I have been a student of music my entire adult life. I’ve worked as a DJ for radio and nightclub, studied sound engineering, been a professional guitarist, and has worked as a music buyer for a wholesale recording distributor. The other passion in my life has been for woodworking. I’ve studied cabinetmaking at Minnesota State College Minneapolis Technical and worked as a professional craftsman for over twelve years. During that time my work has appeared on the TV show “Home Time” and in publications including Builder magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, and Architectural Digest, and on the cover of a Midwest Home and Gardens. Building guitars seemed to be the logical next step so I furthered my education by enrolling at Minnesota State College Southeast Technical to study musical stringed instrument repair and construction. 

This seems to be what everything in my life has been pointing towards all along. My mother is an artist and my father is a retired science professor, and I think that right and left brain upbringing is very much needed in the building of a guitar. We luthiers pay a great deal of attention to what happens to the sound when small changes are made to an instrument. And it is also important that the guitar be an object of beauty. I take great care to find colors that complement each other or that the shape of the inlay works with entire instrument.

I think of myself as a traditionalist. The guitar is a complex system and it is important to look to the past to learn what has worked, and to build from that knowledge. I use many designs and materials and methods that have proven to be worthy. The dovetail neck/body joint, hot hide glue and scalloped X bracing are examples of traditional influence.