I have a horrible business plan.

Why we make guitars. 

I have a degree in business. Years ago, when I was doing my undergrad, we had a visiting speaker who was an entrepreneur and investor. After his presentation, he talked to us about our business ideas. When I told him that I wanted to make guitars, he literally laughed in my face. He told me I’d never make any money, that the market was saturated and that I was wasting my time. If I’m being honest, all of his concerns were completely valid. 

So, why make guitars? The short answer is that rock and roll is hope for a pretty screwed up world. I think we’ve lost sight of that. Guitars are ubiquitous. You can look anywhere in the world, every belief system, every culture, sub culture, socioeconomic group, everyone is connected through the guitar. At least a little. When it comes time to feel something, music is there and it’s almost always a guitar. 

Rock and roll is the fight for freedom in the modern world. It’s looking up at the people with money and power and saying “you can’t make me.” Giving them whatever the appropriate hand gesture is, and then screaming into a microphone about how “we’re not gonna take it”, or “we dance to all the wrong songs.”

We’ve lost that anger, that sadness, that independence. So long as our phones are charged, we can shoot dopamine into our brains we don’t question our corporate overlords. Even the ones bringing home billions for selling us guitars adorned with the bought-and-paid-for names of pioneers in luthiery who have long since left our world.

The money still rules our lives from seats of power far away. The money has increased its ability to manipulate how we feel and how we think so we don’t question it. In return we feed the machine with our hard earned cash. Among other things we consume, we happily fork over thousands for guitars made by private equity firms posing as institutions of economic rebellion as they repackage the same old design that’s made them billions and tell you it’s “unique” and  “punk rock.”

I want to do my part to keep the fire alive. I want to say to the CEOs who are trying to manipulate markets and public opinion for profit that I’m not for sale. I want to tell the politicians that try and use the threat of jackbooted thugs to enforce their belief system that tyrants can go get wrecked. I want to tell the guitar industry that's repackaging 70+ year old designs as part of a marketing plan to satisfy the shareholders where they can shove it. 

I want to enable the world of misfits, weirdos, dreamers, and pioneers to plug into big amps and scream into microphones in front of huge crowds again. Cause that changes the world. 

That’s why I build guitars.