Trevor Gore and I have been offering a modal tuning masterclass at my shop in Colorado for several years now and many from all over the world have attended that course. We are cooking up something really special for August 2026 and have been putting a lot of effort into the planning and executing.
Introducing: Timber to Tunes
A five day event to be held at Maple Hall in
La Conner, Washington.
August 3-7, 2026
Presenters
Dr. Trevor Gore - Modal Tuning, intonation and all other aspects of Gore guitar building wizardry including wood selection from timber to finished instrument.
Robbie O'Brien - Practical hands on approach to voicing and how he incorporates Gore's techniques while building.
Dr. David Olson - The acoustics of spruce tonewoods - Measuring and gathering properties for Pacific Rim Tonewood's sonically tested wood
Michael Gurian - Guitar making guru - Topic to be announced
Eric Warner - Pacific Rim Tonewoods facility tour
Steve Nall – Collings Guitars
Rick Molloy - ToneLab computational apps for modal tuning
Supporting cast
Miroslav Tadic - Concert - Guitarist, composer, guitar maker
Yvette Holzwarth – Concert - Violinist, vocalist, composer
Paco Chorobo – Video and Sound
Tor Olson – Video and Sound
Miranda Wallen – Logistics
Timber to Tonewood to Tunes
Intermingling of the Pacific Rim Tonewoods story with relevant bits of the Modal Tuning Course to show how they relate in getting from growing timber to picking tunes.
Growing a tree: Tree genetics, structure of wood, what specific structures matter to luthiers; growing locations, “wild wood” vs “farmed wood”, tree husbandry, in-ground testing, log selection.
Tour in the forest
Background in guitar function: How strings work, theory of vibrations, how vibrations pass to the soundboard, mechanical impedance, how soundboards vibrate to radiate sound
Making tonewood: Harvesting, conversion (bucking/splitting/sawing), drying (“cooking”), re-sawing, sonic testing at PRT
Tour of PRT operations
Measuring and using tonewood properties for benefit in the luthier’s workshop: Static and dynamic testing of wood in the workshop; density elastic moduli, damping (discussion).
Comparison of PRT wood testing to luthier workshop testing
How to use those parameters for particular guitar types: Relating vibrational modes to frequency response curves, how to measure frequency response curve (using Visual Analyser and/or REW). Frequency response curves for different guitar types. Selecting wood to best suit the guitar you are building.
Targeting the right modal frequencies and avoiding the wrong ones: What the right frequencies are; how Robbie O'Brien does it on all-wood guitars; how Trevor does it on composite braced guitars. Shifting the resonant frequencies on finished guitars.
Nut and saddle compensation: Trevor doesn’t usually do much on nut and saddle compensation in the standard workshop, and it certainly improves musicality. So, Trevor will include a module explaining what makes nut compensation necessary and how to go about it.
Sound check: Playing the PRT matched classical and steel string guitars
Concert
Here’s a list of the Modal Tuning Course modules:
- How strings drive your guitar
- Visualizing and understanding modes of vibration
- Relating modes of vibration to guitar frequency response curves
- Measuring frequency response curves
- Relating frequency response curves to generic guitar types (classical, flamenco, steel string rhythm, steel string finger picking)
- Introduction to theory of modal vibrations
- Mechanical impedance and admittance
- Targeting the “right” modal frequencies and avoiding the wrong ones
- Requirements of a guitar as a static and dynamic structure
- Measuring material properties so that you can make the best of the wood you have rather than wishing for the wood you would like
- Bracing schemes for backs and tops
- Practical tuning of guitar modes: Moving from “as built” to “to design”
As you can see, this is a quite thorough and detailed event. We look forward to seeing all those that have reserved a spot in beautiful La Conner, Washington in August.