After moving to Ottawa, he worked for 4-5 years doing guitar repair part-time for local music stores in the early 80's. It was at that time that he was exposed to the construction of classic instruments - working on such brands as Gibson, Fender, Guild, Gretch, BC Rich, Ovation and Yamaha.

He began building his first instruments for his own use shortly thereafter: two acoustics, a thin-body archtop electric and a solid body electric;

"I built the acoustics because I have small hands and preferred the 24 3/4 scale of my Gibson Les Paul. You couldn't buy an acoustic with that scale length at the time. You probably still can't."

"The design of my solid bodies is highly influenced by an Ibanez that I had in the late 70's. It was styled after Alembic instruments, which were gaining in popularity at the time. Once you've played a guitar with a well-built neck-through-body design, there's no turning back. Anything else is a compromise. My first solid body was to replace my Les Paul with one of that design. I still play it to this day. I love it."

Although his first love was guitars, practicality intervened and he turned his attention to building furniture for a number of years;

"I feel that building classic Chippendale furniture has improved my guitar building. I'm much more comfortable with a chisel after doing the intricate carving required for those pieces. I approach my work differently now than I did before."

In 2007, he returned to building guitars;

"I'm glad to be back. There's nothing like building a guitar. I can't describe it. There's something organic about being able to play what you build."

A proud member of the Guild of American Luthiers