Carroll Benoit RIP 90

Larry Tresnicky · From: Grapevine, Texas, USA

We were just notified this morning that our very dear friend Carroll Benoit went to meet our Lord today at 3:30 am.
Phyllis and I were honored to celebrate Carroll’s 90th birthday with Anita, family and many close friends this past Saturday.
Today was Carroll and Anita’s 67th anniversary.
He will be deeply missed, as a great Luthier and performer, in the musical world.

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

Sorry. Condolences to the family. Big loss. The world is a lesser place without Carroll.

Kenny Davis · From: Great State of Oklahoma

I'm grateful that I was lucky enough to become friends with Carroll and Anita. Our friendship seems much longer than it actually has been - I'm sure others that were lucky to be a part of their life will agree.

I want to post more, but will have to do so later.

Larry and Phyllis Tresnicky asked me to post these pictures for them:

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Howard Parker · From: Maryland

Hey Larry,

I am sad for Carroll's family and every one of us that was lucky enough to be within their sphere.

hp
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Howard Parker

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Bob Blair · From: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Thanks for posting this sad news Larry. Those times we had in the Benoit Room at the TSGA were life-changing for me. Carroll was a gentleman in the best sense of the word.

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Wonderful man and amazingly talented builder. RIP and condolences to all who loved him.
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Andy Volk · From: Boston, MA

He was a true gentleman and I’m glad I was able to know him a bit via phone calls over 25 years even though we never met in person. I interviewed him for the Fretboard Journal but they never ran it and it now resides in my book, "Guitar Dreams."

Heartfelt condolences to his wife Anita and the Benoit family. I called him last week and sadly, he could barely croak out a half sentence. I'm glad he is no longer suffering. His gorgeous instruments will outlast us all and be played for generations to come and I'll treasure the guitar he built for me. RIP. Godspeed, Carroll.
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Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

I still have a couple of the steel bar pouches that he gave away at TSGA. They're pretty much perfect for holding a bar, picks and maybe a capo.

One of my great memories is watching Mike Auldridge play in the Benoit room one afternoon.

My sympathies to his family and friends. He will be missed.
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Joe Rogers · From: Lake Charles, LA USA

Mr. Carroll was a jewel of a guy and a master craftsman. He and Mrs. Anita were inseparable. I miss not seeing them at the steel shows. Our thoughts and prayers go out to family and friends.

Joe Rogers

HowardR · From: N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville

I've dreaded this day for a while, when I would be sitting here collecting my thoughts with regard to the relationship that I shared with Carroll, and posting it on this section of the forum.

In 2002 I attended the Dallas show and arrived at the hotel early Thursday evening. As I started to walk to the lobby I saw a long table with the most beautiful and unique resophonic guitars that I had ever seen in my life. I was in such awe that I viewed them at a distance as I was afraid to get close to them. I was a newby to steel guitar shows and there were a bunch of people (including Bobby Lee) who were talking to Carroll and I was overwhelmed, so I thought that I would wait till the next day and approach when it wasn't crowded. The next day I did just that. As I was looking at the guitars Carroll approached and encouraged me to play them, and so I did. There was a walnut/spruce guitar that caught my ear in particular and I wanted to buy it, but again, I was overwhelmed and decided not to pull the trigger yet. I thought about it all Friday night and when I returned on Saturday, there were two fellows from Europe trying the guitars. One of them was really liking the spruce/walnut guitar and his friend was agreeing with him. I was alarmed. After a long while they finally left and I quickly ran over to it, picked it up and told Carroll that I wanted it. I also really liked the 10 string with a pedal steel keyhead as well. Carroll told me that this was the second time the fellow was playing the spruce/walnut guitar and said that if I was serious, I should take the guitar back to my room. I told him that I also liked the 10 string and he said "take that one too"....I asked Carroll how much of a deposit he wanted (I brought cash with me in those days)...Carroll looked at me, offered me his hand and said "Your word is good".....and that was the beginning of a very special and long relationship.

For the next 12-13 years The Benoit Room became the home base to myself and others. Every year the core of friends grew and it was like a family. Carroll and Anita were so warm & welcoming to all who entered. There was a lot of playing, jamming, and great bonding between everybody. Larry & Phyllis Tresnicky kept us well fed and Larry certainly kept us in stitches. The talent that came into The Benoit Room was over the top, yet (us) mediocre players never felt uncomfortable or any less of a person from the icons who would mingle there....like Reece Anderson and Mike Auldridge. True gentlemen who always gave encouragement and kind words. Carroll and Anita really created a special place during a special time.

