MAKING WOOD SING
ON THE COVER: INTRICATE MOTHER OF PEARL AND ABALONE INLAY ADORN THE HEADSTOCK OF A MOONSTONE GUITAR BUILT IN HUMBOLDT BY STEVE HELGESON. PHOTO BY BOB DORAN
Humboldt luthiers handing down a treasured tradition Story and photos by Bob Doran
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hey’re tucked away in workshops large and small, in converted garages and industrial parks all over the county. They’re Humboldt’s luthiers, skilled craftsmen turning slabs of wood into exquisite acoustic and electric guitars, banjos, mandolins and less familiar stringed instruments. Their market is international, ranging from world famous musi cians to casual pickers. A few of our local luthiers have been pursuing this musical trade for decades, building strong businesses and passing along what they’ve learned to apprentices. Now the next generation is doing the same. Two of the most influential pioneers in Humboldt instrument making got going in the early 1970s. That’s when Wildwood Music founder Mark Platin began building traditional banjos and building a business in Arcata. Around the same time, Steve Helgeson of Moonstone Guitars was setting up shop in an old shingle mill in Moonstone Heights, teaching himself how to craft fanciful electric and acoustic guitars. Both businesses flourished, and Platin and Helgeson became employers, teaching others the trade. Some of them ended up setting up shop on their own. All the luthiers we visited for this photo essay have worked for Wildwood or Moonstone (or someone schooled in their traditions); some have worked for both. And forget the six degrees of separation rule when it comes to these Humboldt luthiers — they’re all directly connected, one way or another.
MOONSTONE GUITARS 1. Steve Helgeson sits among the woodworking machines in his shop in a double-decker garage at his home in Kneeland. The workspace is the latest incarnation of Moonstone Guitars.
Leland Sklar, a bass player who toured with Jackson Browne. It ended up on one of Browne’s album covers, which
led to enough growth in his business that he once employed more than a dozen woodworkers at a shop in Arcata. Today Helegeson mostly works alone doing custom orders.
2. A sheet of south seas abalone, known as pāua shell. 3. Helgeson glues in strips of pāua, adorning a guitar headstock. 4. Abalone and pāua decoration at the heel of a Moonstone guitar. 5. Helegeson plays his 18-string double neck acoustic. In the early days of Moonstone Guitars, in the ’70s, Helgeson built a custom double necked guitar/bass hybrid with eagle head headstocks for
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12 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, FEB. 7, 2013 • northcoastjournal.com
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