As many people know I am an avid guitar nut, but even more an avid family man. When I'm not working or building guitars, I am spending my time with my beautiful wife Cassiopeia, my 3 year old daughter Reese, soon to be our newborn son, (still to be named) and our immediate families.
I would like the thank my wife for all her support, tremendous skills and time she puts into the shop from creating this site and all marketing materials, to being my financial advisor, CPA and creative confidant, all while juggling pregnancy, a separate full time job at Indiana University and pursuing her doctorate degree...whew.
The biggest thanks goes to my dad Duane, another luthier and avid guitar nut, who inspired me to follow my dream from the beginning. His devoted support, expertise, financial support, space in his garage and paving the way for me to attend Galloup's School of Lutherie will forever be invaluable. You may often see him in the shop when you come by or in photos as he remains involved and is a major asset for our shop.
MY FAMILY & SUPPORT
In 1994 I began playing the guitar on an Alvarez copy of a Gibson J-200 given to me by my grandfather. I immediately fell in love and wanted more guitars. Over the next couple years my dad and I acquired several more, most of which needed major work or setups. With a limited budget, we couldn't afford to have them repaired so we invested in some basic guitar repair tools and books and performed all of the work ourselves. We quickly discovered that we had a knack for it. The word got out and the guitars began rolling in. We learned quickly that repairing guitars on the living room coffee table and kitchen counter was no longer practical. As a result, we built and set up a small repair shop in the second story of my dad's garage in Mitchell, Indiana and The Guitar Hospital was officially born.
After several years performing repair work, reading books and watching all the VHS guitar repair videos I could find, we decided that a formal education was necessary. In 2001, I attended Bryan Galloup's School of Lutherie in Big Rapids, Michigan. It was there that I constructed my first instruments and discovered my passion for building guitars.
In 2009 I got married and moved to the Hoosier Mecca, the beautiful Bloomington, Indiana and relocated my shop to its current location. At the beginning of November 2015 I took a bold new entrepreneurial step and began working full-time in my shop to focus on building guitars.
Over the past twenty years I have and continue to chase perfection in the quality of my craftsmanship and attention to detail. I have always considered myself as somewhat of an autodidact and my fascination with the mechanical, structural, historical, physical and acoustical engineering of the guitar continues to gravitate me towards continual research and education.
Through the years I have had the unique experience to repair, examine and take notes on many of the pre-war and vintage instruments that we all covet. Those experiences have given me a very rare opportunity to carefully examine, take measurements, play and hear these instruments. This has provided invaluable insights to how I engineer their ideal qualities into my guitars and remove inherent flaws out of my designs. More importantly this has provided me a rare glimpse into what really makes for an amazing and desirable instrument.
OUR STORY
