My journey into the world of guitar building began at a young age. I attended the Galloup School of Lutherie at age 18, where I had my first real introduction to guitar building. Previously I had spent countless hours disassembling, painting, re-fretting, inlaying and generally tinkering with my own instruments and occasionally instruments belonging to friends and family. This was something of an obsession; I had fallen in love with the guitar and it never occurred to me not to tinker with them. With hindsight these early efforts were most critical in teaching me what not to do but they were invaluable none the less. Once I completed the Galloup program, I returned home to NYC with a considerably more serious attitude and an expanded skill-set. Committed to my further development as a craftsperson, I Initially I worked a brief stint at Rudy’s Music on 48th street in the repair department. Although repair work is rewarding - and enormously educational - I found myself eager to build instruments. After a few months and some persistent emailing, I was hired by the preeminent electric builder in New York, Roger Sadowsky. There I spent the next seven and a half years honing my craft.
While working at Sadowsky Guitars I had the opportunity to build, set-up and repair instruments for some of the world’s finest and most demanding musicians, in addition to working for and learning from one of the smartest and kindest guys in the business - Roger Sadowsky. It was a great privilege to have worked on Roger’s guitars and I’m especially proud to have helped reignite Roger’s passion for acoustic guitar building. At the time of my departure, Roger and I had worked together on seven prototype Sadowsky acoustics - the first of their kind in over 20 years.
After many years of making my own steel string guitars in the after-hours, I decided it was time for another change. I applied for and was accepted as an apprentice of Ervin Somogyi. Ervin’s instruments served as inspiration to me for many years and it was with great excitement that I relocated to California. Ervin represents the pinnacle of the craft and has introduced me to a new level of consideration and understanding of the steel-string guitar.
Since working with Ervin I have returned to New York, to a small town called Beacon, about 1.5 hours North of NYC. Here I make a modest number of instruments each year and make an earnest effort to push my boundaries via-à-vis workmanship, sound, and design with each instrument.