Thanks Dan, I was just up at Gryphon (my daughter goes to Berkeley) and for the life of me I can't remember the name of their luthier, though we had a really pleasant short talk. I would think of them for any real extensive work...

WYSIWYG, thanks for the advice, though I thought it might be useful if more, recent interactions with luthiers might be relevant, not to say I won't take your advice. One of our advantages here, the compiled knowledge stored up through all of the threads here.

(Just a side note: what is the backup for all of the past threads and I wonder if anyone in ethno-musicology is aware of all of the info here for some type of thesis or dissertation work for a graduate degree for a graduate student?)