In early 2005 Mel Bay author Tim Farrell sent me an email message with pictures of what he called the "Reverse the Curse" guitar owned by Donna Havens, a student he had encountered in one of his workshops. Luthier Harvey Leach's inlay work on this instrument celebrates the Red Sox 2004 victory over their post-season opponents including my home team, the St. Louis Cardinals. While blown away by the Red Sox sweep of the Cardinals in the World Series, I was not inured to the fact that the origin of the "Reverse the Curse" guitar would make a great Guitar Sessions article.

Then too, the all-important client-luthier relationship has never been explored in a "Featured Luthier" article. Combining this element with a common interest in baseball may be a first in music journalism. So, thank you Tim for bringing us all together and thank you Harvey and Donna for the insider's overview of Red Sox history. I would have really struggled with reconstructing that history and probably done an inadequate job of expressing the passion it inspires.

Stephen Rekas
Guitar Sessions Editor

The Client- Donna Havens

I am a Red Sox fan. Not the obsessed type, as my obsessions have more to do with acoustic guitars- but the type that grew up with an awareness or expectation each fall that our hearts would once again be broken by our beloved team, a fan with a deep and abiding faith in "maybe next year". So, when fellow Red Sox fan and luthier Harvey Leach offered to build a Red Sox guitar if they ever won the World Series - whereby the customer pays base price for the instrument and all inlays are free - my response was, heck yeah - I'm in! After all, Pedro was pitching. It was 1999.

If ever I needed a miracle like the World Series Championship of 2004- that was the time. Life had radically changed since '99, challenging my overall optimistic frame of reference. But Pedro was pitching - still! You know the rest of the story! Beating the Yankees was the best, as even I hated that team and I don't hate anybody. That was cool!

The night we won the World Series playing against the Cardinals, there was an amazing show in the heavens as well as on my TV set. I glanced back and forth between the lunar eclipse outside my window and the victory of a lifetime on the screen. The heavens declared the "Reverse of the Curse"! Life has never been the same. I no longer hated the Yankees. Peace and contentment descended upon the State of Massachusetts; better still, peace and contentment, faith and hope were renewed in my soul.

At the time of the World Series Championship, I was a full-time student and I had no money for this guitar. I didn't order it immediately after the win, because that was a big cause of concern, but then I realized that it just wasn't my problem. The Bambino was responsible for this one. I borrowed the money for the down payment, dropped it in the mailbox, pointed to the heavens David Ortiz-style, and told the Babe to bring it on.

He did, about a month later. We were cleaning out a house my dad owned and was selling with all its stuff - the "stuff" was headed to the landfill. The house had been lived in for many years by my step-mom's father. I had stored my childhood treasures in the basement of this house, so had a huge interest in culling through all the stuff, even though I had been told that my treasures were long gone. In effect, I inherited my step-grandfather's treasures in exchange for mine, which provided me with the money for the guitar!

Life is grand...I am now the proud and lucky owner of a Harvey Leach masterpiece - the best guitar ever built, in my humble opinion, commemorating the best season of my favorite baseball team and the Reverse of the Curse. When the Red Sox guitar came up for discussion on the the 13th Fret Acoustic Guitar Discussion Forum, Harvey said that we went ahead with the project because neither he nor I wanted to be responsible for any future curses! I love that.

While I missed the Red Sox victory parade, it was very cool that the trophy made its way from town to town and anyone who wanted to see it was able to. The lines were long so we didn't get to linger, but people were kinder and more loving and forgiving and this good feeling lasted quite a long time. It was like a blanket of good will came over the state, and part of that will be with us forever. That is what I remember when I look at my guitar.

Every time I look at it, pick it up, glance at the eclipse on the fretboard, I am reminded and I believe! And, as we come to the end of another baseball season, there is a whole new meaning to the words, "Maybe next year!"

The Luthier- Harvey Leach

To comprehend the origins of the Reverse the Curse guitar I think it's important to understand what it stands for. A brief synopsis of the inspiration for this instrument must start with the Red Sox themselves and the legions of diehard fans that have been following the team for the past century. The Red Sox were the dominant team in baseball for the first 18 years of the 20th century. After winning the World Series in 1918, the owner of the team needed cash to fund a Broadway play, so he sold several of his top players to a team from New York that had never amounted to much- the Yankees. The big player in the deal was a pitcher named Ruth, affectionately known as "The Bambino" or simply, "The Babe" who went on to become the greatest player in the history of baseball and helped lead the Yankees to 26 World Series titles while the Red Sox watched, usually from second place.

