Wallowa County Chieftain
News
wallowa.com
February 7, 2018
H ONOR R OLL
THE LUTHIER OF RUSSELL LANE
Enterprise School
District Honor Roll
Second Quarter 2017-18
Local cabinetmaker turns his
skills to crafting instruments
He will present at Brown
Bag lunch on Feb. 13
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
B
rian Oliver of Russell Lane in Joseph is
arguably the last full-time cabinet maker
in Wallowa County. However, the last few
years, Oliver has been exploring a new avenue
of woodworking: Lutherie. That is, constructing
musical instruments. Guitars in this case.
Oliver and his guitars will be the guest per-
former at the Brown Bag lunch at the Jose-
phy Center at noon Feb. 13. Oliver said that
he’s a long-time friend of the center’s library
director, Rich Wandschneider. After attending
a Brown Bag that featured local musician Lau-
ren Guthrie’s presentation on making her own
reeds for her oboes, he heard the center’s per-
sonnel talk about doing a music related Brown
Bag every month.
“Afterward, I went up to Rich and said,
“You know, I could bring a bunch of props and
talk about guitar building, and he said, ‘Yeah,
sure.’”
Oliver, a native of Kansas, moved to the
Wallowa Valley 40 years ago after attending
graduate school at Oregon State University.
He started to play guitar in college, but didn’t
develop an interest in building an instrument
until the last 10 years or so.
He started by building a mandolin from a
kit about five years ago. An electric guitar kit
followed before Oliver took the plunge into
an acoustic. He thought about starting with an
acoustic kit but decided to take the full-build
route after thorough research.
“The more I thought about it, I realized that
I had a lot of woodworking skills, they just
weren’t guitar specific.” He added that luthe-
rie involves much more hand work than cabi-
netmaking. “It’s been a good learning process
for me, for example, learning to sharpen chis-
els and wield them properly.”
Oliver said that the first guitar’s design is
loosely based on an instrument featured in
Acoustic Guitar magazine. He said no particu-
lar luthier inspired him to start building.
“It’s more probably an outgrowth of wood-
working and guitar playing experience and
getting fascinated by the process,” he said.
Oliver wanted to try out his own ideas, par-
ticularly not using traditional woods, many of
which are tropical hardwoods and severely
regulated –– and expensive.
“One thing I’m trying to do in my building
is use domestic woods rather than tropical,” he
said.
He noted that the guitar he built has back,
sides and neck made from walnut. The top is
from vertical grain Douglas fir, an unusual
choice, as most guitar tops are made from
A7
SEVENTH GRADE:
Brianna Fairchild 4.00,
Chase Duncan 3.90, Maclane
Melville 3.90, Morgan Cam-
eron 3.89, Maci Marr 3.86,
Eva Anderson 3.81, Josi Cog-
gins 3.43, Ashlynn Greer 3.33
and Brianna Rouse 3.33.
EIGHTH GRADE:
Jada Gray 4.00, Maelen
Rose Movich-Fields 4.00,
Asiya Salim 4.00, Johanna
Wells 4.00, Alona Yost 4.00,
Sophia Espinoza 3.95, Lan-
nie Stonebrink 3.95, Savan-
nah Vaughn 3.86, Bailey Ver-
nam 3.83, Devon Coulson
3.78, Kodie Kiser 3.76, Zach-
ary Knapp 3.67, Greta Carlsen
3.62, Jackson Decker 3.61,
Adelene Royes 3.57, Destiny
Wecks 3.57, Hailey Cunning-
ham 3.55, Gideon Gray 3.55,
Spencer Decker 3.44, Tyler
Estes 3.39 and Dylan Jen-
nings 3.39.
NINTH GRADE:
Claire Farwell 4.00,
Aubrina Melville 4.00, Kasey
Duncan 3.95, David Salim
3.95, Charles Evans 3.90,
Amber Lund 3.90, Brianna
Micka 3.90, Trace Evans 3.89,
Flynn Nave 3.86,Grace Collins
3.76, Arian Latta 3.57, Casidee
Harrod 3.47 and Katrina
Haines 3.38.
