About 13 years ago, I traveled down to Eugene to learn from Robert Ruck; this was a meaningful and important part of my development as a guitar maker. In 2016, right about when I was moving to Austria, we started corresponding about the possibility of inheriting his guitar making “paraphernalia”, as he put it, and helping to carry on his legacy. It was a hectic time for both of us and after his passing, I didn’t really think it would ever happen. However, recently the subject came up again and I just spent the last week in Sturgeon Bay with Cheri Ruck and my best guitar building buddy Max Sipe sorting through his things and packing them up to move.
There is still a LOT to go through and process. I plan on documenting as much of his methods and tools as possible, as well as studying and making plans of a handful of his important instruments, so that other guitar makers can benefit from some of his ideas and years of work. I also have several of his unfinished guitars that I will be slowly assembling and finishing. This is going to be a slow process. I will be reaching out to people I already know, but if you have known Robert and would like to contribute stories, anecdotes, photos or whatever, please feel free to contact me (preferably by email and not social media). I have a lot to catch up on, so I may be slow to respond!
Here are some photos of the trip and some of the things I managed to bring back right away. Thanks so much to Cheri, Max, my family and other friends that came to meet us and help. This was such an amazing week!
