Rick Toone | Luthier

Crown Vantage Landfill (Superfund)

Located at the end of our driveway are two massive chemical dumps.

Both landfills are directly on the New Jersey bank of the Delaware River, leaching chemicals into recreation and drinking water used by at least 40,000 people in river towns downstream: Frenchtown, Point Pleasant, Stockton, Lambertville and New Hope.

Crown Vantage Landfill located in Alexandria Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey is the legacy of a paper mill — consumer packaging — that went out of business in Milford, New Jersey a few years ago.

The company abandoned their plant as it stood, leaving furniture, files, and food still in office refrigerators. Millions of dollars in unpaid back taxes owed to a town with a population of about 1,100 people. Plus about 18 acres of industrial waste, stacked in drums, up to 30 feet deep — equivalent to nine soccer fields as tall as two or three story houses.

Tricia and I discovered the site just after we moved here, in summer 2005. What sparked our initial curiosity was a multi-acre gravel and grass covered mound with sign reading: "IN CASE OF FIRE NOTIFY CROWN VANTAGE, MILFORD MILL" — located next to Opdyke Lumber.

Why would a gravel mound catch fire?!

Our exploration and research over the next few months lead us to writing a book. The book is a fascinating photo-essay of the abandoned paper mill, and both dump sites. It explores the science, dangers, as well as peoples' perceptions of the dangers.

NOTE: The Superfund book is non-profit. 5 MB (.pdf) file. Control + click (Mac) or right + click (PC) on the link above. Please download and share.

We wrote the book hoping it would be useful as a teaching resource, a basis for lesson planning, or a full unit on environmental pollution. Upper elementary grades through adult.

We are also hopeful it leads to classification of the second landfill as a Superfund site because they are typically remediated faster, although it could still be a decade or more before clean-up. Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products recently acquired the property, so we are interested to see what action they take.

Film maker Marc Reed and composer Billy Atwell created a beautiful time-lapse video of the paper mill. The rate of decay between our (2005) photos and his (2007) video illustrates how quickly abandoned industrial structures decay.

The EPA Superfund Site map will help you research where you live. It might be worth investigating.

Lost In The Moment

Townsend Machine

EDITOR'S NOTE: (Update 11.19.2009) If you are a luthier and would like to beta test this multi-scale headless tuning system, please read eLUTHERIE.org article Skilled Luthiers Needed. We'd love to get your input.

I'm going to share one of my sources with you. I realize this is highly unusual business strategy, because most designers attempt to keep their suppliers secret. To me, it is important to know because I believe spending money is a moral choice.

You trade hours of your life in exchange for money, so money represents time. When you spend money, you are redistributing your time, and you are also supporting the ethics and morality associated with a product — including where or how the product is made.

The reason I believe we have a right to know is because of secondary consequences. Price is one consideration when making a purchase, but other questions include:

• Is everyone involved paid fairly and treated ethically?
• Is the legal system supportive of the rights of the inventor?
• How long will the device be expected to last before replacement?
• What is the environmental or human health impact?

These are all hidden "costs" that factor into any manufacturing. We pay for them, even if we are not aware of them.

More and more I am aware that these choices I make — with my own time and money — send tiny ripples out into the world. When my ripples meet your ripples, we make waves, and the global geopolitical, economic and environmental landscape becomes a reflection of our values.

By sharing my sources, it allows you to make a better informed decision.

Multi-Scale Headless Tuning System

I absolutely fell in love with multi-scale while building Dove. The instant I strung the instrument, I realized multi-scale (fanned frets) are the future.

For more than a year I've been working on a tuning system optimized for multi-scale instruments. The new system is a fanned-fret compensating bridge with body mounted tuning. It can be used in fretless or conventional fretted arrangements as well.

The modular system works with acoustic, semi-hollowbody and solid body instruments, depending on the configuration you choose. Common elements throughout the system include:

• Accommodates bass and treble gauge strings (bass, guitar, ukulele, cello)
• Steel or nylon strings
• Any number of single strings (pairs or octaves excepted)
• Plain end strings lock at the tuner (no tools required)
• String change in about 15 seconds

PHOTO: Beautiful precision machining by Townsend on pre-production prototype. Anodized 7075 aircraft-grade aluminum, bronze and stainless steel. No toxic platings are used. Patent Applied For.

