Art Chowder July | August 2018, Issue 16 | Page 46

L ynn’s use of rare and exotic woods form the hallmark of his instruments, and some of them originate from quite unexpected sources. He recalls using a batch of 1000-year-old redwood, reclaimed from a sunken dock found in Lake Pend Oreille, as mere firewood. On one occasion he heard a characteristic ringing tone coming from one of the pieces as he threw it into the fire. He began listening to the remaining pieces, each of which exhibited extraordinary tones — some of which were lower in pitch and others higher. Lynn capitalized on these contrasting qualities to combine the various sections of wood into a single solid guitar body that exhibited a solid, well-balanced tonal quality that a single block just couldn’t come close to. Apart from the superb musical properties that these rare materials exhibited, the beautifully intricate wood grain patterns offered each instrument a striking visual appeal, transforming every guitar into a unique work of art. It’s not just ancient submerged wood Lynn prizes for his creations. Once, during a delivery of some goods on a wooden pallet, Lynn recognized that distinctive “ring” coming from the lumber that the very pallet was constructed of. He dismantled it and assembled all the pieces into a gloriously resonant guitar body! 46 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE Essentially Lynn believes that by careful selection of “musical” wood, a top-notch guitar can be created from it regardless of its age or origin. He laughingly quipped that he’s even built a great sounding guitar out of an old wooden toilet seat! I was fortunate enough to be granted a tour of Lynn’s two personal guitar workshops during my visit with him, both of them veritable Santa’s grottos for guitarists. Whilst in his saw shop he pointed me towards a stack of reclaimed wooden external siding boards and invited me to pick up several of them, tap on each one and listen to their individual “ring” sound.