Life started for me as an Army Brat, moving every three years or so. Born in Indiana in 1951, my family and I soon found ourselves living in Stuttgart, Germay ( Or, so I’m told. I was too young to remember.) After that it was back to the States. Texas, Colorado, California, back to Germany and finally settling in southern Oregon after my Dad’s retirement. I attended thirteen different schools from first grade through high school. I did one four year tour of duty in the Navy. After that, I met my wife of 35 years and moved to Bellingham, Wa. We raised two sons and have been living in the same house now for over thirty years. From no roots to deep ones.

I have a friend who told me something 30 years ago that didn’t really sink in for almost half of that time. She said, “ I don’t think you’d be truly happy without a piece of wood in your hands”.  Although I have tried other things, from ditch digging to graphic arts, it turns out she was right. I’ve been making sawdust and shavings now professionally for over 20 years. Guitar making is the most challenging of all the woodworking I’ve done.

Actually, the woodworking itself involved in guitar making is fairly straightforward. The ergonomics and acoustics of the instruments; especially where they are subject to very individual scrutiny and preferences, that’s where the challenge lies. Make a guitar with beautiful action and loud, balanced sound with incredible sustain and three out of five people will rave about it and the other two will be politely indifferent. ( Or the other way around ) “ I prefer a little “fuller” sound.” Or, “I’d like better responsiveness in the middle.” One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received is that if you make a guitar that’s got decent action ,very playable, someone will love it! I’m learning. My basic approach is to carefully choose the woods I use and follow the generally accepted traditional methods of construction. Listening to input from other builders and players is important and, along with hours and hours at the workbench and equal hours of what my wife calls “chin-scratching” I’m forming my “mental model—my virtual guitar”. ( William Cumpiano )

In June of 2001 I had the pleasure of taking a two week tutorial with master guitar maker William Cumpiano  who, along with his then partner Jonathan Natelson, wrote the book “ GuitarMaking—Tradition and Technology”, the book  that got me started in this craft. That two weeks is all the formal training I’ve had so far. I’ve had the pleasure and received the benefit of consulting and corresponding with some accomplished luthiers who have been extremely generous with their time and expertise—-Thank you, William Cumpiano, Mark Blanchard, Dake Traphagen, Kent Chasson. Many others have been very encouraging and helpful. Luthiers are a friendly, giving bunch.

My younger son and I built our first guitars using Cumpiano’s book in 2000, so I’ve been at this now for eight years. I’ve only built twelve guitars to date, but eight years of agonizing over, eating, breathing and sleeping guitars and gathering and making tools and jigs for their making has prepared me to launch into guitar making professionally. I’m not much of a player, but I have been so inspired by those who can play guitars—-and beautifully!!—I just have to be involved in the only meaningful way I can. I can build them.

For more information about me and how you can play your own Cash Guitar, email me!

roger@cashguitars.net

Roger Cash

CashGuitars.net