1974-1979: Boulder, Colorado – After an open house at the NBN guitar factory in Longmont, I started building guitars in my parent’s basement. I was a biology student at the University of Colorado at the time. After dropping out I rented space in Dave Goodrich’s Peghead Shop on Walnut Street. Dave was the closest thing I had to a mentor. Eventually I rented a workshop on east pearl street where I started building the first “Flatiron” mandolins.
1979-1980: Bozeman, Montana – Started the Flatiron Mandolin factory with Steve and Maxine Carlson. Built a few guitars in the garage of the house we lived in across from the hospital.
1980-1992: Vermont – We all need our years in the wilderness to learn what life should and shouldn’t be about. Northern Vermont filled that role for me. During this time I built lots of guitars, two barns, a house, played solo and in bands, taught music at the local college, got a science degree, was elected to public office and started working with computers. I eventually stopped trying to make a living by building guitars.
1993-2018: Colorado – I had several jobs, primarily in high tech and computing: sales, system administration, programming and QA testing. I retired from this career when CA technologies closed the doors on the Fort Collins office in 2018.
2008 — : Colorado – In 2008 I decided that I’d left guitar making without accomplishing what I had really wanted, which was to understand how to make the best sounding guitar possible. From that time onward I took a scientific approach to understanding the physics of sound as it related to building naturally amplified (not electric) guitars. I endeavored to learn as much as possible how to listen and analyse sound by ear and electronic testing. I gained a reputation as a complete nutcase as I constantly tried to get musicians to comment honestly on what they heard from one outrageous instrument after another. Eventually I gained enough information and training to recognize what I needed. Around 2016 I began building classical guitars (with double tops) that finally started to meet my own standards.
2020 – Pullman, Washington: The new shop is set up and I have built 3 classical guitars as of this writing. See the projects pages for more information on what I’m currently working on.