What was the first guitar you built?

The first guitar I built from scratch was in 1985. I wanted a Mahogany body, 2 humbucker S style guitar with a Floyd Rose. I couldn’t afford to have something custom built, so I made it myself. My dad has that guitar now.

What guitar designs do you admire most?

Well, you gotta love the Fender stuff. Tried and true, but the guitar that really inspired me was the PRS. I used to have a poster with a bunch of PRS guitars hanging in my garage.

Do you have any heroes in the world of luthiery?

Paul Reed Smith inspired me to pursue a career as a luthier. Lately, I’ve been very impressed by John Suhr. His designs and building style are pure genius.

Your company is based in Austin, Texas. How has that shaped your approach to making guitars?

Austin is a Tele town, which is cool, you know? You can’t go wrong with that design. Doing research on the history of the design, I found some pictures of the Snakehead version. I thought it looked really cool and immediately knew I had to build it.

What do you look for when buying wood for your guitars?

Oh man, we don’t have enough room here for me to get into that. Let’s just say I’m really, really picky.

Talk about the process of designing your own line of guitars.

You have to design with the player in mind. If I just designed what I like, then I guess I’d be happy. But, as we all know it’s different strokes for different folks. I’ve been doing repairs and setups for over 25 years. During that time I had to make thousands of players happy with their guitars. That experience have given me a pretty good insight as to what will make players happy.

How are the Reserve Series guitars different from the ATX Series?

The ATX Series is based on the most popular classic designs.

The Reserve Series is a design that I have been working on for many years. The flow of the shape. The neck joint. The balance. The scarf jointed maple headstock and internal chambers of the R200 and R300. They all work together to create a guitar with a bold, articulate voice that is a dream to play.