| William "Grit" Laskin started building guitars
full time in 1971 when only 18 years old! In his book "A
Guitar Maker's Canvas" Grit tells the story of his early days
as an apprentice: "I was nine years old when I began playing guitar.
Exactly nine years later, one month after my eighteenth birthday, I began
my apprenticeship with Jean-Claude Larrivee. At that point Jean had
been building guitars in his suburban basement for about three years, having
learned to build classical guitars from the German maker Edgar Monch.
I had seen a few of Jean's early guitars on the walls of the Toronto Folklore
Centre, but first met him during the summer of 1971 at the Mariposa
Folk Festival on the Toronto Islands. He was displaying his instruments
in the crafts area on -site. I was a typically scruffy and fuzzy-haired
seventeen year old at the time and it was there, while strolling
the leafy park with guitars, fiddles, banjos and accordions
playing in the background, that I naively asked Jean if I could work with
him. To my great surprise he said I should come to his new shop in
September when he'd begin work for the season and we'd see how it went.
If I evidenced no aptitude after the first few months, he wouldn't hesitate
to let me know."
"During that summer Jean had established
his first workshop outside of his house. It was a second story office
space in an empty 1920's warehouse whose main floor would soon house the
Tarragon, Toronto's first "off-Broadway" theater to showcase new
Canadian playwrights. I arrived and ascended the stairs on the appointed
day in September. The combined aroma of rosewoods, ebony,
spruce, cedar, mahogany and lacquer made its delightful assault
on my nostrils for the first time. In a small front room, where two
of the four walls were almost nothing but window, I found Jean finishing
up work on what I later learned was his first steel-string guitar, being
observed from a nearby stool by a skinny fellow named Sergei de Jonge."
"Within two months de Jonge had left to work with
Pat Lister, a maker of experimental classical guitars elsewhere in Ontario
and I, apparently, showed an aptitude and and attitude that met with Jean's
approval. For the better part of the next two years the Larrivee
workshop consisted solely of Jean and myself."
From these early experiences 35 years ago,
William Laskin has earned a reputation for creating some of the most respected
and sought after instruments in the world. In 1971 there were a handful
of private luthiers in North America. Since that time there
has been a huge renaissance in the art of handmade guitar building,
with professional luthiers now numbering in the many hundreds! Even
with this tremendous revival of interest in crafting guitars, William
Laskin not only stands out from the crowd, he often leads them!
He is one of the earliest champions of the side port concept. His
"Laskin Arm Rest" has been adopted by many high end builders. His
inlay work is acknowledged to be second to none!
Each Laskin inlay is a unique work
of art that is never duplicated. Here's what he has to say
about The Kiss: "The working title of this inlay was "Inspiration",
because that was my theme ... a young gallery-going couple getting inspired
by the Art they were viewing. In the background is Gustav Klimt's
"The Kiss" and in the middle ground is Auguste Rodin's sculpture "The Kiss".
So... my story too became "The Kiss." Rodin's actual sculpture is
made from white marble, but a large expanse of white (I would typically
use Walrus ivory to duplicate that) was creating contrast problems in the
overall composition. In the end I exercised some artistic license
and used Mexican turquoise for the sculpture. The models for the
young couple were a photographer's assistant, from a studio near me, and
her boyfriend."
As I have been building this page over the
last few days, I've had this guitar on a stand by my desk.
I play it a bit every day as I photograph and measure it for documentation
on this site. Our guitar technicians and sales people, all
accomplished guitarists themselves, have seen many very fine instruments
on that stand over the decades. It is pretty hard to impress them
at this point in time, believe me. This instrument however
... well, it has definitely made an impression to say the least.
The funny thing, as gorgeous as this instrument is, the comment
I get the most is "Now THAT ... is an AMAZING sounding guitar!"
Hey, that pretty much says it all! |
