Guitar Maker

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Doug
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Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:59 am
Location: London, Ontario, Canada

Guitar Maker

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May be of interest.



Nova Scotia luthier to build national guitars
Last updated Feb 6 2006 01:24 PM AST
CBC News
A New Germany guitar-maker has embarked on a project to create two quintessentially Canadian guitars.

Master Luthier George Riszanyi plans to criss-cross the country in search of wood from historically significant sources, representing the diversity of Canada's population and put them together to create two guitars.

While Riszanyi has already made hand-crafted guitars for Keith Richards and James Taylor, he describes his current project, which he calls Six String Nation, as the pinnacle of his career. He hopes to have at least one of the guitars completed by Canada Day.

"I think there's been mention of Gordon Lightfoot playing it in front of the Parliament Buildings on Canada Day. So that's what we're shooting for and hopefully that will happen," Riszanyi said.


George Riszanyi creating a new guitar

He said he hopes musicians will help the second guitar travel across the country.

"It will be handed over to a musician with instructions that the musician plays it and maybe after a week or so hands it off to another musician," he said.

Riszanyi already has wood from the deck of the Bluenose 2, a piece of a Titan hockey stick that belonged to Wayne Gretzky and a canoe paddle that belonged to former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. He even has wood from a sideboard that once belonged to Sir John A. Macdonald.

"This wood is very old and full of kinds of human patina, human things, goings on. If this could talk we'd have some wonderful stories," Riszanyi said.

The wood for the tops and backs of the two guitars will come from a 400-year-old golden spruce tree that was sacred to the Haida First Nation. The tree was cut down by a white logger in 1997. It was the last of its kind in the world.

Riszanyi said he came up with the idea as a way to unify the country through music and through guitars because of the universal nature of the guitar.

"I mean, everybody knows somebody who plays the guitar and has one in their house I think. In a nutshell that's the concept," Riszanyi said.
"Some people hear the song in the quiet mist of a cold morning..... But for other people the song is loudest in the evening when they are sitting in front of a tent, basking in the camp fire's warmth. This is when I hear it loudest ...." BM
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