Born from two classical musicians in 1956 it took up to my 40th birthday before I realised I could start making guitars.
My working life started with a 4-year nurse training, did not finish that, after which I switched to cabinetmaking and worked in diverse companies for about ten years. After my dad passed away when I was 40 I got the spark the made me do a course ‘Make your own guitar in 12 saturdays’. The guitar turned out well, so a second was made. At that time,1999, my younger brother Dick pointed me to gipsy guitars for which good copies were hard to find. So I specialized in these models for the first 50 instruments. I evolved and ‘violins with frets’, mandolins became a second interest.
Now, nearing retirement, I’m up to 200 instruments. I will go on slowly, at my own pace for a couple of years maybe. We’ll see.