Whats in a name ?

Just sold a six point string spacing gauge to a Guitar builder in Spain.
His name is Francisco Jose Rodríguez Torrón with a name like that I imagined an old guy with a long moustache and specs, working in shed, bent over a bench surrounded by traditional clamps and tools and a hide glue pot ..Carving knife in hand labouring over a spruce top Flamenco guitar, with wood shavings everywhere and classical guitars hanging from the roof beams.

But! I was wrong .. in fact he runs a modern workshop turning out solid electric guitars for rock musicians.
And here he is.

guitar man by Ken Timms, on Flickr

Reckon the electrics are still a bigger market in the guitar world......

Nobody can blame you for thinking that way Ken, and it's nice to have been surprised, no?

Methinks that the use of 3D-printing, CNC, Plasma cutters, and laser engraving has likely allowed many more folks get into building things without needing the 30 yrs of apprenticeship of hand tools like back in the previous times.

When I was growing up, lots of the adults around me would try to pre-judge someone based upon their name, most notably their nationality and culture, according to narrow stereotypes from a 1950's mindset...

last name Greenberg or Klein, Jewish
last name O'Brien or Kelly, Irish
last name Rodriquez, Mexican
last name Hale, British
last name Washington, African American
last name Chang or Wong, Chinese

...etc

and so on, and while it may have been true, I hated those assumptions and when I met more folks as I grew up, I realized that this thinking of these names like that lead to other assumptions, and would put folks in a slot, before even meeting them or knowing anything about them.

I did not like that. I try to learn before making such leaps or just not make them at all, but yes, sadly some of the thinking that was passed down from my elders remain and I am very conscious of it. I would have preferred to 'learn' on my own and make my own conclusions...

ahh, the paradigms of our parents...sometimes a burden...sometimes a blessing.