Guitar making is boatbuilding writ small. Much of the work is the same: wood heated and bent over jigs, disparate elements kept in balanced tension, and constructing to narrow tolerances. And like a boat a stringed instrument is not made to sit idly. 

I built my first guitar—a Torres-style classical—from salvaged materials: the top was made from cedar shakes taken off an old cabin; the fretboard was rosewood from the scrap pile of a furniture shop where I was employed; and the maple back and sides came from a downed tree. Since then I’ve built custom electrics, cigarbox guitars, amplifiers, and other noisemakers.