Shane from HighMountains

[Dave]

Hi All

I've been speaking to Shane over on OLF (sorry to had to sell my soul to go there lol) as I've been buying some stuff from him and this is what he had to say to you all

Hope that helps! and say hi to the boys (and girls on the Aussie forum! I will be posting abit over there in the new year, once I get caught up here!

Thanks
Shane

He's a nice guy but is suffering at -18 with a -30 wind chill at the mo - poor fella

Dave

[Allen]

Exactly why I move to OZ.

[Localele]

I don't suppose it will help Shane to know the surf at Byron Bay is like a warm bath at the moment.

[Lillian]

No Locale, it won't. Not unless you are sending plane tickets. The airport is still open for the moment.

Shane is about 3-4 hours farther north than I am, but we are dealing with some nasty weather right now. Its a high of 22F today with hurricane force wind expected this afternoon-evening into the night for the foothills. There is a storm cell that just hit the coast that is expected to drop between a couple of inches to up to 2.5 feet of snow in the lowlands. The mountain passes are going to get pounded.

And then we are expecting an ice storm right after this one moves out, just in time for the Monday morning commute.

It wouldn't be bad if we got this all the time and know how to deal with it.

Thats down here. I'm sure Shane is enjoying similar weather, but more of it.

[sebastiaan56]

How are the dudes in the midwest going? The news was full of it here..

[Kim]

Thanks Dave, it will be good to here from Shane once again. He's a really nice bloke but more importantly, he has great lutz spruce.

Hows that for material

Merry Xmas

Kim

[Dave]

Thanks for the tip Kim When I message him again I'll ask him about some!

He mentioned he was off for some Birch logs and I see from the website that he's supplying it for back and sides what do you think?

I've used Birch before for Furniture never thought of it as Guitar stuff!

Dave

[Allen]

I've used the birch from very near were Shane is, for small projects. I think it would be a dandy tone wood. Has some fantastic colors, is hard and stiff but still easy to work. If I had the stack of wood my Dad has for heating the house, I'd be scrounging through it for suitable pieces.

[James Mc]

It’s no wonder that we’re not making any progress against climate change/global warming… it’s all the folk in Washington “warming! did someone say warming? Yes please we’ll have some of thatâ€

[Alfred J]

I don't suppose it will help Shane to know the surf at Byron Bay is like a warm bath at the moment.

That does it! We are definitely going back for a visit near the end of February. Friends of ours live just up the coast at Ocean Shores. i'll rent a car in Brisbane and drive down the coast from there. We have a property not far south of Coffs Harbour. Planning to move back permanently in a couple of years, and I'm looking forward to that

[sebastiaan56]

Gibson used birch for F4 and F5 mandos, cant be too bad,

[Dominic]

Last time I asked about getting lutz from Shane in the supplier section of the forum Bob told me it was much cheaper to get it from Tim in Perth and that shipping would take 3 months or more.

From his OLF post it looks like Shane is looking to get back into this market.

Anyone have any more information on this?

D

[Shane Neifer]

Well! Dave has dragged me out of hibernation! I live actually a bit further north than Lillian expressed. She is about 3 hours south of Vancouver and I am 500 miles, as the crow flies, north of Vancouver, 1000 miles if you drive, that is about 17 hours on the road in Summer.....just a silly drive this time of year. So we haven't been getting the snow that she has as it has been clear and COOOOOLLLLLDDDDD here.

I should take this opportunity to update people where I am at as far as wood goes. As was mentioned a while ago me and my saw had a bit of an argument early this year. The saw being a bit more aggressive than I, was the eventual winner. It is amazing though how these doctors can just sew things back together! I have had a few trees in the yard this year but many of them were not very good quality, so I have been processing mostly 2A sets lately. I know that others will flog some of this wood as 3A but for me the real quality in the top starts with the wood structure and that is difficult to see once the wood has been processed but since I process it I know what the billet looked like from it's hand split form before I saw it. So most of the wood has been graded as 2A. I do get a few 3A and Master sets but I have this HUGE list of people waiting that I don't really market those grades right now. I am expecting a good supply of logs between January and August and am hoping to get caught up and have lots of wood available. Tim Spittle and I will be doing some deals with each other once I have the quality I want to send him so he will have a good supply when that happens, but it will probably be nearly a year by the time I get the wood, block it out, pallet it and send it on a cruise to Aus, he gets it and saws some sets and dries them. I will also be getting some of his wood the same way. We have no intention of limiting anyone to who they buy from. If someone wants to buy Lutz from me and I have it that is no problem, same goes when I have some Aussie wood here, one can still go directly to Tim. We are doing this for two reasons, the first is that we hope it will be more cost effective and therefore we can offer a lower price point to those that are local and also we find that many people like to get as much stuff from one supplier in a single order as buying from a bunch of suppliers kills you with shipping. So, Tim and I have no other deals except that we want to carry some of each others product.

Dom, believe me Man, when I get some decent sets I will get a hold of you! You are indeed on the list.

I don't even want to think about your surf..dudes! We are planning a Cuban excursion hopefully in February. I told my wife that I will be looking for Cuban Mahogany while we are there.......out came the sideways glance! But I am indeed looking forward to snorkeling and maybe the odd dive (my past life was a commercial fisheries manager, I LOVE the ocean!).

So, the very best of the season to you all and once I get ahead of myself (it won't be all that soon...) I will make sure I let everyone know what I am up to. I do have a bunch of stuff, including some birch and maple sets, mahogany and bubinga sets and some yellow cedar, that are not up on the site....They will be though once I finish building the new site.

Merry Christmas and I hope 2009 brings you all what you desire!

Shane