TENTH GRADE:
Deedee Duncan 4.00, Fos-
ter Hobbs 4.00, Anna Moholt
4.00, Tishrei Movich-Fields
4.00, Natalie Goldsmith 3.95,
Gracie Niezen 3.95, Katie
Olson 3.94, Kaylie Melville
3.76, Zion Mark 3.71, Syd-
ney Rouse 3.66, Wesley John-
son 3.57, Ella Anderson 3.52,
Ashlyn Gray 3.52, Shyla Jen-
kins 3.47, Drew Widener 3.46,
Pablo Arenas 3.39, Jacob Falk
3.33 and Carsyn Miller 3.33.
ELEVENTH GRADE:
Sarah Evarts 4.00, Jus-
tus Even 4.00, Adagia Latta
4.00, Shane Lund 3.95, Darby
McTee 3.83, Lexie Gas-
sett 3.72, Gianna Espinoza
3.55, Hope Forrest 3.52 Coy
Aschenbrenner 3.47, Amy
Beck 3.47, Karli Bedard 3.44
and Christina Russell 3.38.
TWELFTH GRADE:
Gracie Carlsen 4.00, Cole
Farwell 4.00, Rachel Fro-
lander 4.00, Riley Gray 4.00,
Rylie Hayward 4.00, Eliza Irish
4.00, James Wells 4.00, Heidi
Niezen 3.78, Reece Christ-
man 3.73, Brett Greenshields
3.71, Jeffery Lepper 3.60 and
Brycen Locke 3.44.
One thing I’m trying to do in
my building is use domestic
woods rather than tropical.”
— Brian Oliver
either cedar or spruce.
The instrument has a vintage look along
with good note definition and tone. Oliver said
the guitar has flaws, but it is the only acoustic
he owns. He sold the Martin.
Research and Oliver’s own building expe-
rience prove that a good guitar can be built
from nearly any kind of wood. He buys wood
on eBay or at online lutherie-specific sites.
He also has several rounds of locally grown
Engelmann spruce waiting to dry.
His enjoyment of the first building experi-
ence led him to continue the work. Pointing to
the semi-completed bodies of two of his lat-
est soon-to-be creations, also from domestic
woods, Oliver explained the thinking behind
them.
“So far, I’ve kind of been making my own
shapes. “This time around I’m
going to try building two at
the same time -- with repeat-
ing the processes I can absorb
the sequence of events better
in my head.”
The cabinet maker
isn’t hanging his hat on
becoming a full-time
luthier when he
retires, although
he plans to build
enough that local
organizations
may benefit.
“There’s
a
limit to how many
guitars I need to
have,” he said.
“I’ve been thinking
about giving some
of the guitars I build to
local organizations to auc-
tion off for charity purposes.”
Asked about his future as a pro-
fessional luthier building custom instruments,
Oliver left that open.
“Right now, it’s a hobby I’m trying to learn
something more about,” he said. “It partly
depends on whether I get good enough at it.
Right now, if somebody wanted me to build
them a guitar, I’d have to think about it.”
Photos by Steve Tool/Chieftain
Local cabinetmaker and musician Brian Oliver with his new-
est woodworking creation, an acoustic guitar he made in his
workshop. He enjoyed the experience so much, he has plans
for at least two more. Oliver is slated to talk about his lutherie
experience at the Feb. 13 Brown Bag at the Josephy Center.
This closer view of the bird’s eye ma-
ple’s interior shows how Oliver shaped
the body/back bracing to enhance
tone and strength. Top bracing is
even more complex.
IF YOU GO
Who: Brian
Oliver,
performing
on guitars he
made
What: Brown
Bag lunch
event
Where:
Josephy Center
When:
Tuesday, Feb.
13, at noon
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