The Red Sox made a few runs at a title over the next 86 years but managed to create incredible scenarios for collapse each time. In 1946, '67, '75, and finally '86, the Sox lost the seventh game of each World Series, always the victims of some disastrous fluke play. In addition, the Sox twice failed to make an American League playoff after losing a one-game playoff. Because the trouble started with the sale of the Babe, the Red Sox's troubles became known as "The Curse of the Bambino" a name coined by a Boston beat writer. The feeling in what is known as Red Sox Nation was that the Sox would keep you on the edge of your seat and then break your heart.

As the 20th Century drew to a close the Red Sox were once again one of the best teams in baseball, but, of course, the best team was...the Yankees and they were on a string of consecutive titles. In 2003, the two teams (who by this time had become a rivalry of epic proportions) met to decide who would go to the World Series. The series went to the 7th game (of course) and to extra innings (of course) and the Yankees won it with a walk-off home run in the 10th inning (of course). It seemed there was just no escape from the "curse".

The 2004 season ended much like 2003, and the Sox and Yankees once again met to decide who would go to the Series. The Sox lost the first 3 games (in miserable fashion) and faced elimination with another loss--no team has ever survived a 3-0 deficit. Game 4 the Sox tied the game and later won it in extra innings. Game 5 same thing, the Red Sox came back to force extra innings and won. Game 6 Red Sox won again setting up yet another Game 7. The Sox won, the curse was removed, and so, the Sox easily beat the team from the National League [The St. Louis Cardinals] to capture the first title in 86 years.

Now, for how a guitar fits into this scenario-

Red Sox fans are unique, to put it mildly. Because they had come so close so many times a certain amount of love/hate is present with every true Sox fan, cynicism if you will. I have been a fan since 1969 (which means I didn't have to live through the '46 and '67 tragedies) and I was in the Army in 1978 so I missed the Bucky "Bleeping" Dent home run. Anybody who knows me very well understands that I spend about as much time worrying about the Red Sox as I do building guitars and cutting inlays. I have a satellite TV and a DVR recorder just in case someone tries to order a guitar or something during a game.

I also spend a lot of time (when the Sox are not on TV mind you) on a few Internet discussion forums. One in particular, the RMMGA (rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic) newsgroup, is where I first crossed paths with Donna Havens, the now proud owner of the "Reverse the Curse" guitar. She and I had become acquainted on the group because of our mutual love and dismay at the exploits of the recent Sox team. Many Yankee fans also reside on that group and took great pleasure at our expense so it was difficult to remain "professional" after the Sox finally beat the Yankees in "The Greatest Collapse in the History of Baseball!!!" ...sorry, just had to throw that in...

I believe it was after the loss (to the Yankees, of course) in the 1999 playoffs, I posted on the group that "when" the Sox won the World Series again I would include free Red Sox themed inlays to any Sox fan who bought a guitar. One person, Donna, stepped forward and said, "When they do, I'll buy a guitar!" Of course, being true Sox fans, this meant that I expected I would never have to include free inlays and she would never have to pay for a new custom made guitar! I mean, surely hell would be frozen solid and cows would learn to fly well before any free inlays were cut!

Little did we know at the time that "The Babe" was about to be reincarnated in the form of one David Ortiz, better known as "Big Papi". Big Papi would be the man who won both games 4 and 5 of the 2004 Red Sox/Yankee series. Apparently, the only way to beat the "Curse of the Bambino" was to have your own bambino! But just to be sure nothing was to go wrong during the final game of the World Series there was a lunar eclipse, which if you've never noticed turns the moon red.... Once the series was over we had to go through with our deal (lest any further Red Sox failures be called the RMMGA curse or the Luthier's curse).

One of the things I pride myself on when doing a themed guitar is to try to make every part relevant to the theme, not just the inlay patterns but also the woods used to build the guitar. Donna and I discussed several options and settled on one of my favorite wood combinations, redwood and walnut. Redwood seemed appropriate since it is red, and initially, the walnut was chosen because it is a good match both acoustically and aesthetically.

Upon reflection I realized I had some very special redwood and walnut that was perfect for the "theme". The redwood I had was salvaged from wine vats built in 1918 (the year the Babe was sold) and used until 1972 (the year I started building guitars). The "winewood" is much darker than typical redwood and has a hint of wine bouquet.

Traditional instrument builders of the 1700's dried wood underwater (often in the sewers...) to slow the drying process and limit cellular collapse; drying in wine serves the same purpose and I expect smells better. The added plus is that it was extremely high grade "old growth" redwood, perfect for guitar tops. The walnut we ended up using is from some of the rarest trees on earth, known as Bastogne walnut (Juglans hybrid), the rare offspring of the practice of grafting English walnut limbs onto claro walnut root stock. The resulting wood is denser and lighter in color than either parent. And here's the clincher!!! I am told (although I have had no success in proving it) that the name Boston is derived from the word Bastogne. The binding is "bloodwood" for all the years of suffering Red Sox fans have endured.