Prototyping & Production

While working on the patents for my design, attorney John Vereb suggested contacting Townsend for prototype machining.

Townsend Machine is located in central New Jersey, USA and performs all work on premises. They have a reputation in the industry for prototyping and building a wide range of challenging and critical assignments, including ejection seat oxygen couplings, spray nozzles and in-line skate frames for the Italian Olympic team. Fluent in aluminum, bronze, stainless steel and titanium.

Bart Townsend is an entrepreneur and second generation owner of the company, established in 1962. Bill Goldy is his skilled and experienced shop foreman. Cindy coordinates orders at the phone and front desk.

When I showed them drawings and explained my goal to create a zero-compromise instrument tuning system for the premium market, Bart and Bill immediately began analyzing the concept and contributing suggestions for how to optimize the design for cost effectiveness and machining efficiency.

I love working with them because they respect the aesthetic spirit — intent — of a design but also apply their own creativity and intelligence to machining solutions. They are both direct and honest, offering critique if desired. Their efforts can help you elevate an excellent design to something exceptional.

I am unabashedly excited by the gorgeous work Townsend did on the prototypes. They earned my trust as well as my business.

Shop Tour

While Ola Strandberg was visiting last week, Monster and John Vereb joined me and the Townsend crew for a shop tour and prototype preview.

I really cherished meeting Ola in person (look for a collaboration from us in the immediate future) and it was great to have a day of comic mayhem and instrument talk.

PHOTO: Townsend's shop is extensively equipped with traditional and contemporary machines. This section of the floor is a selection of lovingly maintained (still in continuous use) classic Bridgeports. Left to right: Bill Goldy, Ola Strandberg, Bart Townsend, Monster.

PHOTO: Master machinist shop foreman Bill Goldy demonstrates loading raw material (7075 aluminum) into one of their Makino a51 CNC production machines.

PHOTO: Minutes later an intricate 3-D part appears, still dripping with machining oil and aluminum chips (which will be recycled). CNC operator (unidentified), Bart Townsend, Ola Strandberg.

PHOTO: Shop tour survivors pause for a group photo: Rick Toone, Ola Strandberg, Bart Townsend, Bill Goldy.

Market Direct

Bart Townsend and I have decided to work together to bring the new tuning system direct to market. This is another example of the flexible micro-partnership concept.

Townsend Machine has in-house capabilities to receive orders, manufacture, package and ship completed products to a global audience. Sales will be handled through my website and eLUTHERIE.org. This eliminates the need for distribution markup — saving you money — and just as importantly, is ecologically low impact because systems will be built to order and shipped direct.

No waste.

Townsend is fully capable of one-off modifications to the design as well as high volume production runs. Contact me for details.

Tim Miller Model Guitar

EDITOR'S NOTE: Guest writer (and luthier) Rick Canton shares the details of his recent collaboration and build with jazz guitarist Tim Miller.

After a year of R&D and many modifications to the specs, this guitar is the result. We met in Boston in July to deliver the guitar.

Tim Miller will be recording a standards CD in August featuring this new guitar. His book with Mick Goodrick will be available late fall.

Body

• Spruce top with hollowbody mahogany core
• Curly maple back
• Jon Bondy hardtail bridge
• Custom wound Tim Miller bridge humbucker and vintage Tele neck pickups by Reed James Custom
• Custom internal mic by Pick-up the World
• Dual outputs
• Poly finish

Neck

• 25.125" scale
• Strings custom mix of .011s & .010s
• Ebony fretboard
• Maghogany string channel to accomodate double ball string use with shorter scale length
• Curly maple neck
• JCustom combination headpiece
• Oil finish

Working with Tim has been both dynamic and expansive. Not only deeply studied in the theory of music, he is a master improvisor and composer, a true "New Lion" in the world of Jazz. Personally, one of his best traits is his friendly humbleness that I have been grateful to experience.