Wintergrass is one of the greatest bluegrass festivals on Earth. It also happens to be in our PNW backyard.

In what has become an annual Wintergrass tradition, the Fretboard Journal hosts a workshop where we gather as many rare and vintage instruments as we can, put them onstage, and have a few great players showcase their magic. No two workshops have ever been the same, and without fail, we always learn something and hear some great music.

This year’s session featured John Reischman and Caleb Klauder on mandolins and Patrick Sauber and Nina Gerber on guitars.

Huge thanks to Mark Demaray for emceeing and the Fretboard Journal readers and the Wintergrass community who let us borrow their instruments. Special thanks to Ear Trumpet for the microphones and D’Addario for all the strings.

Learn more about Wintergrass: https://wintergrass.com

We’ll be diving deeper into vintage acoustics at our 2026 Fretboard Summit in Chicago, taking place August 20-22, 2026. Register here: https://fretboardsummit.org