A Tribute
Page to John Zeidler, Master Luthier 1958-2002
John
Zeidler became one of my best friends the day I met him in 1975 in New
Hope, PA, where we both attended Solebury School. On my first day at
Solebury, as my mom drove me down the long driveway of the school,
there stood a short guy with long black hair and a beard, leaning
against a car and playing the banjo. My mom remarked "See, you could
get together with that guy!". As a rebellious rocker, I had to sneer
"Play that hillbilly ****! Are you kidding me!" The Beatles and
Progressive rock groups like Yes and King Crimson, however, made many
other styles like jazz, classical and country "cool" for people of my
generation, so I wasn't as closed minded as I wanted my mom to think I
was.
As the first few days of school passed, I kept
seeing John
around, playing the banjo. He sounded great, and someone told me he
actually built that banjo! I dropped my guard, picked up my guitar, sat
next to him, and asked "So, what are the chords?" John's tune list was
derived from the Earl Scruggs book, the Deliverance film soundtrack (a
great recording featuring Eric Weissberg and Clarence White) as well as
tunes that were VERY interesting from some player named Tony Trischka.
The music I learned from John was my first contact with Bluegrass and
Bluegrass related music, which became a large part of my DNA.
We
formed a trio with a guy who played bass (Joe Cuneo), and played just
about every afternoon for an hour or two. As John and Joe were seniors
as I was a junior, I thought I'd lose my jamming partners, but the next
year John came back to school to teach a course in musical instrument
construction (I have the dulcimer to prove it), and he often just came
by to jam. He took my out to his parent's big Victorian house in
Flemington, NJ, and showed me his dad's shop. It turns out John's dad
Larry was an internationally harpsichord builder, and John started
working in the shop probably before he could write his name. John's mom
Betty and sister Kitty were also really creative people, and John's mom
in particular was very warm and welcoming to me.
The
1976-1977
school year was very interesting. John worked for awhile at Augie Lo
Prinzi's guitar shop, building necks and bodies, and he built his first
dreadnought guitar, patterened after a Martin D45 visually, but John
already had very definite ideas of his own. He would bring this guitar
with him when
we jammed so I could play it. I had a bunch of Gibson electric guitar
catalogs in my room, and his response was "If you want an electric,
I'll build you one better than those!" So, I washed dishes at Mother's
Restaurant in New Hope to save up enough to finance this guitar, John's
first electric, which I played throughout my stay at Berklee. John also
loaned my his dreadnought, and somehow I managed to put a ding in it.
We were both horrified, but he eventually gave the guitar to me (one of
many very generous deeds John did for me).
One
of John's strong viewpoints was that people were overly reverential to
famous names on headstocks, and that the best instruments "had yet to
be built!". He shook his head at how people would genuflect at the
mention of "Martin" and "Gibson", particularly during this ebb of
quality from those companies in the 1970's. John had a vision, and
followed it!
I moved to Boston to
start Berklee in the fall of 1977, and my regular yearly ritual was to
visit
my family in NJ at the holidays for a night or two, and then move onto
Philadelphia to visit John for a week or so. He bought a row house on
South Street, between 21st and 22nd Streets, across the street from his
sister Kitty's sculpture studio/row house, and set up his
shop on
the first floor. I spent many weeks over the next dozen or so years
there. During one visit, he had an old Harmony mandolin in the shop
that he'd refinished, and I took
it out to noodle on. He said "Hey, take that with you!" which
started my mandolin career.
We
spent lots of time hanging in his shop, playing and listening to and
talking about music. John was always a great supporter of my playing
and really believed in me in ways I'll never forget.
John
and I kept in touch and had
many happy hours talking about music and life. When he passed from
leukemia in 2002, the world lost one of it's finest luthiers, his
family lost a wonderful husband, father, brother, and son, and I lost
one of the best friends I'll ever have.
