Many years ago I met a young guy (for I was young guy) in a factory. He was on his break and I had just been transferred to the casework division where he was working. At that time I was infatuated with fine woodworking, I read the magazines, I drooled over the tool catalogs, I appreciated the subtle grain patterns of each specie of wood. He was sitting in the middle of this large open space surrounded by large industrial machinery gently fondling a small violin. I asked him if he played.

He replied; "No, not really. But I like them."

I found out that this was a lot more than he would usually say about anything but it was because he was so passionate about his craft. He was making a guitar during his breaks at the time with a molded nomex body. Nomex is a honeycomb aviation material that I doubt had ever been used for anything else. I asked if it was hard to do.

"No, not really" he said.

I didn't want to tire him with conversation so I left him alone and over the next year or two he made a few guitars and fiddles as he called them during his breaks and then I didn't see him until fairly recently. He had aged a bit but still looked pretty much the same, that is a tall skinny guy from Montana.

Oddly enough he had picked up a degree I believe in Mechanical Engineering which he wasn't using because; "well, I just thought it would be useful". He was living in Montana again because it was cheaper there and the economy wasn't working too good. I asked if he was making guitars.

"Yeah, what else am I gonna do." he said.

As I didn't know a good answer I asked about his latest creations. I was particularly fond of an electric he had made, solid body with an unusual aluminum rest. I thought it was one of the coolest things and a friend of mine who is a professional guitar played it one day and pronounced it not bad. Woah! He had lent it to me for a while but wanted it back in a fit of emotion, "Hey can I get that guitar back".

So now I am more careful of his artistic temperament so when I saw him last week I cautiously broached the subject.

"Well, I did make a few really light models recently, the problem is I don't know how to sell them" he said.

I was so shocked by his long discourse that I immediately offered to buy the electric even though I didn't have the money (never stopped me before).

"well, there is a guitar in this shop in Ventura, you could get it if you want".

So today I am on my way to Ventura to get this guitar which I will pay for when I get rich. He's back in Montana probably making a rocket in the barn and I hope some of you guitar players will consider buying one of his guitars so he can put gas in his car and bring some more cool things.

If you want to buy a guitar send an email to innkeeper@jam-inn.com, subject; guitars.