He has been called “the preeminent authority on the guitar.” He is an experienced artist, retailer, gallerist, curator, distributor, manufacturer, consultant, and public speaker. Last year, in the midst of the pandemic, he curated a boutique guitar showcase, touring 15 cities in eight countries. Among the many hats he wears, he is also a consultant to NAMM – the largest musical instrument trade organization in the world.
"My work started with European guitar makers and bringing them to North America. So, I was a retailer and I needed to be competitive. I needed to have things that no one else had."
"The boutique guitar industry was very, very small... back... 20 years ago, but it has been growing and growing and growing."
"The Boutique Guitar Showcase is a collection of what I call unique world class instruments that are contributing to the conversation of the guitar."
"We're looking for people who are doing things in a unique way, people who are inventive in creating things. Sometimes it's just a spin on a familiar guitar. It wouldn't be unlike Joe Cocker's version of 'A Little Help From My Friends.' I think his version was just as important as The Beatles' version of that song was, and it's just as valid. And so sometimes a guitar can simply be a cover version of a familiar guitar, but so much so that you realize, 'Oh, that's now its own entity'."
"I select the guitar makers. I invite them to be a part of the show. I decide how the flow is, the display, how things are shown, I work with the guitar makers about what they're going to bring, because to curate, in its proper sense, is to care for. So, you care for the items, but you also care for the space, you care for the experience."
"We're really shining a spotlight on things worthy of a conversation."
"Many of the most popular guitars in the world today were at one point in time considered to be guitar failures."
"You don't have to be completely unique in the world. There's plenty of space for people to be playing songs in bars... You can make a living playing music without becoming a sensation or a pop star. And so, the same thing happens with guitars. You can make a living being a guitar maker making relatively unremarkable but well-made and well-performing guitars."
"Your need to create art doesn't necessarily line up with someone else's need to buy art."
"In the guitar market we've tended to move from one endangered wood species to the next endangered wood species and, really, can we keep doing that or should we keep doing that?"
"Science is simply the observation of what is. And so, guitar makers are often observing the effects of what they have and what they do."
"The American guitar was developed in the factory. It wasn't developed in the workshops. It wasn't developed by artisans. It was developed by industrialists."
"I enjoy making music. I never saw myself as a guitar player or as a drummer but rather as a musician."
"I've toured the world. I've toured through Europe. I've toured through North America -- on drums, on bass, on guitar, on singing. I love making music. But it's not currently my focus."
"I don't think that we should be limiting creativity at all."
"I'm not a proponent for really expensive guitars or fancy guitars. I'm a proponent for creativity. And that's however you do it. And that thing should be authentic and those people should be rewarded for whatever they do."
"I left for seven or eight weeks on the road throughout the U.S. ten days after my honeymoon."
"As opposed to leaving my family all the time I found out that I was just going to figure out how to bring my family with me."