INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) - John Brown just may have outdone himself.
The master-level luthier and his three-man crew at Brown’s Guitar Factory have a reputation for repairing and restoring high-end guitars and creating from scratch custom guitars and basses that are known worldwide for their quality and playability.
The shop, in an unassuming two-story stucco house in Inver Grove Heights, thrives in part because of a philosophy of, “You dream it, we’ll build it,” Brown says.
But he admits the shop’s latest project seemed like an extreme challenge upon first blush more than a year ago.
“(The customer) got on this kick about creating this ’Zeus - Guitar of the Gods,’ and it all went from there,” he told the St. Paul Pioneer Press (https://bit.ly/1flFWC0).
“A lot of things get talked about, and some of it is over the top and some of it is viable. But I thought, ’Let’s just really listen up and not pass up an opportunity.’ “
The end result is a one-of-a-kind 23-karat gold-leaf guitar that is visually stunning and equally easy on the ears. The guitar, complete with 24-karat gold strings, cost about $18,000 to build.
“It’s not for everyone. It just depends on the individual and what they like,” Brown said, adding that his customer did not want to go public. “We’re pleased with the tone, and we’re pleased with the playability. This was a fun adventure.”
Brown unveiled the guitar in January at the National Association of Music Merchants annual trade show in Anaheim, Calif., where businesses of all sizes from around the world display their latest innovative musical creations. It created a buzz.
“It did get attention … I think because it has the whole bling effect to it,” he said. “But everyone has their ’one,’ and some people gravitate to the yellows, some to the organic-oiled finish, and some just freaked on this.
“But trying to get it to express what you want it to express visually was part of the challenge. I knew we’d have a good sound - a good playing instrument - so it was getting everything just right.”
Work began like that on all of Brown’s custom guitars: by selecting a wood type from his private stock. He went with Honduras mahogany for the body core, which features the shop’s well-known dual-chambered design. It was finished with maple.
The guitar began to take shape after hours of routing and sanding the body and carving and sanding the neck and finger board, which was slotted by hand.
As if the gilding process was not complicated enough, the customer wanted a contrast in the look of the gold. But Brown discovered a fourth-generation family-owned business out of Sheboygan, Wis., W&B Gold Leaf, that sells two shades - 22.5-karat champagne gold and a deeper-toned 23-karat gold.
“I was familiar with a gold-leaf guitar that Fender did, which is gorgeous, but it was not like this,” said Brown, 50. “They gold-leafed it, but it looked as if it was sprayed on. And that’s not what my client wanted.”
Applying the gold leaf to the guitar body and other parts with adhesive piece by piece was done “very carefully,” he said.
“It’s loose leaf and it’s thinner than paper. If your finger touches a piece, it will just lift right up and glue to your finger,” he said. “So there are different tools like a spatula and a brush to put it on.”
Kenny Rardin, a musician and owner of the Guitar Whisperer, a specialty shop in Hopkins, called Brown’s gold-leaf guitar “an absolute work of art.”
“It plays amazing and sounds amazing,” said Rardin, of St. Paul. “It’s up there among the best.”
Brown’s love of instruments began while he was growing up in New Ulm, where his grandmother was a piano teacher and his grandfather repaired violins and sold pianos through their shop, Brown’s Music. Later, Brown’s father and mother started their own business repairing accordions and concertinas, which they also made.
Brown eventually learned those instruments, too, playing them in his family’s musical group, Dad and Brown Boys, which cut two albums and traveled.
He said he now appreciates the education he got by spending his summer days and nights after school in the shop.
“I didn’t realize it until I got into business by myself, all those things that were second nature because of what I learned there … that background,” he said.
After high school in 1982, he studied instrument repair and guitar building for a year in Red Wing before hitting the road in a van and playing music with his brother and other band mates.
“This was a band house,” he said while standing in the kitchen, where a row of guitars in cases leaned against a wall for repair. “I had a belt sander and a few guitars so when I was off the road just for a few days a month, you do a little repair here and there. And I slowly would buy more tools.”
Within a few years, Brown made a name as a repairman and then a builder.
“Fortunately, I knew enough of what not to do unless I got the proper education - books, books, books and videos to use as a reference before digging in,” he said.
Despite its name, churning out guitars has never been the goal of Brown’s Guitar Factory; it builds 18 to 20 guitars a year, most costing between $4,500 and $9,000.
“There’s a goal in mind, and it’s not about high production - next, next, next,” he said. “They don’t go out the door until they get the stamp of approval.”
And not letting the shop become pigeon-holed, he said, has been a key to its success.
With longtime employees Adam Meyer, Carson Lulic and John Bueno, the shop prides itself on repairing high-end guitars and creating tools, which are distributed throughout the world, as much as creating a gold-leaf guitar.
“I would never debate somebody that it’s impossible or it can’t be done, but I have to believe that the best builders that exist today in the United States have been really quality repair guys, because you are forced to develop certain skills,” Brown said. “And in the build, there are things you have to bring to the table.”
Rardin said that when he had a customer approach him a few years ago with a 1959 Gibson Les Paul that needed work, he knew where to take it.
Brown “was the only one I would let touch it,” he said. “My own wife was not allowed to pick it up, but he could tear it apart and take files to it.”
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Online:
Brown’s Guitar Factory: https://www.brownsguitarfactory.com
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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, https://www.twincities.com
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