Carroll was an amazing craftsman and artist who became better & better even when you thought that it couldn't be possible. He was open minded and welcomed a tough challenge. I had ideas of one off guitars and we worked together throughout the years. I would pitch an idea to him and he would at first roll his eyes and question it, but then a day or two later he would tell me that he couldn't sleep thinking about how he could accomplish the build.

In addition to working together with "crazy" guitar builds, we shared experiences of growing up in completely different environments with different upbringings and different traditions. It was so interesting comparing our lives and how we came to be where we were at that time. While we had many differences in those areas, we shared core values...old school values, old ways, and old wisdom (and common sense). We shared appreciation of what is really important in life,....family, friends, honor, faith, and doing what is right whether somebody is looking or not. We both deeply cherished our friendship.

In 2015 Carroll decided to retire. That year was the last show that Carroll and Anita would attend. Reece had passed, Mike (Auldrige) had passed, others had either passed or were at the late stage of life where traveling was a hardship. That was a tough realization, knowing that we were all moving on but thankful & grateful for what we had in all the years we had it. Bob Blair and myself helped Carroll & Anita pack up their van in the parking lot and to see them off. We couldn't speak....we were really so choked up that we couldn't get any words out. We hugged them both and said a very quick goodbye. When we watched them pull away, it was the end of an era. It was time to continue on with whatever & wherever life took us. We kept in touch throughout the years and never lost that strong connection that we built between us.

Carroll lived a long and accomplished life. He took on many challenges in life as well as his craft, and succeeded in all of them. His family and faith were the most important things to him and he had an endless capacity for both. He was happy, content, and proud. He was a wealthy man, having an abundance of what money cannot buy.

Rest well my dear friend....you're in the presence of your Lord and Savior.

Picture file

Craig Stock · From: Westfield, NJ USA

Howard, what a well written and honest tribute to Carroll, I'm sure he's smiling up in heaven!
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Regards, Craig

I cried because I had no shoes, then I met a man who had no feet.

Today is tomorrow's Good ol' days

Andy Volk · From: Boston, MA

That's a beautifully written tribute, Howard, and I know it must have been difficult to write. Your friendship with Carroll and Anita is touching and the collaborations you did with Carroll were and still remain, groundbreaking and unique. Those instruments well be around and cherished long after we are all gone.

Here's a small illustration of Carroll's kindness and generosity: about 20 years ago, I sent my beautiful koa and spruce Benoit resophonic to Carroll for repair of a minor soundboard crack. In addition to its beauty, that guitar had an amazing high end and bass response. During shipping, UPS dropped it off a loading dock and seriously cracked the back, top and sides. The guitar was done.

After an insurance fight, backed up by Carroll's testimony, UPS reluctantly paid the claim and I ordered a replacement guitar from Carroll. The new guitar was gorgeous but it didn't quite have the bass response of the first one and I, very sadly, had to sell it about a year later to pay a whopper of a tax bill.

Fast forward to Spring 2022 when Carroll, long retired, gifted me with the original guitar. He has meticulously repaired it from the catastrophic UPS damage and it sounds as good as ever. I was shocked at the magnitude of this gift and while I don't deserve it, I sure appreciate it! Dobro master Eddie Ortego had a hand in orchestrating the guitar's return, as Carroll wanted it to be a surprise. It sure was!

I never met him in person but I will always consider Carroll as a dear friend.
...........................................................................................................................................

I interviewed Carroll in 2006 for the Fretboard Journal. They never ran it however, so it is now in my Guitar Dreams book . I think this was the draft version ....

AV
Where were you born and what was your childhood like?

CB
I was born in a small community called Youngsville, Louisiana and we were raised on a farm. My parents were sharecroppers. At a real young age we did chores like picking cotton; everything that a grown up would do we just didn’t do as much of it; all before we started school. About the 5th grade, I moved to Lafayette.

AV
Your parents were Cajuns?

CB
Yes, my family were French Arcadians that lived in Nova Scotia for a few years. They wouldn’t honor the queen and so they took most of them and placed them all over the east coast and a lot of them landed in Louisiana. A lot of them were tried to go back and a lot of them were killed trying to get their families out of Nova Scotia but most of them settled in south Louisiana. We have a lot of Spanish blood in our family going way back. The Spaniards were ruling at the time. My grandmother, her mother was from Spain. They mixed with different nationalities.

