JAB-- Naw, man, I a newbie doobie doo! But I think it's wearing off suddenly. Comes of having been a member of other communities who focus on one main thing and tehn let it rip. You learn how to avoid starting messes and how to help clean them up. (And then you take a turn screwing up and hope someone else is having a turn on janitorial duty while you're off!)

Re: Orthey Not likely to go this year, and never been, but family schedule is nuts.

BTW, PA Cable Network (PCN) does a fabulous series of 1/2 hour video tours of PA manufacturers and they profiled Orthey's; not for the festival (which they did mention) but it showed how he makes the autoharps. They've covered Martin Guitars too, as well as Zippo, Mack Truck, all kinds of cool stuff. Seen it anyone?

We have a German-trained luthier near us who ought to be a 'Catter, he's a classical kinda guy and we oughta infect him.