When I first became interested in lutherie I put together my first workshop using tools I inherited from my grandfather and other vintage tools acquired in flea markets. I even built my own band saw to get me started. I researched on books and online and started building my first guitars by trial and error.
Trying to grow professionally, I asked renowned luthier Ariel Ameijenda to take me in as an apprentice to learn the trade, and he kindly agreed to guide me to become passionate about handcrafting guitars.
A few years ago I moved to Florida with my wife, my son and of course my dog. It took me about a year to rebuild and setup my new and current workshop. Fortunately now I have a larger and more comfortable setting to work on my guitars.
I don't follow the school of any particular luthier, but I have certainly inherited some of Ameijenda's woodworking techniques and developed some of my own. My philosophy is more aligned with modern guitar making but using old school woodworking techniques and materials. I have studied the work of Hermann Hauser and Ignacio Fleta and borrowed some of their components, but I never replicate the instrument as a whole. I'm also playing around with my own ideas around a new internal design.
Handcrafting a musical instrument and playing it for the first time is probably one of the most pleasing experiences for me. I take pride in every guitar I build from the moment we discuss the options with the client to the time when I deliver it to their hands. I will work with the client through the choice of scale length, woods, fingerboard, neck, tuning machine, to achieve exactly what the client is looking for.
While handcrafting a guitar is an extraordinary experience, restoring a valuable vintage instrument back to its original state is equally satisfying. I will take great care and go above and beyond to preserve the instrument's essence, while performing the required tasks to bring it back to life.
Every guitar player knows just how important a proper setup is to ensure adequate intonation, avoid fret buzz and improve playability. In select cases I will also take guitars in for repair, as long as I can ensure that I can bring it back to its original state.