I’m mostly all French except for her. I spoke French before I spoke English. It was kind of hard to start school and learn English and all the subjects as well. Out in the country, everybody spoke French. That’s all you heard. Back then; they wouldn’t let you speak French on the school grounds. If you did, the teachers would give you a whipping.

AV
How do you think your childhood influenced the way you do business and build your instruments?

CB
I think my parents had a lot to do with that. We were brought up to mind. My dad and most of his brothers were all carpenters and did beautiful work back then. They did things right so they wouldn’t have to re-do things. I learned from that, I guess. I’m the kind of person that likes to do things right the first time so you don’t have to do it over. I just like to build nice things, whether it’s guitars or not, it doesn’t matter.

AV
How did you become interested in music and playing the guitar?

CB
I had a couple of real good friends. We met in eight grade and one of the friends was a real good player at the time – a lot better than us, anyway. He just continued to excel and turned out to be a real fine musician. The three of us had a little group and sang three-part harmony. We had a lot of fun with it and everywhere we’d go, we’d have a guitar with us. It was mostly country. I was brought up on Cajun music but it was the thing you heard everyday. We heard country music on the radio and liked it so that’s what we played. I play Cajun music too have a little CD we put out. It’s kind of hard to keep it going 'cause we don’t speak French anymore. Most of the people here where I live in Texas don’t speak French anymore. My parents have both passed away. When they’d come over we’d speak French but that’s the end of it, I guess.

AV
Did you play music for a living?

CB
No, I was a sign electrician building big high-rise signs like you see in Las Vegas. You had to learn to do carpentry work, sheet metal work, welding, electrical wiring, spray painting; you had to be able to do a little bit of everything to build one of those.. Sometimes it would take about a month. We’re talking about something that’s maybe a hundred feet up in the air and twenty feet high and forty foot wide. So there was a lot to do in building electrical signs – more than meets the eye.

AV
How did you start to build guitars?

CB
I started building a few pieces of furniture and then friends wanted things built, wine boxes, tables. I built my own home so I was pretty gifted in carpentry work and raised around people that did it all the time. I started to build guitars in the late 80s. I started with acoustic guitars from a kit I saw in a magazine based on a Martin guitar. I always had Martins and wanted to build one. No instructions were in the kit. I ordered it and built it. You hear of a kit and you think it’s easy. There’s a lot to do. It’s not 1,2,3, and it’s over with. You have to do a lot of finish work and shaping. I was so amazed by the sound I got out of it that I just had to build another and that’s how I got started.

AV
What attracted you to resophonic guitars?

CB
I always loved the sound of a resonator guitar. A fiend of mine that plays music with me, Eddie Ortego, kept after me to build one for him. I kept telling him, “No, I’ve never built one of those.” And he said, “If you can build an acoustic guitar you’re bound to be able to build resonator guitar.” He had his own ideas he wanted to apply so with his help I went ahead and built one. He kept at it so long I got tired of listening to him. I’m telling you, he was so amazed by the sound. We played a little just last night and it still had a great sound. The quaterman cone makes a big difference; way back, they didn’t have nice cones.

AV
What kind of sound are you aiming for?

CB
I’m striving for a rich, more mellow sound than a bright, tinnier sound. I think it suits more styles of music or different styles than the bright sound. That doesn’t mean that it’s a bad sound, a lot of people like the bright sound. I’ve had many pleased customers and I’m still trying to achieve that mellow, deep, rich tone you don’t get with bright guitars.

AV
What do you think makes a Benoit different from a Sheerhorn, a Beard or one of the other custom makers?

CB
Getting the sound I describe is one; I apply the acoustic guitar method to the resonator. I use tonewoods where I guess a lot of them do too. I don’t use laminated wood in my guitars. There’s nothing wrong with that, I just think I get a richer sound with the tonewoods. Most of my guitars have wood binding and purfling where many others use plastic. It gives my guitars a little more class, I think. You have to bend the wood binding. Plastic bends itself around the instrument. You don’t have to heat it.

AV
You use some gorgeous exotic woods. What woods do you use and why and how do they influence the sound of your guitars?

CB
The hardwood naturally will give you a little brighter sound. A lot of my guitars have spruce tops which tome the brightness down a little bit and makes a mellower sound than then hardwood tops. Even the all-hardwood won’t be as bright as a laminated guitar. It just has a richer sound.

AV
Why are some of the specific differences in woods and workability?

CB
Even with the same woods and building them the same way you can get two different sounds. A good musician will hear that. There is a difference in the different woods.

AV
Is there a particular combination that you really like?

