I have been building guitars since the early 1970s. I started out making steel-string guitars and served a two-year apprenticeship with the late Edward F. Rose in Lexington, Kentucky . Ed was an old-time cabinetmaker and guitar restoration expert. Ed got me started with proper machinery techniques, and the experience I gathered repairing a myriad of instruments helped me "design out" in my own guitars many of the common guitar ailments. In the early 80s, a lutenist approached me with the idea of building him a 7-course Renaissance lute. Not being one to turn down a challenge, I accepted his offer. This led to a decade of building all sorts of lutes, theorboes, and a bass gamba. In 1987, I decided to concentrate solely on the classical guitar. In 2007, I came full circle and started building steel string guitars along side my classical guitars.