I’ve been building guitars for 20 years. Intermittently.

For no reason that I can discern other than advancing age and the ruminations of mid-life, I was recently minded of a conversation I had with a guy whose company I was considering joining about a decade ago. He asked me, “Why do we work?”. I was youngish and at least as belligerent  as I am now so I answered, “Not for the money, otherwise you wouldn’t have asked me” to which he answered, “No! Not for the money. We work for recognition!”. He paused dramatically as though he had just cast the greatest pearl of his wisdom. Sadly, it was cast before swine. I had no idea what he was on about. Who would wilfully spend the majority of their waking hours poring over spreadsheets and powerpoints for anything other than money? 

The ruminations finally revealed his wisdom to me. 10 years late. 

What do I want to be recognised for? 

THIS.

I am enlightened swine. 

—

I built my first - electric - guitar 20 years ago under the tutelage of the great Phil Allen who was the tech and luthier at the long since shuttered Live Music guitar shop in Edinburgh. That was a great time. Literally a guitar-themed mash-up of Clerks and Empire Records (Wiki linked for those too young to remember: I guess shit like that just doesn’t happen anymore. Watch the films and remember how great life was before smartphones.) At the time I was an aspiring heavy metal guitarist in the long since disbanded Solacy. Some of the remnants of that band are still going strong in Iron Altar as are some of the great people we played with in King Witch.

I built my second - acoustic - guitar during COVID. I confess that two guitars in twenty years is not the productivity of a master luthier. I was lucky to meet the also great Martin Steinauer of Steinauer Guitars, a master classical guitar builder in a small village outside Zürich, Switzerland. Considering Martin’s penchant for nylon strings it was remarkable that we liked the same metal bands so with no bars to go to we set about building a steel strung acoustic guitar I designed since I couldn’t afford to buy the Andy McKee model I wanted from Greenfield Guitars.

In the years separating these parenthetical instruments I did a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, built a variety of neural stimulation devices, did a pile of neuroscience research, built a pile of medical wearables, delivered a couple of clinical trials and until recently led the expansion of one of Europe’s largest virtual hospitals. 

An OK career, I guess: it keeps the wolf from the door at least.

But let’s go and build something beautiful. Something that connects us with ourselves, the people around us and with the real world that we touch, smell, see, hear and feel.

On it.