UPDATE: Healdsburg Guitar Festival Runs Friday, Aug. 12, Through Sunday, Aug. 14, at New Santa Rosa Venue

Acoustic fingerstyle guitarist Stevie Coyle said it was love at first sight when he first played Alan Perlman's hand-crafted replica of a 1920s Stahl #6 -- a steel-string guitar originally fashioned by the Larson brothers before the Great Depression.   

At several years back, Coyle spotted the guitar, which he affectionately now calls "The Precious," and knew the beautiful 12-fret guitar with European spruce top and Brazilian rosewood body was "The One." 

"There is an X factor," Coyle said.  "The sound, the smell, the look, the feel." When Perlman saw Coyle with the guitar, he said.  "This is your guitar."  He immediately saw "it was the perfect match for Stevie's unique Americana fingerstyle playing."

The festival, which is held every other year, has come a long way since its inception in the mid-90's by Healdsburg guitar-maker and the staff of Luthiers Mercantile Inc. (LMI)   The premier guitar festival was a natural outgrowth for a business supplying fine woods to custom guitar builders.

Festival director & LMI sales manager Chris Herrod pointed out that Healdsburg's dry climate, ideal for growing grapes for custom-blended wines, was also "perfect for storing tone woods for custom-made guitars." 

When the festival started at the in Healdsburg, there were a handful of guitar builders and players.  It has grown steadily since then, moving to the Wells Fargo Center in 2003 and this year to its new location at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel in Santa Rosa.

"We expect several thousand attendees this year," Herrod said, "with at least 30 percent of those coming from outside the Bay Area."  The new location, within walking distance of many restaurants close to Santa Rosa's Railroad Square, will be a boon for the community building that happens every other year in this unique gathering of high-end guitar-makers and passionate players.

Over 118 luthiers will be exhibiting this year, giving potential guitar buyers access to the highest quality craftsmen in the world.  Some are local like Tom Ribbecke Guitars and John O'Hanesian's Dry Creek Guitars of Healdsburg.  Others are North Bay-based like Mark Berry Guitars (Cotati), Fleishman Instruments (Sebastopol), Howard Klepper Guitars (Santa Rosa) and Bruce Sexauer of Petaluma. 

Other luthiers are coming from very far afield including 20 or more from outside the US including Australia, China, Italy and Japan.  

Schoenberg Guitars will also be represented.

"Eric Schoenberg was instrumental in convincing Martin Guitars in the 70s to build a smaller model for fingerstyle players at a time when the larger dreadnought guitars had taken over," said Coyle. 

Schoenberg is unique in the industry for having a legendary shop in Tiburon that sells and repairs vintage guitars and other instruments.  He also has a business that builds top-quality, tradition-based guitars.  The Schoenberg Soloist, for instance, is a 14-fret body 1929 OM guitar. 

"The National Association of Music Merchandisers have their trade show in Los Angeles (NAMM), but The Healdsburg Guitar Festival fills a special niche for the custom guitar makers and acoustic fingerstyle players," said Schoenberg.

There are a variety of factors behind the burgeoning interest in playing acoustic fingerstyle guitar.  "Many acoustic guitar players of the 60's and 70s put their instruments away when they had families and retired from successful careers. They now have the time to devote to their playing," said Coyle. 

Schoenberg noted that the performers from Windham Hill Records were pivotal in launching a renewed culture of fingerstyle guitar playing in the 70's.

Teja Gerken, accomplished acoustic fingerstyle guitar player, is also senior editor at Acoustic Guitar Magazine which has been one of the Festival's main sponsors since the beginning. 

He affirmed that guitarists like Alex de Grassi, an original Windham Hill artist who presently teaches master guitar classes at String Letter's community music school in San Anselmo, helped to promote this style of playing. 

Artists as diverse as Eric Clapton, with his unplugged album in the early 90s, and the Grateful Dead, with their reinterpretations of roots-based songs, have helped to fuel the movement.  

"There's also an exciting resurgence among younger players like Andy McKee," Gerken said of the flashy 30-year-old from Topeka, Kansas who became a You Tube phenomenon and is now touring globally. " The influence of social media has been important in the increase of players in the emerging generation."

Gerken is also organizing an opening night concert  on Aug. 12 at the Last Day Saloon in Santa Rosa called "The Fingerstyle Summit" that is open to the public.  Internationally known, high caliber players Tony McManus, Al Petteway, Laurence Juber, Vicki Genfan, Kinlock Nelson and Stevie Coyle will be featured. 

When asked how a first-time attendee might get the most out of this year's festival, Teja said to make a day out of it, look at all the guitars, hear the players and don't be afraid to take a workshop. 

Accessible subjects such as Gerken's "Classical Techniques for Steel-String Players" on Sunday Aug. 14, and Coyle's "Everything You Know Is Wrong" on Friday Aug. 12 will be offered.

For those serious about buying or commissioning a custom-made guitar at this year's festival, award-winning fingerstyle guitarist Michael Watts, who is based in the UK, will explore the process of choosing a luthier-built instrument from the player's point of view in a workshop on Friday Aug. 12.   

But how to know if you're ready to buy a high-end custom-built guitar?  And if the answer is "yes, you're ready," then how high-end to go?

"Buy the best guitar you can afford," says Coyle, "And the passion you feel while playing will keep you going for a long time..."

Some say you should wait until your finger-style playing has evolved to the level that you can appreciate a smaller-bodied guitar with wider frets for seamless playing.

"Buying a hand-crafted guitar with the highest caliber woodworking," says Gerken, "This means that one is purchasing an heirloom piece that can be handed down to the next generation of players."

At a festival of this nature, the players know that when they demo a guitar and talk to its maker that their individual needs will be carefully listened to and accounted for. 

The luthiers know that the feedback they receive from the players is invaluable in building higher quality and ever-more responsive guitars. 

Perlman mentioned that he will have another custom-made guitar like the one he made for Coyle at this year's festival. 

"It's a great place to meet, speak with people and plant the seeds," he said.