Music and Wood
I spend my days in my Portland, Oregon woodshop with one goal in mind: to craft the best sounding instruments that my hands can produce. Yes, they must look beautiful and feel good in your hands, but tone is paramount. I build my instruments to be played in jam circles and on the stage. A clear, strong voice is something all my mandolins and guitars share. Of course, by choosing among wood species and carving techniques, I can push the tone in different directions, but they must have the power to be heard in the mix. My own musical leanings are toward old-time and bluegrass music, and I am constantly field testing my creations at festivals and jams.
I personally do all the work on each instrument. I bring nearly twenty years of woodworking experience to the workbench. One of the things I love about luthiery is that it takes many different woodworking tecniques and combines them to produce instruments which are used to make music. What could be better than that?
I was a tree hugger before I became a woodworker, and when I am not at my workbench or playing music, I can be found exploring the wild places that are so abundant here in the Northwest. I believe that we have a responsibility to use wood in a careful, thoughtful way. To that end, I run my shop on renewable energy and I select small quantities of the finest woods to craft instruments that are intended to be used for centuries.