Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!

Subject: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 10 Jun 99 - 08:50 PM

Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today. The world is a beautiful place. The tone!! The feel!! I just had to tell you. I rejected the Martin and the Santa Cruz I had been trying to decide between. This thing is the greatest instrument I've ever played. I put it down long enough to write this...now I've got to get back to it again.
Bark Woof

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 10 Jun 99 - 09:16 PM

Mark,

Congratulations! You must be a special guy for a special gal to buy you such a special guitar.

Big RiB

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From:
Date: 10 Jun 99 - 09:48 PM

Hi Bark Woof.
..I'd call my Mrs. to the PC and show her what women are doing for their mudcat mates. But then she would just remind me that we spent my guitar money getting our daughter married off.If given a choice of having a new Goodal or having a new son-i n- law....I would have to go for......never mind,,,my choice would boot me straight into divorce court.
Mj

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: DonMeixner
Date: 10 Jun 99 - 10:25 PM

Mark,

Congrats! I remember the Christmas morning when my wife gave me my Martin 0-16 NY. I was floored, shocked and surprised and I played it every day for 4 years until I cut my fingers with a table saw. One was reattached but they can't handle the wide finger board so I play it once a month and do my serious work on a very skinny Ovation which is with class or style. The Ovation will get the job done but if inanimate things are blessed by karma, my little New Yorker has three lifetimes worth.

By the way. What is a Goodall?

Don

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: BK
Date: 10 Jun 99 - 10:37 PM

Reckon it has nothing to do with Jane, but I'll bet it's a hoot. (Primatology joke; sorry, it's the corny humor virus I was transplacentally infected with; it's not my fault..)

BTW, What IS a "Goodall?"

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 12:08 AM

I'll try to make a blue clicky thing to take you to http://www.goodallguitars.com/home.htm:
Goodall Guitars
Here's an excerpt of some Goodall history that appeared in Fingerstyle Magazine, Jan/Feb. '96.:
James Goodall approaches guitar making in the way he approaches most things in his life -- with perfectionism, intensity, resourcefulness, persistence, and vision. At one time, he set out creating and building modern symphony flutes...He has also built and plays Baroque oboes, recorders, English horns, dulcimers, hammered dulcimers, mandolas, as well as other instruments of his own invention...Fortunately for us guitar pickers, James Goodall has settled on applying his gifts to guitar making...

In addition to his mechanical, woodworking, design, and business talents, James is also an accomplished artist. In fact, in 1972, he traded one of his seascape paintings for the wood he needed to build his first guitar-a curly maple Jumbo replete with fancy Mexican mother of pearl inlay. His local resource for his first instrument was a small shop in Lemon Grove, CA called American Dream Guitar, an enterprise that would subsequently be acquired by a pair of its employees, Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug, who renamed it Taylor Guitars.

...etcetera.
A guitar similar to the one Ginny bought me can be seen at http://www.goodallguitars.com/standard.htm. If I do it right, here's a blue clicky thing to get you there: Goodall Standard model


I've been playing for over 35 years, and I've owned lots of guitars -- some vintage, some new, some cheap, some expensive -- but I've never played anything like this guitar before. I am floored by the tone, the resonance, the feel, the beauty, the worksmanship, the sound!! If you see one, you must try it out.

The gaga Bark Woof

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 12:42 AM

Great spouses are hard to come by Mark.........I know 'cause I got one! Congrats on the Goodall, a fine ax. May Ginny's love come through on every note.

catspaw

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 01:11 AM

Thanks for your good wishes, catspaw50. I keep turning to Ginny every minute or hour and saying "I've got a Goodall." I could see you've got a great spouse -- I read many of her postings while you were "loafing in the L'hospital Spa." Happy hard-earned birthday to you, my friend. I'm fifty also - ain't it a kick?

Bark Woof

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: Bert
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 09:03 AM

Don, I had a friend who lost some fingers to wookworking machinery and he strung his guitar left handed.

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 10:52 AM

God bless you, Mark! I bought Liam's Sister-in-Law a Martin M-64 (only about 125 ever made and absolutely gorgeous) and she turned her nose up at it. You are a sound man.

