I started repairing guitars in 1967 in PA for local college students. I ended up with a lot of cool guitars in trade for “party money”. In 1975 I attended the School of Guitar Research and Design in South Stafford VT. After, I opened a small repair shop in downtown State College. In 1979 I became an authorized full service Martin Warranty repairman. At that time there were only two other warranty repairman in PA. In 1980 my business partner Billy Zeigler and I opened Guitar Associates. The shop remained open until 1992 when I retired from full time guitar work to focus on other business ventures. I continued doing Martin warranty work for several more years when I decided to focus solely on our custom built acoustic guitars from 1995 to 2008. In 2009 we moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan. As Nazareth, PA had a special meaning to me, so did Kalamazoo. Both the home of great guitars that have shaped the history of music and have been the mentors to many. When I decided to start the Kalamazoo Guitar Company, our goal was to build affordable, high quality acoustic and electric guitars. And no better place to start again, than Kalamazoo, Michigan.