"Some were getting irritated, " he concedes, and he couldn't afford to lose them: The business depends on workers in Montana who carve the maple bass-neck and those in California who shape and paint the bodies.

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He was in better shape than his comrades despite bad burns on his hands and metal in his neck.

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The basic urn shape relates to that of an Ancient Greek amphora bulbous, with shoulders and a flaring neck, double-handled, and characteristically raised on a foot.

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