Walsh Guitars Interview 1 Background

For those who don’t know you yet, can you tell us about your background? Did you go to Luthiers school? Did you follow a training with already established Luthiers? And, if you don’t mind my asking, what did you do before embarking on this adventure? Were you a musician before becoming a luthier? Or did you do anything else? And, by the way, do you still find time to play music with your work as a Luthier ?

I’ve been building guitars since 2009, and I am 100% self taught.

I got into it first by modifying guitars. That quickly progressed to sourcing necks and bodies and assembling complete instruments.

By 2011 I was building bodies, but still sourcing necks. A year later I was making everything in my shop, and I still am to this day.

There has been a lot of learning and trial and error, but each guitar presents a new opportunity to grow and try something new.

This is something I constantly strive for.

The only true training I have received is in the area of painting. Around 2014 I was mentored in how to refinish high end cars.

I knew this knowledge would apply to guitar finish, and it most definitely has been helpful!

In fact, painting is one of my favorite parts of the build process.

This is why my finishes tend to veer away from the traditional, and lean more toward experimental / automotive.

Prior to guitar building my background was full-time music and theology (music pastor at a church). This is still my primary passion and job. Guitar building is currently part-time.

That said, I get to play music several times a week with incredible musicians. It’s a blast!

Apart from creating custom instruments, we know that you do all types of repairs and maintenance on guitars and basses, can you also take care of other types of plucked and bowed stringed instruments?

Due to the fact I don’t have a formal luthier education, my knowledge is pretty much limited to guitars and basses.

One of these days I would love to widen my knowledge base so I could give attention to more instruments and widen my instrument building / maintenance horizons.

Computer has become everyone’s daily life, regardless of their profession. Do you use special computer tools in the field of Luthiers? Can you tell us about them?

I heavily use computers in my personal life for music arranging and recording, but don’t use it too much in the field of luthiery.

Some day I would love to own a CNC, but right now I’m enjoying making things by hand.

I am able to use my background in audio recording and film to aid in capturing great videos, demos, and photography for each of my builds, however.

More specifically, I use ProTools or Ableton for mixing / audio capture, Davinci for video editing, and Photoshop / Affinity for photo editing.