I began taking guitar lessons in the third grade while growing up in Baltimore, Maryland and continued into my teens, despite my father's attempts to dissuade my artistic bent and incline me toward the Fortune 500. As my playing skill developed, I needed a better instrument and knowing none would be forthcoming from my father, I decided to build one. Taking my instruction from a book borrowed from the library, "Opus 1" was wrought from a 1" thick piece of maple I planed down to 3/32" to build the back and sides. Let's just say my first child came out bettter than my first guitar and leave it at that.

Shortly thereafter, I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico: for the first time. Now I was studying classical guitar while building guitars on the kitchen table. A lifelong devotee of the barter economy, I traded guitars for groceries, clothing, etc., keeping only one to play. Soon I started playing gigs in local hotels and restaurants. After three years of this, I decided it was time for a really great instrument. So, after scrounging and saving $1,100, I bought a 1965 Ramirez -- then, the "ultimate" guitar. It proved to be a disappointment. Moreover, it reinforced for me my observation that quality instruments for classical guitar students were difficult to find.

Fast forward to 1979 when an opportunity presented itself to move to San Francisco. Unlike Santa Fe, the gig scene in the City by the Bay was extraordinarily competitive, with most lounge players and cab drivers graduating either from the San Francisco Conservatory or PhD programs at UC Berkeley. Following some brief "apprentice" periods with other luthiers, I decided to concentrate on building great guitars: a better idea than starving to death s a player. At about that time, I was fortunate to befriend David Tanenbaum in Berkeley. He encouraged me to try out his instruments and offered valuable advice and encouragement. I want to say right here this type of professional support, both from David and later from Michael Chapdelaine in Albuqurque, as well as hundreds of clients along the way has been extraordinarily important to my perseverance and development as an artisan over the decades. So, I took the first instrument I built in San Francisco to a shop and left it on consignment. It sold immediately and resulted in an order for four more. I mark this as the beginning of my professional career as a luthier.

I remained in the San Francisco area for several more years, sharing ideas with noted luthiers and meeting world-famous players as their tour schedules brought them to town. It was a great time, until it was not, and then I moved back to New Mexico. Back in the high desert, I built my off-grid solar-powered, earth-friendly home and shop in Taos and I began building classical guitars anew. Soon, visitors and commissions began arriving from professional artists, students, schools, major conservatories, from nearly every continent. It was a very productive time. Then, in the summer of this year (2006), my wife Natalie, son Natru and I determined we'd fully explored what life in an adobe, off-grid home amidst an eclectic community on the west mesa of Taos had to offer. We decided to re-acclimate ourselves to urban life in the big city 70 miles to the south: Santa Fe (population 62,543).

Over six hundred instruments after leaving Santa Fe the first time, I am now happily returned, ensconced in my newly finished shop and studio, in the best working environment ever available to me. And while I'm not prepared to say this, or any other place is permanent (Italy still calls us....), I think it's safe to say we'll be here for awhile.

So, that's my story todate, all of which is simply a preamble to an invitation to come on out. Have a cup of tea. Tell me what you play and what you're looking for. Try out one of my instruments, look at some wood, tell me your story as a player. Who knows? Maybe together we'll find something new for each of us to take away!