I can trace my love and passion for building custom guitars back to a very traumatic incident during my boyhood in Belgium. It goes back to my relationship with my father. My memory starts as an early teen with a slight fascination for the guitar, I remember working very hard during the summer of my 14th birthday to buy my first guitar. Imagine me, very excited after having saved up enough to bring it home and start learning on it. Not having if for more than a few days, one evening, my father became very disturbed and enraged by the guitar in the house that he came into my room and grabbed the guitar from my arms. He then hurled it down the stairs and I can distinctly remember as I think back to this day, the sound of my new guitar crashing apart and my heart sinking deeper with every bounce.

Although I was crushed beyond belief, and my relationship with my authoritarian father did not ever develop, naturally my curiosity as to whether or not I could repair it grew stronger. I couldn’t, but I was able to read up on guitar construction and managed to put together from a crude kit, some spit and glue, an acoustic guitar by sneaking into my on dad’s workshop when I could. I don’t still have the guitar but I wasn’t immediately on the path of becoming a luthier at that moment either. I went on with my adolescence and got into many different things. Growing up I worked in general construction and masonry. I got to know how to work with tools and enjoyed it.

Belgium was such a trip. In our neighborhood there lived someone who owned a small airplane. All the kids in the neighborhood suddenly got into skydiving. I spent many hours in the air and after becoming a very proficient skydiver, I bought a hang glider and still have it to this day. I now prefer paragliding and look forward to jumping off the Boulder cliff (or any others around) every chance I get.  But back to my story. I finally learned how to play the guitar well enough and found myself, many nights performing with a rising star in the Belgium community, Guido Belcanto and his band, “Speedy King and His Feetwarmers”.  He was, and still is, a very flamboyant entertainer and we gigged steadily all throughout my 20′s.

I eventually had to come to America in my 30′s just for the excitement of the venture, and got into whatever came along.  I ended up in Boulder Colorado where I was doing high end woodworking such as custom furniture building.  My second wife and I had a small but successful art business and we were painting large wall murals and accessorizing the decor with custom artifacts of one sort or another.  As luck would have it, my father died and left me a small inheritance in 1999.  That same week, while wondering what to do with the new found money, I visited a fellow Boulderite who was building Mandolins in his shop in the north part of town.  I suddenly had a lifetime epiphany!  I knew within the first few minutes of stepping into that shop that I had the money I needed to build my own guitar building shop.  I immediately began to collect all the equipment and tools necessary to complete a custom guitar building shop where I could pay tribute to the harsh lesson my dear ol’ dad had taught me:  Do whatever you heart tells you is YOU and is RIGHT.

Through out my life I have had the amazing privilege of having a wood worker as my father. His passion for working with his hands was instilled in me at young age. I have done many projects and always jump at the opportunity to make something new. My brother has played guitar for years and it was a natural progression for him to build one at my Dads shop. Although I play guitar too, most of my interest came from a desire to take my wood working skills to the next level. The craftsmanship that goes into building an instrument is like none I have seen. Each new guitar that my dad proudly handed me just inspired me so greatly. I jumped at the opportunity to gain this experience and have an amazing hand built instrument at the end.