I was turning 40, and so was Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run. That iconic album cover featured Bruce's classic telecaster, and I decided I would try to build one like it. I had done some woodworking over the years, so I thought I might have a baseline set of skills to give it a go. That first guitar was more "assembled" than it was built -- I bought a pre-made neck and a pre-routed body -- but before long I was routing truss rod channels and learning to do fretwork.
I was not expecting to enjoy this process as much as I did in those early days, but I truly did. With my day job as a lawyer in Washington, I don't always see the sort of tangible results of a day's work that I do when I'm building guitars, so that certainly appealed to me. Before long, I was building several guitars at a time, mostly for friends and family, and I was really learning the craft by simply doing it. Learning to recover from mistakes is an essential skill of woodworking generally, and lutherie in particular!
I built an early-style telecaster bass for a friend who's in a few local bands, and it was a special feeling to buy a ticket for a concert and then see a musician play an instrument that I had built. Not long after that, I sold my first guitar -- not because I intended to, but because the buyer was Congressional staff and I was a registered lobbyist. I worked with the House Ethics Committee to make sure it was all above board, and came up with a fair price. My very first customer!
Building guitars is not my job, but it is my passion. Most of my time is still spent providing legal and public policy services to clients, primarily in the insurance sector, but I build somewhere between 5-10 guitars per year, and I am eager to share this passion with those who appreciate handmade items built with careful attention to detail.
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