“The Accidental Luthier”
Like many creative people I found it hard to pursue the career I really wanted without having to fund my life with dull boring jobs just for the money. Thirty years of coding, managing and navigating office politics was the result.
All the while since I was a child, working alongside my grandfather making guitars, building strange electronic devices from government surplus components and generally learning about the world through the eyes of an accomplished engineer, I continued to play guitar and then bass, modify my instruments, amps and pedals and eventually realise my dream of building my own albeit tiny studio in Mallorca.
During those thirty years I truly felt as if I had two souls. On the one hand, the computer guy, rushing to get to his job, stressed by crunch time, meetings and pivots and returning home exhausted after spending a day watching the clock. On the other, the creative, writing books and music, the maverick, doing things just a little differently and the MacGyver, always ready to lend a hand repairing anything my friends and family could throw at me.
I went so far as to write a song to capture that feeling called “Two Souls” that I play with my band “Mad Life Crisis“.
Throughout my time playing bass, measured in decades now, I have been searching for “The Sound”, that magical perfect tone that cuts through a mix, resonates somewhere in the centre of your body and lays the perfect foundation for tracks in any genre.
I tried different basses, different strings, different effects and pickups. I switched from playing with fingers, to playing with a pick and still that sound kept one step ahead of me, elusive and unobtainable.
When my job at an IT startup ended abruptly leaving me burnt out, I was left thinking about the next step. Should I continue doing what I had grown to hate or should I follow my deep down dream of working on something more enjoyable?
I started working full time again on guitars and realised that the hours just flew by as I was sanding, painting, cutting and shaping instruments. I had found a powerful therapy that not only helped me overcome the awful affects of burnout, but I had found that one passion that had been there all along, right under my nose.
Then I modified a cheap jazz bass copy, adding frets where they had been removed and making it more punk. I’d avoided fender style guitars for years, considering their sound to be just a little too mainstream, always looking for something different, but something about this stupidly light, far too easy to dent soft wood bass with its cheap pickups grabbed my attention and surprised me with it’s clanky punk sound.
I had finally found “The Sound” in the most unexpected of places after years of searching and having found it, I didn’t stop there, but continued working on how to control the feel and sound using different pickups, magnets, coil windings, nut material and bridge style.
That work was well spent, and with a great understanding of the components affecting tone I am able to tune the feel and sound of instruments to match the requirements of the player, myself included.
Looking for your sound? Let me help you start your journey.
Get in touch now to discuss the possibilities.
