A whole world of handmade guitars are on display in Santa Rosa this weekend, as dozens of instrument makers showcase their individual variations on this traditional craft.

Cotati guitar-maker Mark Berry was a longtime furniture maker when he got the itch to try making a guitar soon after his 50th birthday.

Which comes first in the guitar-making process, the neck or the body? For Mark Berry, it's a  chicken-and=egg question; it's not the sequence that matters, but how they come together. The images at right are a sampling of his finished instruments.

Duane Noble is seen above in his workshop with both a conventional acoustic guitar and a harp guitar on the right. To find out more about these instruments, you can read an exhaustive history of harp guitars.

Michael McCarthy (above in his workshop in Berkeley) used computer technology to develop his design for the underside of his arched top acoustic jazz guitars. He also employs a computer-driven router to carve the single-piece spruce guitar top, seen below with the interior side exposed.

These three luthiers are among the dozens of craftsmen who are showing their creations this weekend at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. Click here for a schedule of events.

Forty years after the fact, the music of San Francisco's first all-female rock and roll band can now be heard.

The Ace of Cups were the first and only all-female band in the San Franciso music scene of the late 1960s. They played frequently at all of the popular venues of the era, including the Fillmore, Avanlon Ballroom, and, as shown on the reproduced poster below, the Winterland auditorium. Drummer Diane Vitalich (wearing the yellow shirt and top hat in the group photo at right) recounts how the five band members found each other, beginning when she was found drumming at a jam session.

Although they did not record or release an album during the group's active years (1967-1972), several Ace of Cups shows and even a few rehearsals were informally recorded. Those tapes, carefully saved by the band members, finally saw the light of day almost 35 years later, when an Ace of Cups CD was finally released in 2003. Included on it is this energetic version of "I Wanna Testify," a 1967 hit for the Detroit soul band, The Parliments.

The title of the eventual Ace of Cups CD release,  It's Bad For You But Buy It, is taken from their song, "Glue,"  a wry but rocking send-up of rampant consumerism which was also included in the 2007 anthology of San Francisco bands, Love Is The Song We Sing.  A more representative example of their original material is "Catch You Later."