I can’t help but want to talk a bit about Andy’s new electric guitar, which he’s branded Powers Electric. It’s a fabulous guitar, and in this issue, Kurt and Andy talk about it, and you’ll find a feature article from our editor, Jim Kirlin. It’s fun to hear everyone’s point of view about the creation of this guitar. Of course, Andy’s is the most important because it’s about the guitar and all the ideas he’s been mulling over for years. Andy is a bit like me in that we tend to make the things we cannot buy. Andy couldn’t buy the guitar he wanted, so he made it. The cool thing is that you’ll be able to buy it — although maybe not all of you right away, because initially it can only be made in small quantities.
I like the way Kurt is not only a colleague but a fan of Andy. He and Andy have a great relationship and can talk well about design, business and brand. They get into it, and out of that comes respect and admiration for the opinions of the other. It’s great for them to be able to discuss things, and I know Kurt and Andy have discussed the future progress of Powers Electric a lot.
Andy is a bit like me in that we tend to make the things we cannot buy.
Andy works mostly alone when he’s developing his ideas. Each Friday, he works from his home studio, where he can work mostly undisturbed. Soon he brings something in and shows it to me or Kurt, or a few others, in order to share his thoughts by way of showing and playing a guitar. He gets excited, and it’s always best to share excitement. I tend to do that very early with my ideas, and often by tomorrow I’ve worked my way more into the idea or even out of it completely. Andy shares much later, and depending on who he’s sharing the idea with, it might be when it’s nearly complete. He’s got patience. I get to see earlier versions, which is nice.
Sometimes I have a comment or question about one small aspect or another, and that might even spark some ideas that Andy considers. The process is fun to be part of. It’s always rewarding to see something from the earliest prototype (which is always a playable guitar) to the refined product that his Powers Electric guitar is now.
We have a saying about development: “We’re 90 percent there and 90 percent left to go.” This was certainly the case as I watched Andy bring in his team of machinists, engineers, crafters, finishers, luthiers, sewers, graphic artists and a healthy dose of jack-of-all-trades people. That last 10 percent of work left to do is like getting ready for an F1 race, where every little detail is important.
We have a saying about development: “We’re 90 percent there and 90 percent left to go.”
It’s turning out great and is a pleasure to be a part of. We’re taking it slow. It’s not a race to any level of high production. We have the luxury of taking our time.
However, I’m hoping it doesn’t take as long as it takes for an ebony tree to grow. In this issue, Scott Paul recounts our trip to Cameroon earlier in the year. It was long anticipated after not going for a couple of years due to travel restrictions. It was great to see Crelicam, our ebony sawmill, and give all our 50-some co-workers a big hug. And to get out to the forest and visit the local villages that are planting as part of the Ebony Project was so rewarding, We were so pleasantly surprised at how well the ebony trees are surviving and growing: healthy, straight and strong.
We’ve also made huge progress in the planting of various fruit trees alongside the ebonies, which was a promise but at first proved to be more difficult than establishing the ebony trees. We never would have thought that in the beginning, especially because planting ebony was a mystery, since nobody had ever done it before in any significant way. It was rewarding to see the progress, and to realize that even during the pandemic, our project continued to grow and prosper because our talent is there in Cameroon and doesn’t depend on outsiders. Just that fact alone has caused a lot of other projects in the area to perk up and take notice.
Even during the pandemic, our project continued to grow and prosper because our talent is there in Cameroon and doesn’t depend on outsiders.
One thing that I love about digital Wood&Steel is our ability to use video to convey stories. You’ll find a nice short video of our trip there. And a long video of how guitar tops are made at Pacific Rim Tonewoods, our longtime supplier of spruce and maple, and our partner in koa. We’d not be what we are today without them. This video is documentary-length but well worth the view if learning more about guitars is one of your pleasures. I’m assuming that since you’re reading Wood&Steel, that that’s the case. Enjoy that video. It explains so much.
I also want to mention Andy Allo, who joined Scott and me in Cameroon on this trip. You’ll see her in the video (with more to come). She’s a terrific musician and actor. She stars in the Amazon Series Upload, which I really enjoy and you might also. I’ve taken a lot of people to Cameroon, but she was the easiest. I mean, she grew up there, and I didn’t have to explain a thing. She busted out her long unused French and told me what people were saying, which is always a help to me. It was a pleasure getting to know her. If you watch Upload, you’ll notice she smiles when she speaks. And she smiled her way to the forest and back with us in Cameroon. Boy, I liked that.