All the best,
Dan

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: Easy Rider
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 01:54 PM

Congratulations on your new lady.

goodall says it has the cavity size of a dreadnaught, but it looks a little like a jumbo.
What size is it really?
What length is the string scale?
How wide is the fingerboard?
Did you get the Rosewood model?
Do you play fingerstyle?

EZR

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 08:16 PM

EZR - I measured it. Now bear with me 'coz I've never done this before, so I'm agonna tell you what I measured and what the numbers were, and then you can decide what size it is (and tell me what that is, ok?)

Fingerboard width @ nut: 1 3/4"
E-string to e-string @ nut: 1 1/2"
Fingerboard width @ 12th fret: 2 15/32"
E-string to e-string @ 12th fret: 1 7/8"
Length, nut to 12th fret: 12 3/4"
Length, nut to saddle: 25 5/8"
Width, upper bout: 11 7/8"
Width, waist: 10 7/8"
Width, lower bout: 15 7/8"
Depth, upper bout: 4 1/16"
Depth, lower bout: 4 11/16"

Rosewood sides and back (with koa back strip)
Spruce top (but almost as dark as cedar)
Koa binding
Abalone rosette
Ebony peghead with Koa trim and Abalone logo
No cutaway

Mark

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: RiGGY
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 10:19 PM

Hello Bark !!

Wonderful for you !!

I remember you from San Francisco & that Jessica Ruby Simpson [ who could have at LEAST bought Martin a Goodall ] was the person who christened you Bark Woof. [ True ??] Was it then to Portland for you ??

I went thru the Santa Cruz/ Collings/ Froggy Bottom investigations, too. Particularly liked the service I got at Steve Swan's SC-centric shop in Kensington. Ended up buying a Martin HD28-VR at Gryphon, which was a love affair that faded in a few short months. No regrets though. I've just chosen to completely focus on English Concertina, and even "play guitar" on it. Happier & a LOT easier on the hands & especially fingertips. When I WAS shopping for guitars I told the salesfolk I was MUCH more interested in the TACTILE over the TONAL. [ selfish me !] How's the Goodall feel after 2 hours ? I forgot whatcher style is/was. But most happy to meetcha in a place like THIS !! [e-mail] RiGGY

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 12 Jun 99 - 10:17 PM

RiGGY, great to read your note. I STILL love the Goodall (even after all these hours). I didn't take it to last night's song circle, as I'd decided that a 12-string voice was needed there, but while I was playing it this morning, I tilted its face toward me and discovered another facet of its sound...whoa, this thing has a deep deep woody resonance.

My style is kind of eclectic, but not very electric. I alternate between fingerpicking, classical, old blues, 60's folk, quiet jazz, calypso, bossa nova, original, jug band, and back again. Maybe someday this will gel into a more consistant style, but I'm still bouncing around right now. What's your style?

I met Steve Swan at Gryphon a few times. Very nice person. He arranged to have his friend rewind the pickups on an old 1930 Regal lap steel for me, partly as a favor to his friend, who Steve was trying to help get back on her feet. He always sends me the inventory list for his Kensington Santa Cruz business, but I haven't been to his store yet. Is it a comfortable place to sample guitars? I recently found out that he sells more Santa Cruz guitars than any other single distributor overall. I like that such a friendly and personable guy can achieve that without becoming a hard-edged profiteer.

Funny, I had forgotten where the Bark Woof name came from -- all I could recall is that a child had named me that, but couldn't remember who the child was. Reading your note, it came back to me that it was Jessica's son. This child had been kidnapped, and was returned on Mothers Day in 1980. Thanks for the mental shiatzu.

I did go to Portland for several visits, but didn't move there. I'm in Sacramento (100 miles from San Francisco's empty beaches :( Where are you now?

I'll send you an email, and let's talk some more.

Bark

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: Easy Rider
Date: 14 Jun 99 - 12:52 PM

Yes, your guitar is a dreadnought, but with a fingerstylist's 1 3/4" fingerboard, instead of the standard 1 11/16". O.K.

I stopped in at Steve Swan's place, the last time I was in the Bay area. He shares the place with a luthier. He was very very nice and showed me a lot of nice Collings, Taylor and Santa Cruz guitars.

EZR

Subject: RE: Ginny bought me a Goodall guitar today!
From: GUEST,Richard Bridge with no cookie
Date: 26 Oct 02 - 06:36 PM

Wht happened to the other thread about a Goodall with backbuzz?