My initial spark to be a guitar maker was actually inspired by a TV program that happened to be showcasing violin repair (Furniture on The Mend). I was young and unfulfilled with conventional college education at the time (MSU Mechanical Eng.), and the thought of professionally building instruments seemed a perfect combination of my genuine fascination of how things worked and are made, and my permanent infatuation with guitars. After researching what was then available for guitar building schools, I moved to Arizona at age 20 to attend the Phoenix-based Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery from which I graduated in 1996.

I then moved back to Missoula, Montana, to live and be with friends. Looking for sufficient work in instrument repair was initially fruitless, so I fell back on my baking skills to pay the bills, much of the time as an artisan baker at Le Petit Outre. In this time I honed my skills, acquired all the necessary tools, & developed my own designs. I also did a great deal of guitar mods/repair, as well as other woodworking: jewelry boxes, furniture, small drums, etc.

My first electric guitar sold around '99, and with the scraps left over from that project I decided to try making a lap steel, and found I enjoyed making them. There was an artistic freedom to making a guitar that doesn't have to necessarily be guitar shaped, and felt there could be a niche in the market. A friend then eventually sold one of my lap steels on Ebay for me, and with its sale and promotion, I began receiving requests for custom work. I continue to use Ebay(aka feebay) to get internet exposure and sell some of my instruments. I've been lucky enough to send some of my instruments to musicians abroad...Japan, China, Germany, Australia, France, Italy, Norway... 

As of now, I build self-designed semi-hollow and solid body electric guitars and lap steels from my home workshop. I am interested in making toneful guitars that compliment the natural charm and beauty of selected woods; most often using koa, ash, walnut, mahogany, and a variety of maples. It's not uncommon that the wood works me, the woodworker, letting grain lines and the wood's figure suggest profile lines, carving approaches, or inlay ideas.

I am an active musician, in my mid 30s now and continuing to play guitar daily. Guitars are just plain wonderful!