My journey to becoming a luthier began unexpectedly the day I went to help repair my friend Rob’s van that had broken down in luthier Joel Stehr’s driveway. While working on the van and making small talk, I learned Joel built guitars. Being a woodworker and cabinet maker myself, I wanted to see his shop. I was so taken by Joel’s shop and the unbelievably beautiful guitars he was producing, that I decided right there that being a luthier was my dream job, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to apprentice with him for 7 years.
A year after I started working with Joel, my 13 year old child was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Her intense cancer treatment required her to stay hospitalized for almost 6 months. My best coping mechanism during that time was to sneak out of the hospital once a week to work on guitars with Joel.
My child has been cancer free for 3 and a half years now, but during her last round of chemo, I decided that life was too short to be working at a desk job that I didn’t particularly like, that included a 2 hour commute that I truly loathed. So I built up my own shop and shortly thereafter quit my job of 10 years- that was unfortunately January of 2020. I was now a new, full-time luthier in the midst of a global viral pandemic. Maybe not the best timing, but I’ve stayed the course.
I grew up with a grandfather and father that loved to build and fix things. I started young and took to working with the tools of a craftsman quickly. I’ve built all kinds of things, broken all kinds of things, and then turned around and fixed most of them again. I started repairing my own car as soon as my first car broke. Then I went on to fixing my friend’s cars, family’s cars. It’s the same with plumbing, carpentry, and concrete work… I’ve built treehouses, and chess boards, motorcycles, knives and hatchets, stuffed animals, and drones.
But now I mostly build guitars. Unique, beautiful, innovative, comfortable, responsive guitars. I put great care and attention into the details and design of each guitar. I build every guitar to the very best of my ability, learning a little more with every build, and I believe every time I finish a guitar, it’s the best one I’ve built yet!
