Rembrandt, Sam and Nicholas

Yesterday was a good day. We arrived at our downtown Washington D.C. hotel at around 6:30 am. I slept reasonably well on our bumpy overnight ride from Detroit and opted to get the day started by joining Hussain for a swim in the hotel pool, followed by cappucino and oatmeal on the bus.

We were only a couple of miles from the Capitol Mall area where I planned to meet Sam Rizzetta and Nick Blanton at 11am in the National Gallery Museum. They weren't hard to spot as Nick is around 6' 7", and I'm guessing Sam is only about 5' 7". We started the day with a tour of the new Rembrandt exhibit which was amazing and inspiring.

As we exited the building the subject changed to the art of instrument building and the rest of the day flew by like a bullet. Sam and Nick have been building together for the past 20 years and Sam is globally recognized as an innovator and master craftsman. He's someone with whom I've wanted to converse for years but I've been a little intimidated to just give him a call. I was like a kid in a candy store listening to Nick and Sam discuss my theories and questions. I had dozens of misconceptions corrected and a few dozen more questions arise that will have to wait until another time.

You can see Nick's instruments here. Sam also designed a large portion of the Dusty Strings line, including the instrument I play, and you can see them here.

Some of Sam's recordings are available here. ¶ 8:43 AM