Tag Archives: Harvie¸ Bruce

Bruce Harvie

Orcas Island Tonewoods

Bruce Harvie grew up surfing and listening to Dick Dale in Southern California in the 1950s and ’60s, then escaped north to Berkeley, ostensibly to study law. He wound up studying the Jefferson Airplane. He started building mandolins in the ’70s, and after moving to Orcas Island, Washington, in 1979, realized that he lived in the middle of a forest of tonewoods. After hanging out with luthiers who really knew what they were doing, Bruce soon realized that he’d better stick to cutting wood, and has done so for the past twenty-eight years.

▪ bio current as of 2010

In Memoriam: John Sullivan

2007
AL#90 p.3               read this article
Bruce Harvie                                                                                           

▪ People die every day; that’s the way of the world. But it still hurts to see one of our lutherie family join the departed, especially one so young and talented. Sullivan was a Northwest builder known mainly for mandolins, but he made many other fine instruments as well.

Woodchopper’s Ball

2007
AL#90 p.54               read this article
Bruce Harvie                                                                                           

▪ Specialty woodcutters must be the hardest working people in lutherie, but they also seem to have the most fun. Not just a woodcutter, Harvie is also a treasure hunter supplying luthiers in the trade with wooden jewels. This story is great fun. With 16 photos.

In Memoriam: Ted Beringer

2006
AL#88 p.3               read this article
Bruce Harvie                                                                                           

▪ Ted Berringer was a prolific and unfettered amateur builder with an impressive 55 years of experience in the art. He was a long-time GAL member and frequent attendee at GAL Conventions. Here’s and affectionate goodbye to a really likable guy.

Questions: Bird’s Eye Maple

1999
AL#60 p.49               
Bruce Harvie                                                                                           

▪ Origins of maples which exhibit the bird’s eye figure when slab cut, as seen in several Torres extant guitars.

North American Softwoods

1992
AL#31 p.18   BRB3 p.226            read this article
Ted Davis   Bruce Harvie   Steve McMinn   Byron Will   David Wilson                                                                           

▪ As the large stands of old growth timber are harvested it is likely that quality tonewoods will come more and more from men who can take the time to harvest and pack out individual trees. Who are they, how do they work, and what’s their prognosis for the future? The discussion also introduces species that you probably never considered for top wood until now. With photos and range maps.

This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.

Stalking Northwest Tonewoods

1989
AL#18 p.6   BRB2 p.210            
Bruce Harvie   Casey Wood                                                                                       

▪ This is a Q&A session from the S. Dakota convention. The answer folks not only harvest and sell a wide variety of “designer” tonewoods, they are well up on alternative woods for lutherie. Very informative, and fun.

This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.