Thank you Susan

[John Hartman]

Hello Susan,

Thank you for the encouragement!

I enjoyed the inspiring article about Ted Sambel. Good work! I made my
own scaled down version of the tool cabinet.

Thanks also for the photos, I keep the one of Ted trying to teach me how
to make a bass string on my office wall. He is the true Zen master of
our craft, what patience. The photo of Del with his ear on the winding
machine is carefully archived for a future moment when I am in a more
comic mood. 

Some day I will have to show you the photos documenting the trip Del and
I  went in search of the rare Poppycock Spruce. Apparently the poppycock
spruce's acoustical properties are so good it makes the kind of
re-engineering Del has been doing obsolete. Naturally, Del wanted to
destroy it and I pretended to go along with his plan but my secret
motive was to return to civilization with a few seeds. We did find a
small sample high in the mountains near the Banff center. Unfortunately
we had to cut our expedition short due to a small mishap. Wile posing
majestically for the camera at a one of the many vistas of the mountains
a ordinary larch suddenly decided to invade my personal space (it fell
on me). I am still unsure as to why this happened, the larch looked
perfectly stable to me. In all fairness Dell and I had been drinking
steadily from his wonderful hip flask all afternoon and the air is a bit
thin at those elevations. We returned to base camp (the Banff hotel)
(treble camp was full) immediately where I received prompt medical
attention.

John


Susan Kline wrote:


> August and September are both good, meaty issues, which doesn't seem
> all that unusual these days. John Hartman is illustrating now, and I
> like his style. Look at the treble bridge and plate on page 10 (August).
> Not all that trivial a task, speaking as one who has tried to draw a
> separating Hamilton bass bridge. (Uffda!)
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Susan