyond my wildest immaginations. If you ever ask me what I attribute my success to, the first thing I will tell you is that it is truely the favor of God and his blessings.

Other news to report is that I have become a sponsor of the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour which is a grass roots internationaly syndicated radio show (and now televised on some PBS stations). The reason I sponsored the show was not necessarily to sell guitars, but because they give some of the most talented artists a place to share their talents. Every week is packed with music and interviews of artists that sometimes are famous, but always are very, very good. The show is completely an all volunteer staff and the artists are paid nothing for their appearances. Even the host of the show, Michael Johnathon is a volunteer who is a fantastic folk music artist himself and always opens each show with a song of his own. Ever since I have found this web site I have been enthralled by the great music and interesting interviews. Be sure to check them out and also check out the FREE webcast and podcasts they offer in their archives.

THANK YOU for taking the time to read my blog and your interest in my guitars.

Ken

There have been a few new items since my last post:

First, I have taken on a new endorsee, Don Fransko, who lives in New Jersey. Don travels all over the northeast putting on shows in churches and other venues. I am proud to have him helping show off my guitars at his shows and in his guitar school. You can find out more about Don by going to www.donfransko.com

 I have been working on a flamenco guitar for Goliath Flores, a local professional artist who puts on shows in the southeast region of the USA. This guitar is nearing completion and I will be sure to post some pictures of Goliath and his new guitar as soon as it is completed and delivered to him. You can find out more about Goliath Flores at www.goliathflores.com.

Work has begun on a special "ergonomic" dreadnaught guitar for one of the world's leading fingerstyle guitarists, Don Alder (www.donalder.com). Don was able to demo my guitars at the recent show in Miami, and wants me to build this special guitar for him. I will be sure to post pictures of the guitar when it is completed.

I will also be showing some of my guitars at the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) fan fest in Nashville in October. I plan to have about 10 guitars with me when I make this show, so any of you that are interested in evaluating them can surely do it while I am in Nashville. Look for more posts on this subject in the near future.

Thanks for reading!

One of the moderators of the Acoustic Guitar Forum (www.acousticguitarforum.com) had the opportunity to play one of my guitars recently. I was thrilled with his appraisal and thought you might like to read a completely unbiased opinion and comparison of my guitars:

 http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122855

By the way, I am a sponsor of the forum, which has over 22,000 registered players. Even though I am a sponsor, these guys can be brutally honest when it comes to evaluating guitars. I appreciate that honesty!

I just returned fromt he 2008 Newport-Miami guitar festival where I had a booth to show off a couple of guitars.

It was an incredible show and thousands of people visited over the 3 day event. I sold the flamed oregon myrtle guitar at the show.

Here are a couple of video clips I took with my kodak easy share camera. One is of Don Alder, the 2007 International fingerpicking champion, taking the guitar for a test drive. He is known for his percussive fingerpicking style and this video shows how he does it. The second video is of Kinloch Nelson, the PBS recording artist taking the guitar for a spin and giving an evaluation of the instrument. The evaluation was priceless!

Hope you enjoy the videos!

I love life! God has been good to me through my life. He has given me a wonderful wife of 32 years to share it with, and a beautiful daughter that is the apple of my eye. I spent over 25 years working for a chemical company and retired early due to medical problems. I then started a small business in the North Georgia Mountains that grew so fast that I could barely take care of it. I sold that business and retured again. After some engineering work for the goverment, I moved back to Florida to take care of my elderly parents. My Dad died in June of '06 and my mother is in a nursing home now. I started building guitars as a way to be able to take care of my parents and still be at home. God has blessed me and my luthier business is flourishing.

I am a member of Crossroads Family Worship Center in Callahan, Florida. You can drop by any sunday and hear me praising God through music as I am a guitarist in the praise and worship team.

If you are in the market for a custom built guitar, I would be happy to give you a quote. just send me an e-mail at ken@hodgesguitars.com and let me know what you are interested in.

Thanks for looking!
Ken

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