Exhibition

Let’s take a quick run through the two packed exhibition halls. There were about 90 exhibits this time, so we’ll just pick a few at random to give a little flavor. Here’s John Thayer at his table.

Chris Jenkins brought his son Jeremy to this year’s convention. There were several father-and-son teams in attendance. Here comes the future.

There were lots of great wood dealer exhibits, as usual. Here’s Oby Johnson of Targo Woods.

Ben Patron brought a copy of a Panormo guitar, plus a few of his own design.

Ben Patron’s stuff is so unusual, it may take you a minute to figure out what you are looking at.

Canadian Sigmund Johannessen showed a couple of archtops.

To bolster his claim that a guitar can be properly French polished in one day, Marshall Brune successfully finished his latest guitar in his spare time while talking to people at his exhibition table.

Here’s Duane Noble with his exhibit of steel string guitars.

Jorma and Oren Winkler of Winkler Woods show off some nice koa.

There’s Benz Tschannen.

Everybody likes to hand-pick the wood they will be using in the next few years. At the table of Bruce Creps (left), Jerry Samples and Eric Foulke get down to business.

John Butterfield held down the early music fort for us, showing a couple of lovely lutes.

Remember what I said about people picking wood? Alfredo and Manuel Velazquez look for the good stuff.

Here’s Michael Dixon with his latest instrument.

Jim Forderer brought his amzing collection of guitars again this year, ably assisted by Jim Westbrook. Wandering over to Jim’s table was like having a private, hands-on visit to a major museum.

Here’s JoAnn Tompkins of Rescue Pearl Co.

Here’s Gulab Gidwani of Exotic Woods Co.

Gary Southwell stopped by the Stephen Marchione booth.

Brad Banister (left) shows his guitars. Tim Olsen (right) and son Isaac are making the annual video archive of the exhibition.

Here’s a cute couple: Kevin Stoodley (left) and Pema Dolma.

Proceed to next section