Vale Frank Ford - luthier and teacher

[Mark McLean]

I just read the news that Frank has passed away. I am sure that many of you have used his website Frets.com over the years. Frank was a visionary teacher and communicator, a phenomenally knowledgeable luthier, and just a lovely guy. When you look at the quality and quantity of stuff on frets.com, and then recall that he compiled most of that stuff back in the 1990s when the internet was in its wild infancy - it is extraordinary. I started to get into guitar building and tinkering about 18 years ago and I ate up everything that Frank wrote. He achieved the perfect balance of technical content, clear communication and humour. Also excellent photography and presentation.

Around 2008 I was traveling in the San Francisco Bay area and of course made a couple of visits to Gryphon Stringed Instruments (one of the world's best guitar shops). I bought a Martin 000-15 as a 21st birthday present for my son (and really should have bought that used Lowden that I tried and still think about). Anyway, Frank was in the house, sitting up at the repair bench in a loud Hawaiian shirt, and I went up and introduced myself as a wannabe luthier from Australia who loved frets.com and thanked him for all of the great teaching. He then gave me about 45 minutes of his valuable time showing me all over his workshop and pulling all kinds of cool instruments out of cases in the back of the shop. I felt like a kid being given a personal tour of the candy shop by Willy Wonka himself. Such a generous and self-effacing guy, but totally boss at the same time. Years later my son also visited Gryphon and mentioned it to me later - "I chatted for ages with this old guy in a really bad shirt who knew everything about vintage Martins, so cool!". I said, "yep you obviously met Frank". Farewell Sir, you were one-of-a-kind.

[Dave M]

You are quite right about his generosity. You only have to look at his web site.

[kiwigeo]

RIP Frank.

Great story about meeting the man Mark

[Taffy Evans]

What a shock to hear this sad news, RIP Frank.
Frank's knowledge and skill knew no bounds, and he shared so much so freely. I learned so much back in the day that has continuously guided me through my instrument repair and building journey.
He caused me to put “try another way” into my luthier’s toolbox.
He will be sadly missed.
Taff

[ozziebluesman]

A wealth of information came from this man.
RIP, and thank you for your website and contribution to the Luthier world.
Alan

[peter.coombe]

I visited Frank Ford when we travelled to the USA in 1999, and had a good look around the shop. I left one of my mandolins with him and they sold it shortly afterwards. Frank was very generous with his knowledge and many of us benefited, including me. He will be missed.