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The Canadian Years

1. In 1967 I made two solidbody guitars working on the dining table in my rented apartment in Vancouver, BC.
2. Having been "discovered" in the previous endevor, I was invited to join the "Mediteranean Guitar Shop", a Co-operative endevor technically owned by George Bowden, who also had a guitar factory on the island of Mallorca, in Spain. Disolved in 1969. Michael Dunn was the Master Builder on hand.
3. My first commissioned instrument was by and for Joe Mock. He was big in the local scene, probably best known in his band "Mock Duck", and then in the trio "Pied Pumkin". Pied Pumpkin is still played with it's original members (Rick Scott and Shari Ulrich, who still has one of my earliest FT-16's)
4. Worked briefly for Bill Lewis, the founder of "Luthier's Mercantile". Didn't work out so well
5. Shared a shop with Tim Hobrough (harps and dulcimers, Alan Finch (small pipes), Richard Harkins (coronettos), Ray Nurse (lutes and the like), and Ted Turner (harpsichords). This lasted for a couple of years, and was great for me.
6. During the previous period, Tim and I went to Toronto, Ontario, where we set up our workshop at the Ontario Science Center's special event called "In Praise of Hands". We did two weeks of this with a week in the middle wherein we showed at the Mariposa Folk Festival. This was in early August, and it was too hot for my taste.
7. I also participated in several hippie-style art and craft festivals in this period, mostly promoted by a group called "DeLuxe" based at the Dollarton Mud Flats near Vancouver. The best two were the "Dewdney Trunk Pleasure Faire", and the follow-up "Christmas Pleasure Faire". What a party!
8. I spent ten years working in and about Vancouver, and built well over 100 instruments there.
The California Years
1. My first California workshop was in Fairfax, a little town in northern Marin County.
2. I showed at one Sausalito Art Festval, and at one Mill Valley Art Festival. While these are very prestigeous events, at least locally, they are not great high end guitar sales venues, at laest for me.
3. Then I spent twenty years in Sausalito in four different workshops. The final fifteen years were in a 2400 square foot facility at 265 Gate Five Road, where I made the video I used as a catalog for several years.
4. I put this website up in 1994.
5. In 1995 I met Eric Schoenberg. Introduced by local Banjo maker David Spurgeon, I helped Eric put his shop together, and then did his repair work for several years before taking over the building of his guitars when Julius Borges gave it up. Eric and I are going strong.
6. I have shown in all but one of the Healdsburg Guitar Festivals.
7. I have been a member of the Northern California Association of Luthiers (NCAL) since it's second year.
8. I have operated an instrument repair service at the Strawberry Music Festival (with my peer, Michael Lewis) since 1996 (and will be there this year).
9. I have shown my work in the Luthier's Pavilion at the annual CBA Father's Day Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley, California four years running (and will be there this coming time)
10. In 1998 I built the shop I'm in now. It is on the back of the property I live on, and I have no plans to move.
11. 2003 marks the inception of Luthier's Consortium