Hello from a young maker!
Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:28 pm
Hello all! I recently joined this forum on the recommendation of John Hall.
My name's Brian, I'm a 24 year old builder from New York. I built my first steel string acoustic at 13 with the help of LMI's kit wizard and caught the lutherie bug hard. I quickly moved on to scratch builds and by the time I had graduated high school I had sold guitars to players in the states as well as Taiwan and New Zealand. After two years of aimlessly pursuing an English degree I felt a bit burnt out and decided to take a semester off to attend Stephen Hill's guitar making course in La Herradura, Granada Spain. That semester off became indefinite as I received an offer of an apprenticeship from another classical maker about an hour from Stephen.
I came back to the states in October of 2017 and promptly started bartending at the hip craft beer bar in my town to make extra cash while I built my name in the guitar making world. Things don't always go according to plan and I wound up quickly climbing the ladder to bar manager with very little free time to even attempt anything in the shop. After two and a half years I had enough and decided to head back to La Herradura to work in Stephen Hill's shop for two more months to get back in the swing of things. Imagine my surprise when two weeks into my stay the entire continent of Europe went into lockdown due to Covid. I managed to sneak to the shop everyday for a few hours and built a lovely rosewood and spruce concert classical and by the time I returned to New York 6 months after my arrival I had completed 3 more classical guitars
Now that I'm back in the states I've begun to build guitars (mostly classical but a few steel strings are in the mix as well) full time. Looking forward to asking/answering questions as well as getting to know the membership of this forum!
My name's Brian, I'm a 24 year old builder from New York. I built my first steel string acoustic at 13 with the help of LMI's kit wizard and caught the lutherie bug hard. I quickly moved on to scratch builds and by the time I had graduated high school I had sold guitars to players in the states as well as Taiwan and New Zealand. After two years of aimlessly pursuing an English degree I felt a bit burnt out and decided to take a semester off to attend Stephen Hill's guitar making course in La Herradura, Granada Spain. That semester off became indefinite as I received an offer of an apprenticeship from another classical maker about an hour from Stephen.
I came back to the states in October of 2017 and promptly started bartending at the hip craft beer bar in my town to make extra cash while I built my name in the guitar making world. Things don't always go according to plan and I wound up quickly climbing the ladder to bar manager with very little free time to even attempt anything in the shop. After two and a half years I had enough and decided to head back to La Herradura to work in Stephen Hill's shop for two more months to get back in the swing of things. Imagine my surprise when two weeks into my stay the entire continent of Europe went into lockdown due to Covid. I managed to sneak to the shop everyday for a few hours and built a lovely rosewood and spruce concert classical and by the time I returned to New York 6 months after my arrival I had completed 3 more classical guitars
Now that I'm back in the states I've begun to build guitars (mostly classical but a few steel strings are in the mix as well) full time. Looking forward to asking/answering questions as well as getting to know the membership of this forum!