Roby Duke

[DrQuist]

Steve ... yes Roby and I talked several times about this guitar project.

When he called me in Nevada , we talked about a few things,

1- fret sizes, radius of fretboards , fretboard materials , frets with and fretboards without purfling or binding
2-tuners ... sealed ,open backed , bracket mounted types and various brands
3-Depth of bodies and what tone/sounds you gain in one area you lose in another , if any .
4-the way to compensate for tone loses with a cutaway and what can you do to open that tone back up . Is it worth having a cutaway ?
5- inlays on the fretboard .. how many inlays , what would they be ?materials .. etc
6- cases ;gig bags , cardboard boxes , giant pillow cases etc , and what I liked and why .
7- strings .. nut material , saddle material , bridge pins
8- blues /funky guy stuff
9-strap buttons - one or two , regular or strap locks
10- Avalon 'swag' or lack of 'swag' (T-Shirts ,Caps, Straps etc)
11- bracing and bridge plates variations
12- colors that were 'cool' and 'uncool' and were there tricks to make it even 'better' finish wise .

I have yet to see one of these guitars as he was coming
to 'hang' on the Thursday after Christmas day .. he was famous for being a day late .. so when the phone rang around noon on Friday ..I assumed it was him ... it was not ..... but it WAS about him .
I was stunned ..still am .

No more "Authentic American Gibberish" lunch sessions with him . We did that for years .
He was really proud that this guitar was happening .. kind of amazed in fact . He really was moved by the whole 'thing' .

[Son of Thunder]

Just downloaded Roby's "Relaxed Fits" from Amazon. Wonderful music, and a fitting tribute to the man's heart, and his art.

I may have mentioned that for years I dismissed this guy as a Kenny Loggins wannabe. I can be a real bonehead. Thanks for the music, Roby. I plan to apologize in person one day, but I seriously doubt such things will matter then.

[Sam Price]

Stevemac who also is a member of the DW Forum, promoted Roby in a thread over there...I am ashamed to say that I have discovered him too late- and am being blown away by his talent and musicality both on Youtube and the three albums I now have.