I love it when you say "Hello!"
I'm always fascinated by the colorful throng of visitors who wander by this website to talk politics, philosophy, or instrument design.
Quite literally, from around the globe.
Some stay for an hour, some for less than a minute: looking, reading, thinking. Powerful currents of intellectual energy leaving tiny electronic footprints.
So here's your chance to give a shout out.
In the past year pen pal friendships developed with visitors from several different continents, including my own. Leave a comment, and your city. I'm waving from the red circle in northwest New Jersey, USA. If you can find me in the cluster. Click map to enlarge.
I'm quite fascinated by Google Analytics as well. But then, I'm old enough to remember a time when the internet wasn't there and distance was an obstacle to communication.
I access your blog from Soroe, Denmark, but I'm not sure what Google Analytics shows me as. Perhaps Copenhagen, meaning that I'm one of the blobs blocking the entrance to the Baltic Sea on the map.
/Alex
Posted by: Alex | March 16, 2008 at 06:17 PM
Howdy! Looks like there are two dots on or around Oslo, Norway. I guess I'm one of'em :)
Posted by: Joachim | March 16, 2008 at 07:13 PM
Ha!
You guys are up late (your time zone). Especially on a school night...
;)
Here's an idea — we integrate Google Analytics with Google Earth. Then create a virtual real-time via-satellite overhead camera view intercontinental jam session.
Okay, who's got the programming chops?
Posted by: Rick Toone | March 16, 2008 at 11:59 PM
Amazing guitars! They make me want one and I don't even play. I guess you will have a dot for New Zealand now as well :)
Posted by: Amanda | April 18, 2008 at 06:56 PM
Thank you, Amanda! Why not learn? I'll build you something that will be fun to play...
:)
New Zealand. Wow. I'll make it there one of these days.
Posted by: Rick Toone | April 18, 2008 at 07:43 PM
Howdy from the blob west of Chicago, IL and south of Maddison, WI.
Phenomenal work. I plan on taking you up on your Creative Commons offer when I get back from a year-long medical training trip to Afghanistan. I was planning on starting sooner, now that the weather's getting warm enough, but plans change.
Ray
Posted by: Raymond DeGennaro | April 28, 2008 at 01:12 PM
Ray, nice to meet you. Welcome aboard.
"Afghanistan & medical training" is an unexpected and interest-provoking combination. Feel free to elaborate...
Posted by: Rick Toone | April 28, 2008 at 10:19 PM
I'm just the other side of a few mountain ranges from you, in the Willamette Valley, Oregon.
I've really enjoyed reading your stuff. I've started building a guitar as practice for the bass I want to build, and I see several of your ideas I'd like to try.
Posted by: Brendan | May 02, 2008 at 06:58 AM
Brendan, looking forward to seeing what you build. Drop me an email and I can provide more details or photos on any ideas you find interesting. Cheers.
Posted by: Rick Toone | May 02, 2008 at 11:24 AM
Just stumbled on your site today. A buddy of mine acquired some lexan and was talking about using it for a body. I was looking for shapes to suggest to him. It was lunchtime so I had to get back to work. I shall return..... Take care.
Posted by: Dave | June 16, 2008 at 02:44 PM
Ha! I've found a soul-mate! Not that our guitars look the same but the ethical, moral, ecological and ergonomic starting posts do. As much as I dislike it I'm a bit less innovative and unorthodox than you, though. However, I particularly liked your referring to the guitarist as "her" as opposed to the customary "him." I'll send you some pics of my work soon. After thirty years of planning and experimenting it's about time for me to quit my job as a furniture restoration and cabinet making teacher and to start building guitars professionally. Thank you for your inspiration. You'll hear from me!
This message was intended as a personal message to you but you may of course use parts of it on your web site.
Best wishes,
Mica
Posted by: Mica Ström | June 26, 2008 at 08:27 PM
Hey Rick! Love your work, your blog, everything. I'm from southwestern MN originally, but just returned to northern MN three years ago from an extended hiatus in CA, GA, and TN. (Not prison, thanks be given.) I really enjoy reading your stuff, and find your background quite fascinating. Your work is quite inspirational, as well as seeming to incorporate a few ideas I have kicked around for a decade or so. Good to think that my creativity may have some merit, and that others have been similarily inspired to go in a direction I was unsure about. I'm a couple years into my third decade, so I hope I still have time to create. I'm sure I'll beg of you some pictures and your blessing when I start a project involving stealing your patterns! You've got a couple things I'd like to incorporate. I have not built a guitar or bass for over 15 years, but I've got a couple skills. I'm starting a couple now. The wood is 3" beams from a wooden picker sheller. I counted over 75 rings in one plank I ripped, and that was certainly a branch, so the tunk must've been huge! Anyway, I'm using a Swede (bow) saw, $8 Buck plane, and handmade scrapers and a Surform. Someone unkindly releived me of a tub full of OLD cabinetmakers tools, i.e., all my grandpa's mostly handmade planes and scrapers, etc. Plus my itsy bitsy table saw and my whole bucket full of framing/rocking/millwright hand tools. Basically my livelihood. So I've taken a deep breath, and a fast food job to get back on top, and decided to plunge ahead, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY! (Here's where you invite me to be your shop troll while I watch you craft. Har har har.) Anyway, thanks for a great resource, kudos on your Locks for Love donation, and keep up the great work. (More pictures, please!) Cheers!
Posted by: Matt | June 28, 2008 at 01:15 PM
Stumbled to your site from Seth's Blog. Quite impressed with what you do. I live in Bangalore India.
Posted by: Abhijeet | July 16, 2008 at 12:51 AM
hey there! a little shout out from bolivia, i wandered onto your page a few days ago, i rest assured that if i ever get the money together to get me a custom instrument i know who to contact, your perspective on instruments being an extension of the body is exactly how i feel things should be.
thank you
salvador
Posted by: salvador sambiasi | October 06, 2008 at 06:14 PM
Howdy, Rick!
Loved your writing, and the Art you produce, man. Especially loved the Quality promise you make to your customers in "Without risk"!
I'm from Bombay (India) and blog about Life, Technology, Fatherhood, etc.
Posted by: Naveen Bachwani | November 20, 2008 at 06:00 AM
You build some very interesting instruments Mr. Toone, I hope we will have a chance to collaborate in the future. I'm from Bucharest, Romania.
Posted by: Ciprian | January 30, 2009 at 11:20 AM