About Jeff

It all started about the time this photo was taken. I was 14 years old. My sister got married, and I got her room, her 12" Zenith black-and-white TV with the melted Troll doll on top of it, and... a Woolco-bought student classical guitar. I got some books from the library, and started learning chords. Like most kids, some days I actually cared and put in some effort. Other days, I preferred reading Starlog magazine and Star Trek novels, and drawing my interpretation of the Jaws movie poster on my blue canvas-covered school binder. Or riding my bike all over eastern Kentucky, and exploring the woods, near home. Always creative and trying to find my way, my place. Just a kid, growing up with no small amount of privilege, anyway.

My dad was on the road five days a week, as a sales representative for a major upholstered furniture manufacturer. His territory was all of West Virginia, and the eastern half of Kentucky, so he wasn't home very often. I later learned he had a woman in every town, and I certainly have some half-siblings I will never know. All of this is to say, the man tried to buy his kids' affection, and for me, that once came in the form of a brand new Gibson Grabber bass, with the crazy, sliding pickup, and a new Yamaha 1x15" bass amp. That was after I'd asked for money to get a pawn shop bass for next-to-nothing. "Don't buy other people's problems," he said, as he brought in this unbelievable (to me) treasure. 

Dad was wrong about that, as in so many things, but his heart was in the right place, perhaps.  He paid for the wood for me to build my first solidbody electric in shop class, the following year. It had a single, DiMarzio DualSound humbucker. I got the neck given to me from someone who had a crap electric they were tired of fighting, and mahogany was still pretty cheap in the mid-70s. Another friend's dad was a machinist, and made me a custom pickup "ring" from stainless steel (more a plate than a ring, actually, but beautifully rounded, artistically done, form-fitting the bobbins). It might have been great, but in setting the anchor points for the bridge, I didn't know to compensate for string height. I knew about the scale length, and got that right. But leaving out the height variable, it would never properly intonate. It was a cowboy chord wonder, and I learned a painful lesson in that. And, I gained the desire to study; to learn how to properly build and repair guitars.

So, 2024: now, I'm a geezer. Throughout my life, I've had one major career (Info Tech) and several vocations, and a few "just plain jobs." I get bored easily. Call it the seven-year itch. In between jobs, I'd do personal IT stuff for people, a contract here and there... and yes, a guitar or few. I do it now because I love guitars, and I like meeting new people, and I'm not a "watch TV" or "play golf" guy. So maybe guitars are the one thing I never actually tire of. 

Hopefully, this was more than anyone ever wanted to know about me, but hit me up for a chat sometime, anyway. I'm somewhat of a character, and I want to hear your story, too.