Emerging From The Man Cave

My father came back from a guitar building course in Formentera, Spain and I caught the bug. I knew pretty quickly that there was no going back, and so in September 1993, for the first time, I held in my hands my very own guitar.

But what next? I thought I could do better, but like many beginners I needed to find out how. In the days before the internet and all the other resources we have now, where could I learn how to build a better guitar? Simple. I needed a mentor, and if I wanted my guitars to be the best they could possibly be, I would need the best mentor in the world.

So one day in 1994, at the Frankfurt Messe, I came up with a plan. I found out about a gig, grabbed some tapes out of my car, and used them to blag my way past the backstage crew. With the tapes in one hand and my guitar in the other, I bumbled my way through the throng and face-to-face with Paul Reed Smith.

Paul couldn’t have been more generous. Not in the sense of kind words. No, not that sort of generous. More in the sense that he was generous enough to tell me every last little thing I’d done wrong. He’s a good guy like that. But when you’re first emerging into the world, trying to find your way at doing something you love, nothing can be more valuable than honest advice from a true master.

So I went straight back to my bench and got to work, and that night was the first of many spent working on guitars well into the early hours of the morning. It was the beginning of something incredibly exciting, a period of meeting amazing craftspeople and great musicians, of becoming a guitar builder and making friends for life.

I’ve not stopped since, and in 2019 Nik Huber Guitars is a family of people striving to turn beautiful wood into excellent guitars. And every day that’s exactly what we do. And we love it.

It’s been a long time since those first steps. A long time spent at the workbench, hours on end with my tools in hand, evenings and nights with friends and family missed, opportunities passed by – but milestones met. It has, of course, been more than worth it, both for the joy that it’s brought me and the guitars that I’ve built. But I can’t help looking back now on those crazy early days, that time of first entering the guitar world, and feeling that maybe something is missing. That maybe it’s time for this workshop recluse to dust off those social skills and dive, once again, into the community that started this weird, magical journey.

I’ve been reliably informed by people much younger and cooler than myself that online is the place to be. Personally, I absolutely love the opportunities we now have to stay in touch with one another and share ideas as lovers of music all around the world. So whilst I might be one of the old guard now (oh, man) I won’t let that stop me being a part of this wonderful community of strange, passionate guitar weirdos.

And so I’ve started this blog. I have a lot more planned – stay tuned – but for starters, here’s a space where once a month I can gather up and share some thoughts about the things that we all love. You never know, those thoughts might even be of some use to you. Hopefully. Maybe. Or we’ll at least have a good laugh or two along the way.

So, see you next month!                    

– Nik