ZEIDLER INSTRUMENTS I'VE OWNED
John
Zeidler made an astonishing variety of stringed instruments, from
banjos, fiddles, mandolins and all varieties of guitars and elecrtic
basses to ukeleles, lutes, etc. Below are some stories about the
instruments of his that I've owned.
I feel that I
have developed whatever voice and personality I have around John's
instruments.
MANDOLINS I
got serious about mandolin playing, and in 1981 I got the third
mandolin John built. When I went to Winfield in 1985 for the mandolin
and guitar contests, John loaned me a brand new mandolin to use for the
contest, which I won. I called John up to tell him about it and he said
"Great! By the way, just keep the mandolin. Sell the first one and give
me the money!". The first one was sold to a lovely guy named Eric
Fornasari, who I met at a festival. I played this second mandolin until
just after my album "Upslide" was released. John said "the recording is
great, but my new mandos sound better. Give me back that one and I'll
give you a new one, a prototype 3 pointer I want to try". John sold the
second mando to Dr. Tommy Comeaux of the Cajun band Beausoleil, who was
tragically killed in a bicycle accident in 1997.
ACOUSTIC
GUITARS In 1982 I was playing in a bluegrass band
called Lost In The Shuffle,
and needed an upgrade on the dreadnought, so he built me a cutaway
version, which I played until 1992 when a mime destroyed it at a gig
(no joke). I have been playing the 2nd one he made for me since early
1993.
ELECTRIC
GUITARS The
first electric John made was based somewhat on the Les Paul Recording
model shape, but with a mandolin style scroll on the carved top that
I'd requested. He chose walnut for the wood, ebony fingerboard, two
humbuckers.
In 1979 he built me a soprano guitar we
called the "Mini-Screamer" , which came with a DiMarzio BigAmp (the
size of a deck of cards). Around 1996 or so, he converted this into an
electric mandolin, which was much more practical for the scale length.
Around
1984, John asked if I'd be interested in his new idea for a Steinberger
style headless guitar (but made of maple) which he called "The Ax" and
inlaid the name in the body. He chose EMG pickups for it, which I never
developed a taste for, and I eventually sold it.
In
the mid
'80's, John made some electrics that seemed PRS inspired. He told me he
wanted to combine the best of the Les Paul with the best of the Strat,
My instrument has the hum/sing/hum setup, with push/pull pots to make
the humbuckers single coil, and on/off switches for each pickup. John
also designed his own tremolo system which works wonderfully. I played
this guitar on the "Upslide" album.
Also in the
80's, someone
left a deposit on a doubleneck 6/12 and never picked it up. John
offered me a good price, so I bought it. I used the 12 string side on
all the Beacon Hillbillies recordings.
PEDAL STEEL Around
1979, I was studying pedal steel guita at Berklee, and coincedentally,
John met a great musician and engineer named Winnie Winston, who built
his own "keyless" (no tuning machines) pedal steel. John decided to try
his hand, and built one a 12 string single neck, 5 pedals 4 knee
levers, from beautiful birdseye maple for Dan Beller. I bought the
steel from Dan around 1991.
This
page is a work in progress, to which I will add over time. I welcome
any stories, photos etc. that anyone would like to share.
Soon
to come: photo gallery of instruments, serial numbers, articles, etc.
LOST
IN THE SHUFFLE c. 1982 (Dusty Clampitt, Michael Maffeo,
Mike Pearl,
John McGann, Lee Satterfield). I am holding John Zeidler's
third
mandolin. LOST
IN THE SHUFFLE, c. 1982 Michael Pearl, John McGann, Lee
Satterfield,
Michael Maffeo, Dusty Clampitt. I am holding the first J.R.
Zeidler
dreadnought, with D45 style appointments, built 1976-1977.
The Zeidler
Catalog from the 2210 South St. era (approx. 1983)
Dan
Beller's article on the one of a kind JR Zeidler
Pedal Steel circa 1979