CB
Koa is a beautiful tonewood and a beautiful wood period. Koa was my favorite for a long time than I started experimenting with other woods and I still like koa but I’ve just built for straight guitars out of maccsar ebony. Everybody’s flipping over them. They’re really, really loving them. A couple had a spruce top on it; one had a maple top, one was solid macassar top, sides and back. I do the same things with koa. I use a lot more hard tops instead of the spruce. They all have a different sound. It’s kind of hard to explain but even with the same wood on different guitars they’re gonna sound different.

AV
How much influence does the resonator have versus the body wood?

CB
Well, as far as volume coming out of the instrument, I think it has everything to do with it but as far as the tone, the wood plays a heck of a big part in the sound of the guitar. Once the resonator makes the sound, the wood on the inside of the guitar picks it up and adds to it. One good way to say it is, if you had a metal guitar and put the same resonator in it and them put the same guts in a wood guitar you’ll hear a big difference in the sound. Wood just adds a lot.

AV
Any interest in using you metal fabricating skills to make a metal guitar?

CB
No, I really haven’t. I’m busy 7 days a week as it is and I’m very happy with what I’m doing. On some of those guitars, I really have no idea what it’s gonna sound like with the different shapes that I build.

AV
Trend among builders to go to a post and baffle design, You’ve stayed with the traditional soundwell. How do your differ from a traditional Dobro?

CB
I’ve found that the construction of a soundwell is a lot stronger than a so-called soundpost. The way I do my soundwell it ties the top and back together and gives a lot of area for the sound to travel through using the parallelogram design on my soundwell whole. There’s as much sound going through my guitars as you’d find using soundposts. You have to put something on the top and back for your soundpost and cone to set in. I’d worry that unless if you have big enough ring that cone won’t sit flush all around.

AV
Have you taken apart old Dobros?

CB
Yeah, I’ve taken apart old Dobros and Regals and set some up for people. Some of them use a soundwell but they were smaller holes and you didin;’t get as much sound going through as I do with the soundwells I use and the way I build them.

AV
Tell me about some of the special custom guitars you’ve done.

CB
I work with the customer real close and use some of their ideas. Just as long as it’s not too far out where I don’t think it’ll work. I’ll build a guitar just about any shape you want as long as I think I can build it and it’s gonna appear to look real nice. As far as the Phoenix, the customer had the idea and it turned out to be one of the finest sounding guitars I built. The Selmanator, was made with a Selmer design and he just got a different sound too.

One customer is disabled. He can bend his elbows shoulder s and wrists but his mobility is limited. His fingers are in a fixed posituion straight out. He has a triangular pick fastened on as trap that he wraps around his right hand and it sits in the palm. He has a 5” stainless steel bar that he also straps on his hand. Understanding that, he couldn’t move very far left or right so we made it a short, 22 7/8” scale so he didin’t have to move to get into position. He needs to play laying down, more or less, so we put the position markers on the side of the fretboard and continued the frets on the side of the guitar so he could see them and put a cutaway so he could reach up to the 15th fret without his hand hitting the side ofg guitar.

The thickness of the upperbout was tappered so his right arm could lay a little lower. He rreally, really likes it. I don’t know how to explain his condition. He was shot in a robbery attempt and weas in the hospital for many operations. He used to be a proifesional electric blues player. He had a few lap steels and we’ve become real good friends. He just loves his guitar.

He got back into playing agin after 20 some off years. He has a lot of guts to get out there and play. He hasn’t given up on life. Reece Anderson was a big helped on that guitar. He helped with the scale and different gauges. We didin’t know what that guitar was gonna sound like. You don’t see too many resonator guitars with a short scale.

Man , the best sounding 8-string I’ve built was that guitar. It had more area in the back end and the screens were spaced a little differently because of the cutawqay on one side. One was a little lower than the other . It’s such a rich sounding instrument!

AV
How do feel about working with wood to make beautiful objects?

CB
I enjoy it tremendously. I just love working with wood.
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Andy DePaule · From: Saigon, Viet Nam & Springfield, Oregon

Prayers to his family and all who will miss him.
We met through my pre-cut inlay business when he called the first time. Must have been about 22 years ago as he was an early customer.
We designed and made his Benoit logos and we often spoke on the phone.
He was and still is I'm sure a real southern gentleman.

We often talked about our luthiers work and he had a lifetime of knowledge.
Some years back a terrible hurricane went through his area.
I got on the phone to him and was relieved to hear he had gotten to a safe place.

Thanks also to Andy Volk for posting the interview.
There was a lot I'd never heard.
Rest in peace my friend. Crying or Very sad

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