LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 47 tremendous strain put on it by the steel strings, about 180 pounds of pressure. On top of all of that, it ought to be a thing of beauty. at's a lot to ask of an old water soaked log. In his small, efficient shop on the East shore of Schroon Lake, outfitted with a few power tools and an arsenal of hand tools, jigs, and specialty tools designed to do just one job, but to do it incredibly well, Eric produces just twelve guitars a year, giving each one a name. He builds them simultaneously for efficiency, still, each instrument takes about 150 hours to make. In all, he estimates that he has made between seventy and ninety guitars. Rough cut blanks of spruce, as well hardwoods, such as maple and red oak, are stacked in the outside shed to air dry. Sticks between each board allows the air to circulate around them. In a year or two they will be dry enough to use. More wood is found inside the shop itself. Spruce boards, of course, that will be joined together to make a board wide enough for the guitar's top, as well as the hardwoods that will be used for the sides and backs of the instruments. A stack of rough cut guitar necks await final shaping by hand, and tucked away in drawers are spruce braces that will become the backbone of the guitar top but will never be seen. Eric builds two types of guitars: the large, voluminous Dreadnaught and the slightly smaller and lighter double O…oo. Recently he has also branched out into ukuleles. e tops come first. Once the boards are joined to be wide enough they get planned to about one tenth of an inch thickness and cut to shape following a template. e sound hole is cut and the all-important bracing is glued to the underside of the top and planed and shaped by hand. If the bracing is too thick it will dull the sound of the guitar. If it is too thin it won't provide the strength that is needed. Decorative inlays of burl, a trademark of Eric's guitars, are carefully applied to the top and sides of the instrument. e sides, made from local hardwoods, are bent with a combination of heat and water and shaped in a jig. e back, also made from local hardwoods, is cut to shape. Finally, aer attending to numerous details, the whole thing is glued together, and the neck, aer being shaped by hand and fitted with a steel rod needed to make fine adjustments, is attached. But he's not done yet. e bridge, where the strings attach to the guitar top, has to be placed in exactly the right spot. e frets, the thin metal strips that run across the fingerboard, have to be fine-tuned and the nut and saddle that support the strings at either end of the guitar have to be cut and adjusted. en everything is sanded to glass-like smoothness. Finally, a shellac finish is applied, and the guitar is ready to make a trip across the lake to the showroom. e showroom, on the West side of the lake, is just three quarters of a mile away from the shop if you go across the water (or the ice) but is twelve miles by road. e showroom itself is small and cozy, with a couch and several chairs and stools for customers to sit on while trying the guitars. e walls are lined with guitars just waiting to be played. Several samples of "sinker logs" sit on a table nearby, including the one with the 1853 log stamp. e rings on the logs are so tight that a magnifying glass is needed to count them. Some of these logs are three to four hundred years old. I'm not much of a guitar player, but I do know a few chords. "Try this one," Eric said, taking a Dreadnaught off of the wall and handing it to me. e guitar was big and heavy yet felt comfortable, warm even. e action, the height of the strings above the fingerboard, was light and responsive, making it easy to play. I struck a few chords and could feel the sound reverberating through my body as it filled the room. Eric played another guitar, a double O, and aer a while we switched. e double O was lighter and had a lighter sound but it, too, filled the room. Eric's customers come from as far away as Florida and Colorado. Sitting in the showroom, Eric will hand them one guitar aer another and listen while they play. Although they all look similar, to a musician each instrument is unique, and Eric knows that sooner or later they will find the one that is meant for them. It may take a while, but eventually the musician will smile and say, "is is the one." "I imagine you get some pretty good guitar players in here," I said. "You better believe it," he told me. "Free concerts, right here."

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