Once the woods had been chosen the next step was to design the inlays. Normally, this involves some extensive Internet searches, locating printed material and studying the subject matter. Since I probably know way too much about this subject I skipped right to the pondering stage. To have a really good theme, there needs to be a story to tell, and the more hidden messages I can come up with, the better.

Red Sox fans are very much into symbolism. Seemingly coincidental events become what legends are made of. The lunar eclipse could only mean one thing...the Sox had finally eclipsed the Yankees! So the fretboard inlays showing the moon as a Yankee logo slowly changing into the Red Sox logo was perfect. The roman numerals are the year 2004.

Next up- the headstock inlay! I had been messing around with using Kokopelli as a guitar player on another customer's guitar so I thought it would be fun to make him a baseball player in a Red Sox uniform. Originally, I had intended it to be a left-handed batter called KokoJohnny after the long-haired Johnny Damon, but since Manny Ramirez won the MVP I decided to make it KokoManny besides Manny has Kokopelli's hair. This turned out to be quite a good move since Johnny has since moved on to the Evil Empire.

Finally, the soundhole. Several years ago I built a guitar with a theme based on September 11 and one of the inlays was a soundhole in the shape of the Pentagon. So, I decided a baseball diamond would look nice if it had the baselines in abalone and the soundhole itself in the shape of the infield grass. Originally, the bases were to be plain, but I got the idea of using the logos of the 3 teams they beat. I liked that it would show the teams involved as well as the symbolism of getting on base, rounding third and finally, safe at home. There is no second base, but that's fine because beating the Yankees really should count as, at least, two bases! The last really neat feature is the serial number on the label; it's the date and time (right down to the minute!) of the last out of the 2004 World Series.

Donna Havens graduated in May '06 with a Master of Education degree in Psychology and lives in Western Massachusetts. She is a member of the International Association of Coaches, and is adding a practice in Life/Creativity/Performance Coaching and Consulting to the music school curriculum where she teaches guitar, piano and alto sax.

She has taught at the Club Passim School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts and performed at many weddings, funerals and special occasions. As a recording artist she has contributed to three CD's and performed with Peggy Seeger at Club Passim. Lately she has focused on raising her "three great kids" but is beginning to frequent open mic showcases to show off new skills and knowledge learned in six years of private study with guitarist/singer/songwriter Brooks Williams.

Her "other" guitars are an Olson SJ, a Martin 00-18 Libba Cotten Signature Model, and a Dobro® that she acquired from Cliff Eberhardt. She is now on Mark Blanchard's list for a "Classicool" guitar - a nylon-string built for steel-string players. "I love having a guitar in the works," she writes, "It pushes me to play more to 'earn' it!"

If interested in lessons and/or coaching Donna can be reached at dawn_inc@msn.com.

Harvey Leach began his luthiery career in 1972 when he chopped down a birch tree to build a banjo and used Plastic Wood to create his first inlay. From those humble beginnings he has become an innovator in the guitar world and in the art of inlay, creating "special effect" techniques such as "Smoke and Mirrors" featured on the Martin Guitar Company's "Custom Cowboy Guitar", fog and ice as seen on his own "Polar Bear" guitar, and the September 11th guitar; these special effects are often referred to as "holographic inlays".

Besides his own guitars, current inlay customers include: Martin Guitars, Paul Reed Smith, Collings, Warrior, Kevin Ryan, Jim Olson and occasional work for about twenty other private builders. Themed inlay work is a specialty; besides the "Red Sox" guitar, recent projects include the "September 11", "Beetles" and "Mermaid" guitars.

Some of Harvey's most elaborate inlay work is featured on special one-of-a-kind Martin guitars; the previously mentioned "Cowboy" recently sold for well over $100,000.00. Other Martin projects include "Hot Rod" and "Medieval" guitars and soon an "Old Testament" guitar.

Two new Leach guitars are in the works for a museum show with fellow inlay legends René Karnes, Grit Laskin and Larry Robinson. One of the Leach guitars will feature inlays based on the work of Japanese Ukiyo-e master Suzuki Harunobu, and another will depict an African theme.

Harvey Leach has built over 350 guitars and is also the creator of the innovative "Voyage-air" guitar which makes it possible to carry a full-size, full-featured guitar onto a commercial airliner. He has been a "Diehard" Red Sox fan since 1969.